Art Hotels

The Fife Arms

Braemar, Scotland, United Kingdom

The Fife Arms is a Victorian coaching hotel in Braemar, in the Cairngorms. It closed, stood empty and then reopened after a long restoration by a pair of gallerists who kept the granite shell and rebuilt the interior. The public rooms carry a large collection of works, hung throughout rather than shown in one gallery.

A drawing room, a bar and a dining room open off the ground floor, and the stair hall is decorated as part of the same scheme. Works range from paintings and prints to commissioned pieces made for particular rooms. The collection is part of the building rather than an exhibition with hours.

Worth knowing

• Public rooms are open to residents and to dining guests.
• Village setting; check road conditions in winter.
• Write ahead to ask about access to specific rooms.

Hôtel Particulier Montmartre

Paris, France

This is a private mansion on the north slope of Montmartre, set back from the lane behind a gate and a garden. Nothing of it is visible from the street, which is the point of the address. The house was converted into a small hotel with a handful of rooms, each worked on by a different artist or designer.

The garden wraps the house and is used as a room in its own right, with a bar and tables under the trees in warm months. Inside, the plan is domestic: a hall, a sitting room and a stair rather than a lobby. Commissioned pieces sit in the rooms themselves.

Worth knowing

• Entrance is through a gate off a narrow lane.
• Garden service depends on the weather and the season.
• Ask which rooms are open to non-residents.

Widder Hotel

Zurich, Switzerland

Widder Hotel was made by joining nine medieval townhouses in the old town of Zurich into a single building. The fronts stay separate on the lane, so from outside the hotel still reads as a row of houses. Inside, floors were levelled and linked, and old fabric was left visible where it survived the work.

Rooms differ from one house to the next because the houses differ, and no two floors run at the same height throughout. Public parts include a bar, a restaurant and a lounge that occupy several of the ground floors. Contemporary works hang against exposed timber and painted plaster.

Worth knowing

• Floor levels change between the joined houses; lifts are limited.
• Old-town lanes restrict vehicle access to the doors.
• Ask the hotel which public rooms are open to visitors.

Le Sirenuse

Positano, Italy

Le Sirenuse was the summer house of the Sersale family before it opened to guests in 1951. It stands on the slope above the bay at Positano, so its floors step down the hill and its terraces sit at different heights. The family still runs it, and the house has grown by taking in neighbouring buildings rather than by adding a wing.

Public rooms hold a collection built up over decades, with commissioned works placed around the terraces and stairs. Tiled floors, painted ceilings and old furniture were kept through successive works. A bar, a dining room and a small library open onto the terrace level.

Worth knowing

• Steep steps and level changes throughout the house.
• Coastal road access is limited; ask about arrival.
• Some public rooms close outside the main season.

Casa Fayette

Guadalajara, Mexico

Casa Fayette occupies a mid-century house in the Lafayette quarter of Guadalajara, a residential district of low buildings and street trees. The original house was kept and a set-back floor was added above it. Interiors were designed as one scheme, with furniture drawn for the building rather than bought in.

The ground floor holds a restaurant and a bar that open to the street, and a small pool terrace sits on the roof above. Original terrazzo, joinery and window reveals were retained through the conversion. Works and objects are placed through the public rooms as part of the fit-out.

Worth knowing

• Ground-floor rooms are open to visitors as well as residents.
• Roof terrace closes in poor weather.
• Ask the hotel about parking in the surrounding streets.

Hotel Fasano Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Fasano stands on the seafront at Ipanema, facing the beach across the avenue. An existing building was stripped back and refitted, keeping its horizontal balconies and its relation to the street. Philippe Starck designed the interiors, and the mid-century Brazilian furniture in the public rooms is part of that scheme.

A lobby, a bar and a restaurant run along the ground floor, and a pool terrace occupies the roof with a view down the beach. Timber, marble and cane recur through the fit-out. Works and photographs are hung in the circulation spaces rather than in a single room.

Worth knowing

• Roof terrace access is normally limited to residents.
• Beach-front address; check the crossing to the sand.
• Ask the hotel which restaurant rooms take outside bookings.