The Grand Salon

Previously known as "The Informal Entertainment Area" (which doesn't roll of the tongue with any elegance) the room between the foyer and the loggia has been renamed The Salon. The name salon comes via the French from the Italian Salone, meaning a large hall or reception room, and was also used to describe a  gathering of fashionable, like-minded people for discussion and entertainment - "to please and to educate".

So I think it is only fitting that the largest reception room of our house which is to used for the gatherings of fashionable people should be named The Salon. Peter and I discussed the pronunciation for a while and decided it had to be Sa'lon as in felon, not as in Ceylon.

Peter, Willoughby and I had previously chosen the carpet for this area (after much searching) only to be told by the manufacturer that there were only 5 metres left in the country and that they had no plans to make any more. Thus, we decided then and there that we had had enough of searching and would continue the marble of the foyer through the salon as well as through all the upstairs common areas. 

This we are sure will prove a practical move, as the salon will be a high traffic area, and it will contain a bar so spills and scuffs will be inevitable. 

The hard flooring may push the ambience of the room away from the cosy entertainment area that we were trying to create towards a cooler, larger feeling, echoing space. We are going to try to keep the room as warm and personable as possible by grouping the furniture around rugs on the floor, leaving the marble exposed for 'foot traffic through routes'. We want it to be the sort of room where a couple could sink into the comfortable arm chairs and have an intimate little conversation in the corner over an evening night cap.

Below: The Classic club-look that we were hoping to achieve with a carpeted space.

We have found some pictures which illustrate how we might try to create a comfortable ambiance in a large marble-floored space. Breaking the room up with furniture and a clever use of inviting textures and colours seems to play an important part...

Above and below: Back to back sofas are a popular way to separate large rooms into separate spaces.

Above and below: Almost all of these rooms seem to have a fireplace in them, which our salon does not. But their stud heights are also much taller than ours (the standard stud height in NZ is 8 feet. Ours is 12 feet. Some of the rooms in these photos have about 16 feet studs).

Above photos from Tumblr and Pinterest

Raising the bar...

Here's the conundrum. Every hotel needs a bar, yet no home really wants a bar. A 'home bar' is so declasse, and fit only for the sort of home where pictures of dogs playing poker are considered tasteful. If one is to have alcohol in view, then one ought to have a 'drinks trolley'.

So, with that profound advice out of the way, how does one create the essential, intimate and ever so slightly glam bar for a boutique hotel cum home, where guests can flirt with each other over a nice glass or two of Grande Annee?

We have designed an alcove with a pull out bar on castors, and closable cabinetry. It has all the charm of a luxurious little bar - the warm polished mahogany paneling, the gleam of shiny brass rails, the glint of light off the crystal and chairs so comfy that a day's work on one's feet is quickly forgotten; yet when one doesn't want to be confronted with the commercial aspect of one's endeavours, one can simply close the cabinets behind the bar, hiding all the bottles and glasses behind paneling that matches the wall panels, push the bar back into the alcove, and redecorate the surface at will with whatever object d'art one is in the mood for.

When the bar is open...

When the bar is closed...

The lounge will have lovely deep leather club chairs with plenty of little Louis XV styled tables at hand upon which to rest one's glass, and will double as our informal entertainment area (separate from our private, formal drawing room). At the end of the lounge (correlating to the right hand wall in the above plans, there will be a large plasma TV, recessed into the wall, covered by a framed moving oil painting, which rolls up in the frame when one wishes to watch the TV, and rolls down, when one wants to hide it from view. TVs have become [almost] indispensable household items, but that doesn't make them attractive...

Here are some more TV hiding ideas...







And here are some of the not so garish bars that we have taken inspiration from....