The Museum Hotel, Oxford

The Hotel

The Museum Hotel, a small two-story boutique hotel, which dates from 1594. It is situated within Oxford’s historic city centre only minutes’ walk from Oxfords famous university buildings and tourist attractions.

The Brief

Furnotel was commissioned to help convert first and second floor administrative offices into ten hotel bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms as well as redesigning two guest coffee lounges. They had to take into consideration the historic buildings features and work to incorporate them into the hotel’s design.

Overview & Scope

The client’s vision was to create a sophisticated and luxurious boutique hotel for city tourists in central Oxford.

The hotel needed to maintain a contemporary feel whilst incorporating the existing 16th century features such as exposed brick and timber frames. The two coffee rooms also required Furnotel’s expertise in furnishing.

Furnotel used a regal black and gold colour scheme centered around The Grace Collection’s, to furnish the bedrooms and used the hotel’s exposed wooden beams as inspiration in the en-suite bathrooms as they radiate a calm, earthy feel. The rooms ooze a superior opulence with ebony hi-gloss lacquered furniture, edged with a gold beading detail that accentuates the classic lines of the furniture and echoes the historic atmosphere of the building and surrounding architecture. With light streaming in through the bedroom sky lights, the flawless pairing of these details become apparent.

The grandeur of the coffee lounge was emphasised with the use of sleek gold accents against plush black furniture positioned around large windows that offer guests views that would take them back to the 16th century.

The cappuccino colour palette of the wider bedroom interior scheme provides a perfectly warm, yet neutral canvas and works seamlessly against the striking furniture package.

Like many city centre hotels, the available space for furniture within the bedrooms was certainly a challenge for Furnotel’s technical design team. They had to adapt and maximise the circulation space for the guest while making the rooms feel as airy as possible.

Incorporating the hotels inherent features means the bedrooms and adjoining bathrooms kept a Victorian impression with a new, more boutique feel.

Installation

Due to the age, size and location of the building some access issues did arise. Deliveries had to arrive in smaller vehicles due to the narrow streets and concealed entrance to the hotel. It was not practical to have a large lorry deliver goods when there was limited space available for them to park in.

Inside the hotel itself, due to its age, there were narrow corridors and stairs that had to be manoeuvred when it came to installing furniture. The designers had to ensure they designed the bespoke furniture pieces in a way which meant delivery and installation wasn’t going to be a problem. They had to take into consideration the size of the stairs and corridors they were bringing furniture through.

Approximately 150 pieces of loose furniture and case goods were used in this hotel refurbishment and the project consisted of mainly bespoke pieces, designed by Furnotel’s skilled design team. The designers drew inspirations from Furnotel’s Paris Gold range with beautiful high gloss black and gold finishing to ensure the hotel met the superior opulence the clients desired.

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