The Ned, London - Design seeker's hotel search

I have been travelling to London for work (mainly) a few times a year for about 5 years and I’m always on the hunt for a really special hotel. I have a few favourites (which I’ll be covering soon) but I’ve recently found my number 1.

My perfect hotel, which I have found in The Ned, has to have an interior architecture and interior design that is stunning and inspirational in a way that I am awed and want to live in it! Hotels increasingly market themselves as a home away from home and I expect that homely hotel to nail my Pinterest pins and then some. Like restaurants, hoteliers’ interiors teams are at the forefront of international design and so rightly, we can expect to see innovative uses of materials, the latest trends in terms of styling, colour schemes etc and inspired designs. And hotels are total room porn as you run the gamut from the bar to your bathroom!

The Ned has been developed by two of the worlds industry’s heavy weights – London’s Soho House and New York’s Sydell Group. It was a huge project and it is a huge hotel – redeveloping a landmark bank into 9 restaurants, a club and 252 bedrooms and costing over £200 million apparently. I typically lean towards boutique hotels and their personalised touch and cower from monster hotels until I went to The Ned. If you have a penchant for historical interior design then you too will be was bowled over by the sheer sense of magnificence and Regency luxury interior design. I felt immediately apart of an authentic Great Gatsy set.

The Ned radiates historicity from the moment you set your eyes on the enormous, Grade 1 listed building, designed in 1924 by Sir Edwin ‘Ned’ Lutyens. Don’t be put off by its location (I never go to The City due to the overwhelming visual of corporate life), but firstly on entering the vast interior hall you are transported to the Golden Age and secondly, the eighth-floor rooftop has been converted into a heated lap pool lined with Italian marble and a drinking and dining terrace with views over St Paul’s.

If you too love that Hollywood Regency and 30-40’s style, you’ll find the attention to detail in the furniture and furnishings is executed beautifully in your bedroom and bathroom. Once I started noticing the vintage mini bar, heritage fabrics, William Morris prints and art deco and nouveau furniture and lighting, I realised there was nothing that was not sincere and researched to the nth degree.

The bathrooms are completely wonderful featuring white marble with art deco detailing, 40’s style mirrors and art deco lighting and Thomas Crapper sinks and toilets. The bedroom and bathroom especially is my favourite home away from home hotel and I will certainly be bringing some of the hotel magic home with me.

I won’t run you through the restaurants because I was only able to try one before I whizzed sub basement to the Vault for cocktails in Ned’s Club. Accessed through the original 20-tonne door, the club is lined with over 3,000 original silver safety deposit boxes. This room featured in the 1964 James Bond film, Goldfinger and it oozes that dangerous and ostentatious Bond mood.

Model home

Image from British Vogue 

I knew I was going to love Kate Moss’ home, which she decorated, when I read an interview (prior to seeing the photos) where she discussed her design inspirations, which seemed to come mainly from her very cool lifestyle. I was already hanging on every word knowing she'd collaborated with my favourite wallpaper designer, de Gournay. It is impossible not to be awed by the beauty and level of artistry of every single de Gournay hand painted wallpaper.

Back to that interview – Moss was talking about her hands-on role designing Anemones at Light for two key rooms in her house (which is now part of de Gournay’s permanent collection). This wallpaper of "cascading flowers overlapping shards of solar radiance" was designed in silver and blue for her living room because dusk is her favourite time of day “when everything goes silvery blue from the light of the moon”. For the bathroom, Moss changed the colour scheme to pastels and neons to create the mood when the sun is just coming up at a festival, and you have that glowy light.

Image as above 

 She is just effortlessly cool and can only hope I love daybreak’s glow at festivals when I’m 43! Only this inimitable icon with mega style can visualise a traditional wallpaper with psychedelic streams of colour flashing through it and nail it.

Inspired by the bathrooms from old Hollywood movies (which is one of my favourite styles) she put in a claw-foot tub, a crystal chandelier and a chesterfield sofa. Where Kate and I part is her additional planning - to create a fabulous bathroom for friends where they can end up at her house parties.

The supermodel debuted her talent for interior design in 2015 with a luxury home project (5 barn houses) in the Cotswolds, in a collaboration with the design company YOO (the owner was her good friend). The results were impressive and whilst Moss used the skills of interior designer Katie Grove—incidentally, her ­former personal assistant for her own house, she takes the credit for most of the designs and ideas.

 

Image from My Domaine 

The overall look of her home chimes with the Kate Moss we all recognise – who masters eclecticism, colour and an effortless mix of fabrics, patterns and design styles. Her home is utterly stylish and beautifully done. I can't say I wasn't nervous it might be a bit try hard (because some celeb homes are) or self-indulgent with images of herself or famous people. She's done herself proud and her interior design is very much a harmonious extension of her stunning wardrobe.