The Frenchmen Hotel

Project Details

Project Description

Full renovation of a 27-room historic boutique hotel on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans. Designed as a celebration of culture, art and our muse, Leonor Fini, a surrealist artist known for her flamboyant style and avant-garde thinking.
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As the interior design team, goals included creatively reimagining the hotel while respecting the character and historical requirements, provide a comfortable guest experience with updated rooms utilizing existing footprints and maximize use of intimate public spaces.

The design muse lived life like an actor in a play, spotted with hair dyed every color and often in dramatic striped attire. Color used is dramatic and unexpected, inexpensive, and high impact. Furnishings have a sculptural, eccentric appeal. Unconventional vintage pieces were sourced - a demilune cabinet customized for the check-in desk, lobby seating, different tables in each room, and rugs throughout. Fini owned fifty cats over her lifetime; all rooms include a cat hook and a brass cat watches over the Lobby.

Celebrating female artists and the female form, each space features different pieces of art. The room pendants are by ceramist, Paola Paronetto, the interconnected female forms hall wallcovering is by artist, Laura Berger and it is layered with female portraits. The pool mural, by local Rachel Loyacono, illustrates native plants with poisonous varieties. A nod to Fini’s rebellious ways. A Flavor Paper (originally from NOLA,) hand-mirror wallcovering investigates representations of femininity, dissecting symbols of beauty.