Incredibly Cool Hotel Lobby Designs to Inspire You

Keep your eyes open, and you'll find design ideas everywhere. We've spotted new trends, personalized touches and unique decor in hotel lobbies around the world. One lobby that inspires us is the warm, welcoming space at Capella Shanghai, a resort in the Xuhui District. Arriving visitors stay in three-story villas or luxury residences spread out over a compound with 22 shikumen lanes, or stone gates. The hotel blends Eastern and Western decor and architexture; the lobby offers guests curated artwork and books on fashion, wine and lifestyles.

Give your rooms and spaces a sense of luxury. In the Waldorf Astoria Park City, a resort in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains, a stunning Baccarat crystal chandelier illuminates the lobby. Upholstered chairs and couches invite visitors to relax by the fireplace, which features a 300-year old mantle imported from southern Italy. It's flanked by handcarved, wooden stags.

Talk about elegance: once the Palazzo Bacchini delle Palme, this former palace, now the Palazzo Venart Luxury Hotel, has been restored to its 16th-century grandeur. The opulent lobby of this hotel, one of The Leading Hotels of the World, boasts a marble floor and marble staircases, elaborate plasterwork and historic frescoes. To mimic its feel of old elegance, use gilt mirrors and a carefully curated mix of antiques and contemporary furnishings.

Let your musical side come out to play. In the Westin Austin Downtown, located just steps away from the city’s 6th Street Entertainment District, the hotel rooms and lobby celebrate Austin as the "Live Music Capital of the World." Look closely, and you’ll see the cutouts from a Dobro guitar in the lobby ceiling and vertical garden. There’s also a guitar-string staircase and guitar-pick artwork. Even the ballroom floors are decorated with the kind of prints you can find on guitar straps.

Think artsy, edgy and experimental. Le Meridien Chambers occupies two landmark revival buildings in the arts district of Minneapolis. This luxury hotel features an art-deco lobby with black and white designs, like these glass doors painted with black vines, as well as rotating art installations and a free-standing abstract fireplace. Don't hesitate to hang as much artwork as you like. Over 200 original pieces are showecased in the lobby, hotel hallways and an on-site art gallery.

History and culture can inspire dramatic designs. The JW Marriott El Convento, a five-star hotel in Cusco, Peru, was once a 16th-century convent. Architects, designers and builders preserved and restored much of the property, including its colonial stone walls and arches. Today, a spectacular Swarovski lamp with 70,000 crystals sparkles behind the reception desk; it was installed as a tribute to Inti, the Inca god of the sun.

Located in the heart of Amsterdam’s museum district, the Conservatorium Hotel is known for its Art Nouveau interiors. They were created by Piero Lissoni, who is considered one of Italy’s best contemporary designers. In this image, natural light streams into the Brasserie Lounge, which is located next to the lobby reception area. The custom-made furnishing and vintage rugs aim to make guests feel at home, in a space that is both simple and sophisticated.

The old blends with the new at Le Mount Stephen, a luxurious hotel in Montreal’s Golden Square Mile. Visitors enter the hotel through the historic George Stephen House. The house—actually a Renaissance Revival-style mansion with a carved stone fireplace mantel and stained glass windows—was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway’s first president, Lord G. Stephen.

After guests walk through the George Stephen House, they enter Le Mount Stephen's contemporary tower. The lobby boasts a sleek, sophisticated design and features gold-flecked marble floors and the hotel’s coat of arms. Furniture is upholstered in neutral leathers and velvets accented with gold, silver and copper touches.

You'll find the ultimate in glamorous gold decor at the Faena Hotel. Its magnificient entrance, shown here, is called the "Cathedral." A red carpet runs through the space, past rows of gold-leafed columns and floor-to-ceiling murals created by Juan Gatti, an Argentinian painter known as the "Michelangelo of Faena." At the end of the hall, a door opens into a garden featuring a 24-K gilded sculpture of a wooly mammoth skeleton.

Korea’s Signiel Seoul Hotel is located in the fifth-tallest high-rise building in the world. The modern lobby, on the 79th floor, offers guests a bird’s eye of the city from its oversized windows. The interior decor is a blend of classic and contemporary designs from both the East and West. Arrive early if you want a seat to watch the sun rise or set.

The 2017 opening of Aloft & Element Downtown, two hotels in one building, represents a new type of design. It uses shared spaces to encourage guests and locals to interact in an open restaurant, bar and coffeehouse on the first and second floors. Both also have separate street entrances for locals. You can copy the lobby's "Texas chic" design with Southwestern-patterned rugs, wicker-laced lamps and modern furniture.

Okay. You're probably not going to install enormous gold columns to mimic the ones in the lobby of the Miami Beach EDITION. But you can use a mix of minimalist furnishings, silk rugs, sheer white drapes and eclectic antiques for an elegant, modern look. Don't forget the palm trees for a touch of airy, tropical greenery.