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    Mariette Sans-Rival Studio brings set-design philosophy to Apollo Palm hotel

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    Paris-based Mariette Sans-Rival Studio has used floor-to-ceiling curtains, brass lighting and custom furniture to fit out this boutique hotel, set across two Bauhaus-style buildings in the centre of Athens.

    Studio founder Mariette Sans-Rival, whose background is in set design, took references from Greek seafaring culture when designing the interiors for the Apollo Palm hotel.
    The whitewashed buildings of the Apollo Palm hotel surround a secluded courtyard”As my first architecture and interior design project, I leaned heavily on my background in the world of opera and live theatre to create a unique perspective, drawing parallels between set scenography and an inviting hotel atmosphere,” said Sans-Rival.
    Situated in the lively Psyrri neighbourhood, close to the city’s ancient Agora and Acropolis, the 48-key property is intended as a refuge for travellers and locals alike.
    Two neighbouring buildings were combined to create the hotelTo house the Apollo Palm hotel, Sans-Rival combined a pair of white-washed 20th-century buildings while creating a secluded courtyard at the centre, where guests can enjoy drinks and fare from the Patio Wine Bar and Bistro in the shade of palm fronds.

    A cocktail bar on the roof, which also serves brunch at the weekend, has an unobstructed view of the Acropolis and hosts music events, cinema nights and sunset parties.
    The hotel features a curved reception desk wrapped in brassDuring the renovation of the Bauhaus-style buildings, which feature clean lines and curved balconies, the studio also restored a large stained-glass window that spans multiple floors.
    A curved reception desk wrapped in brass matches the lighting fixtures found throughout the Apollo Palm hotel, washing spaces in a golden glow.
    Mariette Sans-Rival custom-designed the Lucie chairs for the hotel”I was challenged to create emotions through a narrative vision in an entirely new setting, building stories into the nascent place and developing recurring patterns to make the hotel autonomous and alive,” said the designer.
    In the guest rooms, floor-to-ceiling drapery billows over the large windows and in some spaces also continues around the walls.
    Drapery features heavily throughout the guest roomsTheir largely white-and-cream colour scheme is accented with sunny yellow, soft peach or pale green, used across the bedding, upholstery and plush carpets.
    Some of the rooms feature mirrored walls behind the beds, while others are furnished with reflective desks and vanities.

    House of Shila designs industrial yet sultry interiors for Mona Athens hotel

    Sans-Rival custom-designed much of Apollo Palm’s furniture, including the Lucie range of chairs and stools that are typified by geometric cutouts in their colourful wooden frames.
    “I started drawing unusual shapes, which ultimately led to the exclusive Lucie collection of furniture created for the hotel,” she said.
    Peach and pink tones feature in another guest bedroomLater this year, the hotel will also open a late-night bar and music venue named Studio Olala, which will be open to both guests and locals and available to hire for private events.
    Athens is currently experiencing a boom in its creative scene, as artists flock to the city for the fair weather and relatively cheap cost of living, as well as an increase in tourism from those choosing to stay longer when in transit to the popular Greek islands.
    Guests can enjoy drinks and fare from Apollo Palm’s courtyard cafeAs a result, the city has seen a wave of new hotels including the industrial yet sultry Mona Athens, and the Esperinos guesthouse filled with local artworks and modern furniture.
    The photography is by Jules Lanzaro.

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      House of Shila designs industrial yet sultry interiors for Mona Athens hotel

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      The ancient Acropolis of Athens is in full view from the rooftop of this boutique hotel, which design studio House of Shila has housed in a former factory building.

      Mona Athens is located in the city’s lively Psirri district, within an eight-storey 1950s building that once served as a textile factory.
      The Mona Athens lobby features an eclectic mix of furniture and decorHouse of Shila, led by New York-based entrepreneur Shai Antebi and Greek photographer and creative director Eftihia Stefanidi, chose to keep as much of the building’s bones as possible when converting it into a 20-key hotel.
      This meant retaining its original dramatic iron staircase, terrazzo flooring, metal window frames and marble facade.
      The spilt-level communal space houses a lounge and cafe”We designed Mona with great respect for the building’s 1950s architecture,” said Stefanidi.

      “The structure itself remains unchanged, revealing 70 years of history. Emphasis was given to preserving original features.”
      House of Shila retained as many of the building’s original details as possibleLayering over industrial materials like exposed concrete and weathering steel, the team added wooden furniture and textured fabrics to bring warmth and tactility to the spaces throughout.
      Accessed from the street, the 200-square-metre split-level lobby serves as a lounge and a cafe that can host pop-up events and installations.
      A variety of textured materials are layered over the building’s industrial bonesAn eclectic mix of furniture and decor populate the space, which can be opened to the outside via full-height folding glass doors.
      The hotel’s six different room categories range from intimate rooms of around 16 to 20 square metres all the way up to the 55-square-metre penthouses and Mona’s Suite, with some of the larger rooms providing access to private balconies and patios.
      Wash areas are open to the sleeping quarters in many of the roomsAll feature a similar sultry-meets-industrial aesthetic, which House of Shila compares to a “sensual refuge”, characterised by curtains of sheer cotton and richly-coloured velvet, low minimalist beds, custom-knitted carpets and soft lighting from bespoke fixtures.
      In the majority of the guest rooms, the washing areas are open to the sleeping quarters – with separate water closets for privacy – and some feature comfy lounge seating.
      Larger suites have access to porches, balconies and patiosWhite freestanding Corian bathtubs and industrial-style rain showers are shrouded by translucent curtains, creating a “certain balance of comfort and drama”, according to the design studio.
      The open rooftop offers a direct view of the Parthenon and other structures atop the Acropolis, the UNESCO-listed epicentre of Ancient Greece, while the tourist entrance to the site is a 15-minute walk from the hotel.

