Interior designer Gabriella Khalil has created Grand Cayman's first boutique hotel, the beachfront Palm Heights, filled with collectible design pieces like Mario Bellini sofas, Ingo Maurer lights and an Ettore Sottsass rug.
Khalil is the creative director and founder of Palm Heights, located on the well-known, white sand Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman, the largest of the three Cayman Islands in the Caribbean.
Palms Heights hotel is designed to be like a 1970s mansion
Working with designers Sarita Posada and Courtney Applebaum, the London-based interior designer developed the design aesthetic to be like a 1970s-era mansion. The trio sourced suitable designs to decorate the property from Parisian flea markets, Los Angeles and Mexico.
"The design concept was inspired by the idea of a 70s era Caribbean mansion featuring collectible unique design pieces from Marcel Breuer, Mario Bellini, artworks by Pierre Paulin, and Vladimir Kagan to name a few," said the team. Guests rooms are decorated in an eclectic mix of materials
A number of these can be found in the guest lounge, which is intended as the heart of the 50-bedroom hotel, including a chequered Sottsass rug hung on the wall like a piece of art and a series of Maurer's Uchiwa wall lamps behind the curved reception desk.
Pieces by a range of European designers and architects like Hungarian-born Marcel Breuer, French furniture designer Pierre Chapo, Italian designers Massimo and Lella Vignelli, and Italian architect...