The drawing room was initially called a ‘withdrawing room’. Coined in the 16th century, these were spaces designed to entertain guests and provide a private retreat within one’s dwelling. Similar to traditional Georgian and Victorian homes, you’ll find a fireplace in each of our hotel’s drawing rooms. This architectural feature creates effortless charm inside our spaces. The drawing rooms at our hotels are designed to be intimate spaces for social engagement, a quiet place to read a book or somewhere to enjoy a refreshing drink from the honesty bar. There are a variety of ways to design and utilise these living spaces, so join us as we explore some drawing room layouts from around our hotels.

Layout One

The traditional layout for tighter spaces. The sofa can be placed opposite the fireplace, accompanied with pairs of armchairs. Here at The Soho Hotel’s Drawing Room, the heights of the chairs elongate and accentuate the fireplace, adding a feeling of grandeur. This classic sense of symmetry is timeless and always instils order.

Layout Two

In the Drawing Room at Charlotte Street Hotel we have placed two large chesterfield sofas opposite each other and surrounding them are two armchairs and a Min’s Tub Chair. It’s important to understand scale when exploring this type of layout as depth and size is crucial for creating comfort and a sense of ease. The sofas ground the space with their large scale striped fabric and are complemented by smaller softer organic patterns.

Layout Three

Ham Yard Hotel’s Drawing Room consists of a sofa opposite the fireplace, two of Kit’s Wing chairs on each side and an assortment of chairs surrounding the fireplace. This layout brings an opportunity to explore scale, style and asymmetry and through using an assortment of different chairs, an eclectic impression has been created.

Layout Four

Consider encircling your fireplace with three sofas if you have ample space. Here at Crosby Street Hotel, there are two fireplaces in our long and narrow Drawing Room. We have divided this space into intimate zones. Finding a focal point is the easiest way to create zones. Also consider using dining tables and consoles as a point of interest when working with large spaces. We have three sofas substantially surrounding one fireplace: There’s one sofa against the wall and two opposite each other with a coffee table in the centre. This arrangement creates a sense of expansion and also achieves a sense of comfort and luxury.

Our drawing room fireplaces also have club fenders. These are the best way to make the most of your space as they maximise the wasted area around a fireplace. Club fenders are traditionally topped with a cushioned fabric panel, which is wide enough to perch on but narrow enough so that they are not intrusive within the room. Visit our blog post: Welcome To The Club – How We Use Club Fenders to find out more.