close

Design Classic versus Trend: The Original Beverley Hills Hotel Wallpaper

Beverley Hills Hotel red carpet ©madaboutthehouse.com
Beverley Hills Hotel red carpet ©madaboutthehouse.com

Now I know some of you may feel that the tropical trend has gone on long enough and I might agree with you when it comes to pineapples and flamingoes but then there are the classics. And this is one of them. THE one perhaps. I wanted to write about it today because firstly – as some of you may know – I have just returned from a lightning trip to Los Angeles and one of the things I most wanted to see was the Beverley Hills Hotel.

Beverley Hills Hotel bungalows ©madaboutthehouse.com
Beverley Hills Hotel bungalows ©madaboutthehouse.com

Then yesterday I visited a client who has just moved into the Hoover Building in Ealing, west London, and who loves that paper so much she has just ordered it for her bedroom. So I thought I would tell you about it and we can think about trends at the same time.

Beverley Hills Hotel wallpaper ©madaboutthehouse.com
Beverley Hills Hotel wallpaper ©madaboutthehouse.com

This wallpaper, called Martinique, was designed in 1942 by Don Loper especially for The Pink Palace, as the hotel on Sunset Boulevard is known. The hotel, with its 208 rooms and 23 bungalows, was founded in 1912 – before the city really existed –  and  the famous pink and green colour scheme came in 1948. The wallpaper is now one of the most recognisable in the world – not to be confused with Dorothy Draper’s Braziliance ,which has grapes instead of bananas.

There are apparently some five miles of the paper throughout the hotel along the corridors, in the fountain coffee room and on the poolside umbrellas.

image by @bevhillshotel
image by @bevhillshotel

My client, who often travels to LA for work and who adores the Beverley Hills Hotel, has wanted this paper for years and finally owns a wall to put it on.  Now I’m always getting questions from people who worry that if they buy something fashionable, or trendy, that they will go off it. And at £300 a roll you don’t want to be going off wallpaper like this.

Beverley Hills Hotel wallpaper ©madaboutthehouse.com
Beverley Hills Hotel wallpaper ©madaboutthehouse.com

So you need to ask yourself why you are buying a product – and this applies to anything not just wallpaper. So, in this case – my client often goes to LA. She always visits the hotel. She has loved this paper for years – long before the tropical trend started. She associates it with happy memories of a place she loves to go to. So in her case, this wallpaper isn’t about a quick dalliance with a trend but about a long term commitment.

Beverley Hills Hotel wallpaper ©madaboutthehouse.com
Beverley Hills Hotel wallpaper ©madaboutthehouse.com

So if you are thinking of painting your kitchen pink or buying an orange sofa you need to ask yourself why you want those colours. Is it just because it’s all over instagram and you feel compelled to join in – and don’t worry that happens to the best of us. Or is it because you actually have feelings and associations with a particular colour or style that will outlive any notion of fashion.

Then again, if it’s just about painting a wall that’s easy to change. If you quite fancy a quick fling with a pineapple then keep it to a cushion rather than getting a whole sofa upholstered and that way it doesn’t matter if you fall out.

And if you do decide that it’s love not flirting then consider buying the original or the design classic that will stand the test of time.

Beverley Hills Hotel bungalows ©madaboutthehouse.com
Beverley Hills Hotel bungalows ©madaboutthehouse.com

Now, because you might be wondering how is she going to use it in the room, firstly I will be writing about it on here when it’s all done so I’ll let you know when that’s coming up. But, in the meantime, she is thinking of using it on the wall behind the bed and possible the wall next to it – so that it wraps around two walls. The third wall is all window. And it’s the green Art Deco window familiar to anyone who has driven past the Hoover Building on the A40.

That green goes brilliantly with the wallpaper so we are going to do the skirting boards and door frames in Farrow and Ball Arsenic, which is a good match, and the remaining walls and ceiling in Pink Ground. She will have a pink velvet headboard. It’s going to be amazing and I can’t wait to see the finished room.

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

5 Comments

  1. I love the Hoover building! The wallpaper will look amazing -can’t wait to see the update.

  2. Looking forward to seeing it too. I’m a fan the of that pattern and of the architecture of The Hoover Building. I once got lost in that area trying to drive into central London, it was so worth it to see the building!

  3. Can’t wait to see the finished room! (And boy, do they need a carpet cleaner at the Beverly Hills Hotel…!)

  4. Can’t wait to see the finished room! I shall be thinking about it every time I drive past the Hoover building. I would so love to live there!

  5. Something that has been around since 1942 isn’t a fleeting trend. It goes perfectly with the Hoover Building, too.
    There’s a similar banana-leaf wallpaper at Indochine, a restaurant in NYC. It’s been there since 1985. Honestly, it’s much more in-the-jungle than the Beverly Hills version, which is more restrained.
    Can’t wait to see the finished apartment! Or at least a wall!

Comments are closed.