Five hotel moods worth stealing—even if your next renovation budget is closer to Target than Tuscany
Some hotels make you want to travel.
Others make you want to go home and immediately replace every lamp you own.
And with interior design moving toward richer, more layered and personality-filled spaces in 2026, hotels feel particularly relevant as inspiration. Architectural Digest's current hotel coverage has emphasized properties where design itself is part of the reason to visit.
Here are five hotel moods we wouldn't mind bringing home.
1. Ett Hem, Stockholm
Steal: The Collected Living Room
Ett Hem has helped define the kind of hotel that feels less like a lobby and more like you've somehow been invited into an extremely stylish person's house.
The lesson isn't to buy an entire matching furniture set.
It's the opposite.
Mix your eras. Put books somewhere visible. Add art that actually means something to you. Let the chair be different from the sofa.
A home becomes interesting when it looks like it took time.
2. Ace Hotel Kyoto
Steal: Warm Minimalism
Minimalism doesn't have to mean cold.
Think natural materials, warm wood, handmade objects and enough visual breathing room to appreciate all of it.
The takeaway for home is simple: fewer things, better texture.
Wood. Linen. Ceramic. Paper. Woven materials.
Suddenly beige doesn't feel beige anymore.
3. The Proper Hotels
Steal: Pattern on Pattern
Designer Kelly Wearstler's interiors are basically an argument against playing it safe.
Patterned chairs. Sculptural lighting. Vintage shapes. Unexpected combinations.
You don't need to reproduce the maximalism wholesale.
Start with one strange chair.
One dramatic lamp.
One rug with personality.
Your home should contain at least one thing that makes someone ask, Where did you get that?
4. Hôtel Costes, Paris
Steal: The Lighting
Dark. Moody. Romantic.
This is your reminder that not every room needs to be illuminated like a doctor's office.
Turn off the big light.
Add lamps.
Light a candle.
Watch your home immediately become a place where you would willingly pay $24 for a cocktail.
5. A Great Mediterranean Hotel
Steal: Indoor-Outdoor Ease
White linen. Worn stone. Natural wood. Plants that are allowed to look like plants.
The Mediterranean hotel aesthetic works because nothing feels too precious.
You can borrow that feeling anywhere: relaxed linens, handmade ceramics, bowls of lemons, woven pieces, imperfect materials.
No ocean view required.
The Real Hotel Trick
The point isn't to make your apartment look like a hotel.
It's figuring out why certain hotels make you feel so good and stealing that part.
Maybe it's warm lighting.
Maybe it's the bedding.
Maybe it's the little tray beside the sink.
Maybe it's the fact that every object seems like someone deliberately put it there.
The best interiors aren't necessarily the ones with the most beautiful things.
They're the ones that create a feeling.
Hotels just happen to be very, very good at that.
Until next week — stay chévere