Before designer Ty Larkins transformed this dining room into an aesthetically bold, multi-purpose space, it was a blank canvas. He drew inspiration from the homeowners’ travels and boutique hotels from around the world to make the space feel memorable and elegant.

“The couple was ready to do something that was daring,” he says. “So we came up with this idea to create not just a dining room, but almost a space you would find in a hotel.”

While the table is typically the centerpiece of a dining room, this one boasts three stars. On one side of the room, a tomato tufted sofa sits beneath a large mirror, with art and accessories creating a cozy vignette for visiting and enjoying drinks. Opposite it, a bespoke bar cabinet by Julian Chichester holds entertaining essentials and is flanked by wall sconces, with the couple’s wedding china artfully displayed on the adjacent wall.

The large custom-made, hand-knotted rug served as the foundation for the room’s design. Larkins hand-picked colors from it to incorporate throughout the room and chose to paint the walls in the high-gloss shade “Hague Blue” by Farrow & Ball. He then added pops of yellow and red for an eye-catching, primary-color-filled entertaining enclave.

“If it’s a space you don’t spend a lot of time in, like a dining room, powder room or a space you’re walking through, why not do something bold, memorable, and exciting?” he asks.

Larkin says textures become even more important when you use a variety of colors in a room. To add more complexity to the space, he arranged blue leather chairs and yellow velvet chairs around the sleek wooden table. Though the chair textures differ, the rug ties them together, making the space cohesive rather than overwhelming.

For the finishing touch, Larkins added heavy, velvet curtain panels to the doorways and the window for what he calls a “VIP factor.”

“Everything stands out, and it’s all done unapologetically,” he says.

See other boutique hotel-inspired interiors in our July 2025 cover story.