      Raw concrete penthouse and event space created inside former Athens warehouse

      Reserved for Mona Athens guests and members, this outdoor space includes a long glass-and-metal communal table, cushioned sofas, outdoor showers, lush planting and a bar that serves cocktails and “eclectic fare” with ingredients sourced from the local food market.
      There’s also a speakeasy venue in the basement, where pop-up exhibitions and private events can take place.
      Freestanding Corian bathtubs are set against weathering steelAll of the decorative items in the rooms are available for guests to purchase, from the organic cotton bedsheets to the ceramic coffee cups.
      Antebi’s background is in real estate development while Stefanidi was previously the creative director for immersive entertainment company Secret Cinema.
      The rooftop is reserved for hotel guests and membersThe duo founded House of Shila after working together on their first hospitality project Shila – another boutique hotel-cum-arts venue in Athens’ Kolonaki neighbourhood.
      Once a quick stopover for tourists on the way to the Greek islands, the capital is becoming a popular destination for city breaks in its own right, thanks to its rich history, growing culinary scene, year-round fair weather and relative affordability.
      A prime view of the Acropolis can be enjoyed from the roofThe owner of Carwan Gallery described Athens as “the new Berlin” when the contemporary design gallery relocated there from Beirut in 2020.
      Several boutique hotels have opened or undergone renovation in the downtown area over the past few years, including the neo-modernist Perianth Hotel and the Evripidis Hotel, which received a new rooftop bar and breakfast room.
      The photography is by Ana Santl.

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      Esperinos is a design-focused guesthouse in Athens

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      Greek designer Stamos Michael mixed his own creations with local artworks and modern furniture classics to form the striking interior of Esperinos, a guesthouse in Athens.Esperinos is situated in the Greek capital’s Filopappos Hill area, taking over a single-storey residence that dates back to the 1930s.

      A number of Stamos Michaels’ furniture designs decorate the house’s living room
      The house used to have a traditionally domestic layout, but when local designer Stamos Michael was brought on board, he decided to knock through all the existing internal walls to form an open, gallery-style space.
      Dotted throughout is a mixture of contemporary and classic furnishings that are meant to give visitors a “new way of experiencing the cultural universe of Athens”.

      A black staircase leads up to the mezzanine

      A few of Michael’s own pieces appear in the guesthouse’s living room. This includes a pine and plywood storage cabinet that’s been handpainted to feature a black-and-white chequer pattern.
      It sits beside one of the designer’s lamps, which comprises two towering, rust-brown columns of powder-coated steel.

      The home’s kitchen is painted a plum-purple hue
      There’s also a sculptural chair by Michael that features a metal pole running through its backrest and a small stool he crafted from two blocks of stone found on a quarry in Tinos, a Greek island in the Aegean sea.
      Guests can relax on a brown-leather edition of Konstantin Grcic’s Traffic lounge chair, or on the sofa at the rear of the room which is dressed with a mismatched array of throw cushions.

      Industrial shelving displays the kitchen crockery
      A doorway looks through to the kitchen, which has been finished with emerald-coloured cabinetry and black, industrial-style shelves that display crockery.

      K-studio’s Perianth Hotel infuses neo-modernism into Athens

      Like the other rooms in the guesthouse, the kitchen has been decorated with a piece of modern art. All the works were curated by local art foundation Grace – founded by Michael in 2016 – and will be regularly changed throughout the year to spotlight different creatives working in the Greek capital.

      The bedroom sits beneath the guesthouse’s timber roof
      The bedroom sits beneath the guesthouse’s pitched wooden roof on a newly constructed mezzanine level, accessed via a set of jet-black stairs.
      Terracotta tiles, similar to those used on the balconies of Greek apartment buildings, have been used to line the staircase landing and one of the steps.
      Surfaces throughout the house have been painted moss green or a rich, plum-purple hue. Michael has also carved out small sections of the walls to reveal the property’s stone structural shell.

      Chairs by Robert Mallet-Stevens feature in the home’s outdoor space
      Guests will also have access to a private back garden that’s dotted with tubular-frame seats by French architect and designer Robert Mallet-Stevens.
      Including an outdoor space in the house was particularly important to Michael, who had heard elderly local residents talk fondly of gathering in gardens and alleyways during the 1960s to listen to music or watch football matches.
      “People were always describing images that reflected a wonderful communal openness,” he told Dezeen.

      The garden is shaded by trees
      Esperinos joins a growing number of contemporary design-focused spots to stay at in Athens, which is largely popular amongst holiday goers for its wealth of ancient landmarks.
      Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte, the owner of Athens’ Carwan Gallery, recently told Dezeen in an interview that the city is emerging as a creative hub, and could even be considered “the new Berlin”.
      “It’s almost like if the city was sleeping for 10 years during the [financial] crisis and is now ready to bloom again,” he added.
      Photography is by Margarita Nikitaki.

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