My new favorite hotel in New York City. Color combinations, furniture styles, custom wallpaper…. droooooool, heavy breathing. The 11 floor Crosby Street Hotel is part of an existing chain, Firmdale Hotels, whose six other properties, all in London, have an avid following of transatlantic types from New York and Hollywood.

The hotels lobby welcomes you from the outside with towering steel framed windows and doors that create a greenhouse like feel on the inside. Walking by the hotel on Crosby Street, you can see into the lobby for an eyeful of art that belongs in the MOMA.

Stone dogs and a garden table with an assortment for flower pots welcomes you as you step into the lobby. A bright pair of suzani upholstered wing chairs flank the entrance to the hotel bar and restaurant on your left.

The hotel lobby features a 10 foot high Jaume Plensa steel sculpture of a human head created from letters of the alphabet.

Crosby Street is part of an existing chain, Firmdale Hotels, whose six other properties, all in London, have an avid following of transatlantic types from New York and Hollywood.

Kit Kemp ( owner and designer of the hotel) and I see eye to eye on how color should be used in design. She loves rich fabrics, patterns, and colors. Each of the 86 rooms is individually decorated and styled in a traditional manor with a modern twist. The fabrics, antiques, and art have been collected from all over the world. My amazing upholsterer made many of the drapes that hang on the lead casement style windows. Kit has used all of my favorite textile makers: Raoul Textiles, Van Der Hurd, Robert Kime, etc to create a warm and stimulating environment.

In the hotel’s basement is a screening room, one of Firmdale’s signature touches. The walls are upholstered in a purple felt and the seats are bright orange leather.

Bar Crosby will serves food in a casual, private club-like atmosphere. Antique tables play host to piles of fruit at breakfast.

The chairs in the restaurant are all upholstered in red wool with cutout wool animal silhouettes stitched onto the backs. ( the animal theme is a recurring one- this is a pet friendly hotel!) Bright colors and fun patterns fill the rest of the bar/ dining room and vintage glass lights from the 1950’s hang overhead.

There is an outdoor terrace which is for hotel guests only and is not available for private rentals. After seeing the space I know why they have specified this. It is gorgeous! Set right outside the bar and dining room the large terrace has beautiful antique lanterns and root ball lanterns strung across it. On a warm summer or fall night they light up all the perforated metal lanterns that are set on the ground and the space just glows. The perfect spot to unwind after a day of hitting the streets of SoHo.

The Drawing Room is also a private room only accessible to guests of the hotel. Kit has outdone herself in this space as well. With the warm red walls, various pieces of art hung all over the walls, the suzani print drapes by Robert Kime, and eclectic oversize mirrors, this room feels like the living room of your most fabulously stylish friend. In the evening they set up an “Honesty Bar” on one of the long consoles in the room.

Two large oil painting of Jack Russell’s by Francois Bard:

http://www.artnet.com/artist/425635763/francois-bard.html

I love the magenta/ plum tufted sofa and am still dying over the large knotted wood antique mirror on the left wall. What a find Kit! There are so many patterns throughout the hotel but it does not feel overwhelming. Just well traveled and collected.

Event Spaces:

For those of you who are looking for a space to rent for a board meeting, small wedding ceremony/ reception, or private dinner the Crosby Street Hotel offers 3 beautiful rooms located on the lower level of the hotel. Each one is designed differently.

Layfeyette Room: A break from all the color that Crosby Street offers. This room is filled with greys and browns, upholstered walls, a world map that has been broken up into segments and framed in lucite hangs on the wall, rows of stone inset in the large wooden table, and an Argentinean ceiling fixture. Perfect fr a dinner or board meeting.

Spring Room: Bold orange wallpaper with white white fruits and flowers packs a punch while the farmhouse table and white wicker chairs take on a more relaxed vibe. The massive gilt sunburst mirror on the wall adds a dash of glamour. This room would be perfect for a bridal or baby shower.

Prince Room: This room is the largest and was being set up for a wedding ceremony and reception while I was touring. What a fun location to have a wedding. With all the beautiful fabrics and wallpaper the space all ready has such personality you can bring in your floral arrangements and be done. It is normally set up as you see in the image above and is more of a lounge than the other two rooms. A great spot to have a fundraiser or party.

If you are interested in renting any of the above 3 spaces you can contact Olivia Taylor for pricing and additional information.

Email Olivia Taylor and mention Travel For Design

Outside of the screening room and the event spaces lives Joe The Polar Bear bookshelf. He is an endangered species! There were only 50 made and 2 of them live in the United States. Click on the website below to see where his relatives are living.

