The Rough Luxe Hotel's Unique Aesthetic

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Nov 18th 2008 at 11:04AM

The Rough Luxe hotel has to have one of the most interesting looks I've ever seen in a hotel. The boutique hotel located in the King's Cross area of London is fabulously quirky. Just check out the article from the Guardian in which when the writer arrives at the nine-bedroom Grade II listed home and finds a prominently displayed "No Vacancies" sign put out to discourage walk-up traffic.

The hotel was created by designer Rabih Hage and is connected to an art gallery in the courtyard behind where there is also a coffee bar and tea room. Like the name says it combines the rough and the luxurious, pairing lush fabrics, fine furnishings and modern art juxtaposed with walls with chipped paint or rough wallpaper. Some rooms are small and some share a bathroom but luxury is still expressed in the huge pictures of Italian palazzos, the wine and the service that is warm and not stuffy or stilted. And you won't find a flatscreen television here, some rooms are equipped with older televisions, but you will have wi-fi access. The overall feel of it reminds me of the same aesthetic that is behind rough diamond jewelry, pairing cut stones and gold with hunks of unpolished rock.

As Hage puts it in the Guardian article, "Perfection doesn't mean beauty. That's not important. What makes a place great to stay is the location, the welcome you get and how well you are looked after." And can you resist a hotel whose dog has his own website? Doubles start at £135 B&B.

Gallery: Rough Luxe Hotel