#HTE

Usually, when you mix design periods, specifically in the one building, you tend to end up in a bit of a hot mess. No-one, for instance, would dream of taking a 1920s Art Deco period and mixing it with a 1970s vibe. That is, not unless you are completely bonkers. Or incredibly talented.

Little Albion Guesthouse in Surry Hills, designed by Cressida Kennedy and Connie Alessi has been blessed with designers who are the latter but who are probably in equal measures a bit of the former. The building is part heritage, an old convent built in 1903 and part brand spanking new, 1970’s inspired extension in white ceramic brick and steel.

At the rear of the bespoke hotel is the angular glass extension. Here the reception for the hotel meets the waiting area and the bar. Walnut wall panelling wraps its way up and over the ceiling. Terrazzo floors and a luxe, sunken leather lounge, in deep purple complete the 70’s aesthetic.

The hotel houses 35 guest rooms, each a creation in and of themselves. A colourful explosion of bold patterns, prints, wallpapers and curtains – floral, paisley and geometric. The headboards are bespoke fanned American walnut with brass trimmings. Even the artwork in the rooms and common areas are used as a means to thread the eras together.

Under normal circumstances, the clashing of design and materials would make your head hurt, but here somehow it all hangs together. More than that, it feels uplifting and joyful. There’s the ‘Big Albion’ penthouse suite with its to die for bathroom, glistening in golden tiles. It is so beautiful it could actually be a Gustav Klimt painting. Custom made twenties inspired brass mirrors hang in the bathrooms alongside handmade geometric cement tiles, bronze tapware and Elba marble flooring.

Nooks and crannies in the old part of the building are carefully played up to. The designers have highlighted the geometry of the chimney cavity in the bathrooms, or carefully placed furnishing in irregularly shaped alcoves.

There is simply never a dull moment in this delightful, whimsical hotel. Now all they need to do is make a movie about it.

[Images courtesy of Cressida Kennedy. Photography by Tom Ferguson.]

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