Art of Hospitality

According to Merriam Webster the first use of the word hospitality was in the 14th century. This means people were defining the act of generous and friendly treatment of visitors and guests as hospitality. Today we have an entire industry built around the act of being hospitable and it is called the hospitality industry. The industry ranges from the highest standards in which you can spend thousands of dollars a night on a room, to an adequate economical room for a family on vacation. We as consumers get to choose the level of hospitality we are willing to purchase and often choose to purchase hospitality rather than stay with a friend for Christmas. We have all been in the position where we would rather be in a hotel than on our friend’s lumpy bed. Or maybe, everything in the friend’s guest room just looked like a leftover furniture room with a mattress in the center for sleeping and you tolerated the room to spend time with your friends. If you want your friends to stay with you and love your guest room, then turn toward the hospitality industry for ideas, after all they have been perfecting the art of hospitality since the 14th century. Let’s peek into the freshly finished guest room of a courtyard villa somewhere in the heart of The Villages.

• There is still time to complete a room before Christmas!Filled with layered blue, Bedrooms, Home Décor by Ruth Dyer - in the Villages of Florida.
The bed, side tables and dresser were pieces already in the space.
Everything else in this room except the lamps and the orchid was purchased online even though the vendors have retail shops in the area. You will find that many things are offered online from local vendors that are not offered in their stores. Everything was ordered from two places and it all arrived within two weeks of being ordered. The total labor of searching for things online was 4.0 hours and the total installation time was 4.0 hours. Unpacking items and putting the bench together took at least an hour and a half of the installation time.

• Start with the bedding
The customer wanted to use teal, navy, and royal blue in the space. I punched into Google search bar teal and navy bedding and the pictured coverlet by Levtex Home popped up and Google showed me the local vendors that sold it. That was the starting point of the color story for the space. The process can be so easy if you do not overthink it.

• Mattress
We can look to Hilton Brands for bedding comfort tips and the first and foremost tip is the mattress must be comfortable. This bed happened to be a comfortable bed but if you are using the mattress you brought from home that was in your teenagers room and is 25 years old, get rid of it and buy a new comfortable mattress. Do not rationalize to yourself that it is just a guest room and you rarely have visitors. If visitors are so rare do something else with the room. You can pick up a comfortable bed set from local big box stores.

• Making the bed
I have one word for the bedding organic or real fibers. Real fibers and cotton is the best bet according to the hospitality industry. Always start with white cotton sheets as the foundation of the bedding. White cotton sheets with a decent thread count are not expensive. Consider buying them at your local big box store for a great deal. White sheets are the best for cleanliness and you can bleach them if needed. White is also considered the cleanest color in kitchens and for sheets. The second foundational piece for the bed is the coverlet for the guest to use for sleeping. That coverlet is usually white and cotton for the greatest comfort. The third layer of bedding is the color and we start with the pillows. This is where a guest room can be a bit more playful than a hotel room. We line the back of the bed with three Euro pillows to pop off the headboard. These Euro pillows are a trellis print using teal. The final and fourth layer of the bedding is the standard queen shams in front of the Euro pillows. These shams match the coverlet at the bottom of the bed. The coverlet at the bottom of the bed is also cotton as well as all the pillows. We folded the coverlet at the end of the bed back to reveal the white cotton coverlet. By showing the white cotton coverlet it makes the print and all the colors pop against the white. The bed and the bedding is the most important element in the room because the guest’s skin will touch the bedding and it must feel luxurious.

• Mirrors
We used many mirrors to add light and function to the space. We added mirrors above the nightstands to reflect the light of the lamps. The mirrors mimic the same cutout found on the headboard. Little touches like that make the space look designed that way rather than we happened to find them that way. We also, added a wall of round mirrors on the wall opposite the window. These mirrors look like an art installation but they also have function. The mirrors can be used as an extra space to do hair or put on makeup when there are several guests who need to get ready at the same time.

• The bench
We added a bench below the mirrors to provide two services in the space. The bench can hold extra bedding at night and in the day time it can hold blow dryers, makeup or clothes. Also, if someone needed to sit down to put on their shoes they have a space for that.

• Lamps
Ample lighting is a must in a guest room with no overhead lighting. The hospitality industry unusually fills the rooms with many lamp options and task lighting options as well.

• Art
The art was purchased from the same place as the mirrors. The picture above the bed has plenty of teal to work with the bedding and the bird looks like a great water color from an art show.

• Rug
The rug is a natural sisal rug dyed indigo blue and it is soft on the feet. The rug is laid at an angle and looks amazing in the space. It perfectly complements the bedding and begins a beautiful color story in the space.
Call Ruth your full service decorator at: 352-804-2056
or Contact Us

Before and After Pics Below