Joe The Polar Bear website: http://joethepolarbear.com/joethepolarbear.htm

The Kemp’s commissioned british artist Peter Rocklin to do a series of paintings that hang on the wall surrounding Joe the polar bear. He painted images of the surrounding restaurants, people. and pets that can be found in the area surrounding the hotel. See all images on his website: http://www.peterrocklin.com/commissions?album=6&gallery=16

I viewed the following bedrooms and LOVED them all. Each one is unique so you can stay in a differently designed room every time you visit. They range in size and price but all have amazing views of SoHo.

10th Floor- suite 1007 The Crosby Suite

At 1,100 square feet this room is enormous. This suite is their top of the line room. Being on the 10th floor the view is amazing. There are not many tall buildings in SoHo so you can see quite a bit through the enormous steel cased windows. There seems to be more glass than wall. With walls upholstered in purple linen, wooden and lucite table lamps, large sofas, a card table, a white wire chandelier, and a terrarium in the living room you cannot believe there is more in store. The bedroom is off to your right with an oversized horizontally channeled headboard upholstered in a floral fabric. Vanderhurd Cut Flower Pattern in violet adorns the windows in long plush drapes with a fabulous tape trim detail.

11th Floor- Room 1106

700 square feet is quite spacious for a hotel room. This room is furnished with a large antique hutch that holds china. Upon entering you feel like you are in the apartment of a friend. The walls are upholstered in tan linen and the rest of the room has bursts of watermelon, red, and beige. A patterend raoul textile pillow and a beautiful white cotton quilt make the bed very inviting

8th Floor – Room 809

This suite has a vertically channeled headboard, a beautiful silver demi-lune with a silver elephant head and trunk as the middle leg, upholstered magenta linen walls, framed sari’s in lucite boxes on the walls. This was my favorite headboard. The fabric was hand embroidered and the antique mirror detail at the top was beautiful. The little framed prints were also very pretty. The small lucite dress maker models are available for purchase through the front desk.

Below are views from junior suite 809.

8th Floor- Standard Room 803

This is the smallest room and they still managed to fit a nice sized seating area. The walls are painted a soft dove grey with one accent wall painted acid yellow. THe oversize headboard is upholstered in a wide striped fabric in acid yellow, dove grey and ivory. The soft blue green gustavian chests of drawers bring it back towards traditional.

All rooms have huge bathroom with a grey and purple swirled granite, double sinks, a shower and a tub.

You get all of this and the hotel is also one of the most environmentally friendly hotels built in the United States and hopes to be one of the very first certified GOLD LEED hotels in New York. Guest rooms provide all the usual amenities found in a deluxe hotel including luxury linens, WiFi, flat screen tv and i-pod docking station.

Fabrics:

Vanderhurd: VANDERHURD is a bespoke textile design studio serving a global clientele for over twenty-five years. Vanderhurd’s commitment to the unique vision of each of our individual clients is reflected in the entirely custom-made textiles that we produce. Vanderhurd is constantly perfecting new constructions and developing new designs, which speak to our trademark aesthetic and superior quality; simultaneously, we endeavor to create textiles for our clients that are perfectly suited to their needs, preferences and the designs they have envisioned. In the last three decades we have sought out the finest manufacturers in India (Varanasi, Jaipur and Delhi and their surrounding areas), Nepal (Kathmandu), the Philippines, New York and Europe, who understand our commitment to the precise specifications of our clients.

http://www.vanderhurd.com/hand_printed.php

Flower cut Out – Lilac/ Cream drapes in The Crosby Suite #1007

Medallion– mint/ cream

Tulips- magenta/ coral used as drapes in Suite 809 (see image under Suite 809)

Flower Cut Out – Indigo / Cream – we used this to upholster an oversized headboard in a beach house.

Raoul Textiles- hand printed belgian linen fabrics in delicious colors. I use at least one of their fabrics in every project.

Robert Kime:

Robert Kime, uniquely among decorators, has risen to eminence in the profession via antique dealing, textile collecting and an abiding passion for putting rooms together. His three strands of expertise run side by side as he creates decorating schemes for an illustrious, discreet and world-wide clientele. The current Robert Kime fabric range is acknowledged to be the UK’s most inspired, varied and beautiful, by the public and his peers alike.

Barley Twist

Palmette Red- A new embroidered fabric

Susani yellow – We just upholstered an indian daybed in this fabric for a client’s beach house- beautiful!

Field poppy- on sheer- this fabric is delicious and I want it in a guest bedroom someday

Termez – silk ikat

Opium Poppy Strong- The lilac, soft yellow, and deep cherry reds are amazing. I would love a deep down sofa upholstered in this fabric.

Ottoman Lampas Blue – Printed on velvet. This would be amazing on a club chair. Great texture.

Kit Kemp has designed an “Instant Room” in the March 2010 Issue of House Beautiful using fabrics from Crosby Street- be sure to check it out!

Visit the other Firmdale properties: http://www.firmdale.com/

xo,

S

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