Gurney adds: “When you step back and take in the whole interior, the wallpaper is this amazing love letter to Florida and to the Colony.” “We wanted to capture that ‘old Palm Beach’ attitude, which is equal parts nostalgia and whimsy and is as natural as the island itself.” “The mural is full of hidden details and secret meanings, some of which are intensely personal to our family, while others are meant to be discovered by our guests and community,” Sarah confirms. Even Palmer, the Wetenhall family’s Cavalier King Charles spaniel and a frequent hotel guest, makes an appearance. The hotel’s mascot, Johnny Brown, is seen to the right of the fireplace waving the Colony’s pennant flag. Here are a few of those surprises to be on the lookout for: The initials WW+LW are carved into a tree, in honor of William and Lucia Waller, the husband-and-wife duo who opened the hotel in 1947. In a detail of the mural, Palmer-the Wetenhalls’ Cavalier King Charles spaniel and a frequent guest at the hotel-holds a bucket with his age at the time of the painting. Every time you walk to a different part of the lobby, there are new things to discover and unveil that will make you smile.” “Having these characters throughout the wallpaper, hidden among the foliage, creates such a beautiful story for the visitors to the hotel. “The wallpaper is completely different than anything we’ve created before,” says de Gournay director Hannah Cecil Gurney. The resulting hand-painted mural, entitled “The Living Room,” is none other than the “pink paradise” of Andrew’s childhood brought to life. Jemma Cave, de Gournay’s design director, began sketching the hotel’s folkloric characters, while McMakin focused on the color palette, which was inspired by a Pierre Frey textile central to the design scheme. Having first caught her eye after its collaboration with Erdem, de Gournay was the perfect partner to realize Sarah’s dream the team immediately set to work studying up on Florida’s flora and fauna as well as the history of the hotel. The Living Room mural by de Gournay in the Colony Hotel’s lobby is full of whimsical characters-like these flamingos wearing pearl necklaces. “I had a dream of visually immersing our guests in the Colony ethos in a way that was truly unique.” “Hospitality is all about first impressions, and so we knew we needed to create a stellar guest experience from the start,” Sarah says. With a similar idea in mind, she called (via Zoom, of course) the storied wallpaper house de Gournay to collaborate on a new scenic mural for the lobby. While perusing old photographs and postcards, she stumbled upon one depicting a midcentury mural in the lobby dating back to the hotel’s opening in 1947. Still, when the couple announced their plans to restore the hotel to its former glory, with the help of Mimi McMakin of Kemble Interiors, Sarah knew she had to proceed carefully. Thankfully, Andrew and Sarah Wetenhall, who purchased the Colony Hotel in 2016, were very familiar with these protocols-Andrew’s family had previously been the owners of the very same hotel just a few decades ago. Read on for a few of our favorite rooms from the new book.When you buy a landmark hotel-especially in a town like Palm Beach-there are traditions to be kept, an ambience to maintain, and a character to be preserved. And so in 1984 de Gournay was born, originally focusing on wallcoverings inspired by 18th- and 19th-century chinoiserie papers and later branching out to the prints and scenes the company is well known for today. A search for hand-painted Chinese wallpaper for his own home led to an epiphany: He would set up his own studio. In the book, company founder Claud Cecil Gurney tells the story of de Gournay’s beginnings-how the trained accountant, who studied economics at the University of Chicago, was able to marry his lifelong love of beauty and commerce. Long a favorite of the fashion world-readers will also get a glimpse of Kate Moss’s walls, featuring hand-painted anemones-de Gournay’s prints have of late jumped from stylish homes onto Aquazzura shoes and dresses by Erdem. (There are armadas of ships too, including one depiction of Captain Cook sailing along the gilded paper walls of London’s Ned Hotel.) Projects featured in the book include those by ELLE Decor A-List designers such as Alessandra Branca and Miles Redd, among many others. The Technicolor work, packed with moments of grace and whimsy, features the flora, the fauna, and-yes-the occasional flock of flamingos that famously populate the brand’s coveted hand-painted wallcoverings. Fans of the London-based textiles firm de Gournay have good reason to celebrate this fall: the company has released a stunning new book, de Gournay: Hand-Painted Interiors (Rizzoli).
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