In the village of Adelboden in Switzerland, Amsterdam-based Nicemakers has transformed the interiors of The Brecon, a hundred-year-old chalet, into a secluded retreat.
The intention for the 18-room chalet, called The Brecon, was for it to be “like a high-end version of your own home,” Nicemakers head of design Lottie Lorenzetti told Dezeen. The studio wanted the hotel rooms to feel like guest rooms in someone’s home.
We set out from the very beginning with the intention of not creating another clean, minimal, Swiss hotel aesthetic,” Lorenzetti added.
The client, hotel operator Grant Maunder, wanted to create “a hideaway which feels like a dream home”.
Across the common spaces, 18 rooms and four suites of the boutique hotel, Nicemakers worked with Maunder to fulfil the brief by creating a series of intimate and characterful interiors with a domestic feel.
On entry through a bespoke wooden revolving door, the open-plan lounge space progresses into dining and living areas, featuring a sofa tucked away in a secluded nook.
The interiors throughout are decorated with wooden panelling and integrated bookshelves, free-standing lamps and mismatched mid-century modern furniture.
Mantel pieces and coffee tables display a collection of objects, candles and incense holders, statement one-off ashtrays and magazines that were chosen to add to the domestic feel.
Nicemakers worked with Amsterdam’s Bisou Gallery to select relevant and personal artworks for the walls of The Brecon.
Timber, stone, leather and wool, in an earthy palette chosen to complement the hotel’s mountain surroundings, have been used throughout the interior scheme.
On the ground floor, Nicemaker placed a few casual breakfast tables by an open kitchen to evoke the sense of being a guest in someone’s spacious home.
The spa, which has a sauna, steam and treatment rooms, and the infinity pool on the terrace looking down the valley to the Engstligen waterfalls, were finished at the scale of a generous private residence, the studio said.
The unusual concept for the retreat – in a small town with several more traditional hotels – was executed with a mid-century modern design approach.
The resulting interiors contrast with the traditional chalet style found in Switzerland.
Other unusual design details include the repeated use of crazy paving indoors; in the elevators and entranceway, on bedroom balconies and around the pool area.
“The crazy paving was a hugely labour-intensive design element – it took a long time to lay and needed a skilled person who came from Wales to do this,” Lorenzetti said.
Continuing the family affair, all the ceramic crockery was handmade in Wales by Andréa Anderson, who is married to the client Grant Maunder.
Originally Nicemakers had plans for bespoke mini bar cabinets, bedside tables and the same armchairs in each room.
However, the studio concluded this would have gone against the hotel’s domestic concept.
“You wouldn’t have a mini bar fridge in your own guest room at home,” explained Lorenzetti.
This decision meant that – instead of using the same suite of bespoke elements throughout the hotel – individual items could be sourced and curated for each room.
“[This] gave the rooms a much more collected, rather than manufactured, feel”, Lorenzetti said.
Nicemakers’ design was also informed by some of the original elements from the 1950s and ’60s heyday of the building, which was originally built in 1914.
Textured plaster, the original red mosaic tiles in the stairwell and the mottled glass all draw from the history of the site. A pre-existing fireplace in the spa was also preserved.
Vintage and new items were sourced from all over Europe, especially vintage markets in Italy, the UK, the Netherlands and France.
The mix of patterns and details was intentional.
“[We wanted] to imitate a collected mix of items, to steer away from the classic minimal and clean, expected, Swiss aesthetic”, Lorenzetti concluded.
Other projects in Switzerland recently featured in Dezeen include a 1960s chalet in Zinal renovated by Giona Bierens de Haan Architectures and an extension to a school in Aeschi by Haller Gut Architekten.
The photography is by Michael Sinclair.
