Seattle, Part 3: Staying at the Hyatt Olive 8... aka a Meditation on Modern Luxury

I headed home after my afternoon walk to prep for the rehearsal dinner. Chef K was running errands for the groom, so I had some time by myself in our hotel room at the Hyatt Olive 8 to relax and, like a real design geek, check out the decor. The hotel itself is brand-new so the furnishings were impeccably clean and in tip-top shape, the design sleek and modern. Everything, really, was quite "nice" -- but it really got me thinking about "trendy" vs. "true luxury" in contemporary interior design, especially with regard to hotel, restaurant and bar interiors.

Take the Olive 8 -- it had all the hallmarks of "trendy." Black-painted wood (OK, plywood): check. Geometric patterned bedding in a cool (as opposed to warm) color palette: check. Copious frosted glass: check. If our room had had those squiggly pieces of "driftwood" (painted black, of course) sold at places like West Elm, I wouldn't have been surprised. And the sliding door to the bathroom -- so "cool," yet so inconvenient.

So why don't all these elements add up to true sophistication? What makes an interior truly sophisticated? I think it comes down to the details, to high-quality materials, a classic, not up-to-the-minute, sensibility and almost always a sense of personality, a thoughtful eclecticism. Not the kind of impersonal design-by-numbers too often seen in all those bars and hotel lobbies with black-painted wood, blue uplighting, geometric-patterned wallpaper (or damask -- ugh, so 2005), that kind of thing.

I don't really mean to be picking on Olive 8 in particular. In fact, all of the above being said, I would definitely recommend the Olive 8 to anyone traveling to Seattle -- it was a very comfortable stay and great value!!