<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Luxury Boutique Hotels\nSmall in size yet big on style, these five recently opened boutique hotels are for solace seekers who appreciate elegance and a strong sense of place\nLegendary filmmaker and part-time hotelier Francis Ford Coppola has often said that opening a hotel is much like shooting a movie. And his latest property, the nine-room Palazzo Margherita, could be aptly described as the ultimate family production. Located in the town of Bernalda, on Italy's southern coast\u2014from which Coppola's grandfather Agostino emigrated to America in 1904\u2014the 19th-century palazzo connects three generations of Coppolas. Overseen by Francis himself, the property took five years to develop, with contributions from his famously creative children, Roman, Sofia, and Eleanor. Surrounded by brick-walled gardens dense with palm, olive, citrus, and pine trees, the property features lush Jacques Grange\u2013designed interiors with a mix of Mediterranean and North African touches. For the Palazzo's garden courtyard (pictured here), Grange says he drew inspiration from \"the colors of traditional aristocratic terraces\" found in villas throughout Italy. Guests may dine here or in the Palazzo's brick-lined kitchen, where a central table seats 12. Meals consist of simple salads, fresh pastas, pizzas, and regional wines\u2014all delivered among \"chairs and tables that seemingly disappear into the green of the gardens,\" Grange says. From $360/night; palazzomargherita.com\nMost of the suites are set on the second floor, and each has a unique design\u2014including the one pictured here, named in honor of the director himself. Grange says he designed the Francis Ford Coppola Suite with \"both fantasy and a touch of Orientalism.\" The room's headboard evokes antique Syrian manuscripts, while the marmorino stucco walls and ceiling feature elaborate hand-painted Moorish-inspired decoration. The floors are lined in blue-and-white tiles made of bejmat\u2014a type of Moroccan terra-cotta\u2014while the zellige tiles around the fireplace are another nod to the Maghreb.\nThe suite named after (and codesigned by) Sofia Coppola has a more feminine sensibility\u2014inspired by the Villa Favorita near Palermo in Sicily. There are light-blue geometric-patterned ceilings, square-tiled floors, and sky-color walls within the sleeping area. The bathroom (pictured), which Grange describes as \"fresh and very classical,\" features custom-made tiles inspired by antique originals. The marble countertops and floor add a dose of Mediterranean cool, enhanced by the calm blue ceiling's \"lace effect,\" says the designer.\nThe Conservatorium is set within a former music conservatory, a century-old redbrick landmark just up the road from Amsterdam's boutique-lined P.C. Hooftstraat and directly opposite the soon-to-reopen Stedelijk Museum. The building has been given new life by Italian architect and designer Piero Lissoni (who also fashioned the Conservatorium's sister hotel, the Mamilla, in Jerusalem). Working within strict preservation regulations, Lissoni devised a dramatic lobby (pictured) that inhabits a courtyard lined in pale-green Italian Lithoverde stone and capped by a glass-and-steel roof. The light-filled atrium, Lissoni says, reimagines the classic English garden while tapping into \"the double life of indoor-outdoor spaces.\" Much of the furniture is by Lissoni himself, though tables by the Italian modernist Franco Albini are a centerpiece of the lobby's bustling afternoon tea. A sleek steel staircase links the lobby with the rest of the hotel, creating a catwalklike transition. From $415/night; conservatoriumhotel.com\n\"Everything was untouchable,\" says Lissoni of the building, which was designed by Dutch architect Daniel Knuttel. Lissoni embraced the hotel's limitations, creatively crafting 129 guest rooms within the original footprint and giving each a unique layout. To open up the spaces with low ceilings, Lissoni explains that he changed some room proportions to make the most of the large windows. The rooms range in size from 250 to 1,700 square feet, and almost half are duplexes (the upper-level sleeping area of one is pictured). For the floors, he used untreated smoked American oak to add a touch of earthy richness, while bathrooms are clad in cool white stone. As for the views, interior-facing rooms look onto the striking lobby courtyard, while those overlooking the street offer some of the most stylish people-watching in all of Europe.\nThe hotel's restaurant, Tunes, is a reservations-essential spot helmed by Schilo van Coevorden, one of Amsterdam's most celebrated chefs. Reached from the street via a series of arched tile-walled corridors with colorful terrazzo floors, the space has an open plan, designed by Lissoni to be \"a factory for food\"\u2014albeit a very stylish one. Working in a glass-walled kitchen, van Coevorden and his team prepare nine-course seasonal tasting menus that are served in the main dining area (pictured). There's also a bar area, offering tapas-style small plates, a space that Lissoni describes as \"a super action area.\" The furniture is a mix of vintage Italian Art Deco pieces and midcentury Knoll Bertoia chairs. The most compelling aspect is a special ceiling feature that illuminates the entire space with a warm glow. \"You think it's the candles giving off light,\" Lissoni says.\nIt took pioneering Israeli restaurateur Uri Jeremias to see the potential in a pair of Ottoman-era palaces in the heart of the historic city of Acre, located on the Mediterranean Sea in the Galilee region. Over the past decade, Jeremias and the Israeli architecture firm Arstudio painstakingly restored the former family mansions and converted them into the 12-room Efendi Hotel, working closely with Israel's strict Antiquities Authority. Built \"layer upon layer upon layer,\" says Jeremias, the hotel reflects the complex local history. Early-Ottoman-era dining areas and late-Ottoman bedrooms, which now serve as the guest chambers, sit atop 1,500-year-old Byzantine support walls and Crusader-era wine cellars. The lobby and reception area (pictured here) dates from the 17th century, midway through the rule of the Ottomans, who left their telltale towering domed ceilings, elegant arches, Turkish-marble floors, and a hammam that has been incorporated into Efendi's jewel-like spa. Accenting it all are furniture pieces collected by Jeremias from throughout the region, including Ziegler Persian carpets and brass serving-tray tables, as well as contemporary chairs by Moroso. From $320/night; efendi-hotel.com\nWhile the entire hotel is rife with original Ottoman-era details, among the most eye-catching are the Efendi's finely detailed hand-stenciled ceilings. Ten artists brought from Venice to Acre spent seven months restoring these trompe l'oeil artworks. \"Some areas were fully restored and others only partially preserved, according to their conditions,\" says Jeremias, who also conscripted a separate four-painter team to restore the Efendi's elaborate wall painting of Ottoman-era Istanbul. Each of the hotel's guest rooms\u2014ten from the existing structure and two that were newly built\u2014has a unique layout and decor. Along with cool marble floors and oversize beds, all include atmospheric views of either the Mediterranean or the city's surrounding mosques and markets. Come nighttime, Belgian silver boxes filled with traditional nut-and-honey sweets are left on guests' pillows.\nAlong with colorful ceiling art, the Efendi's other signature design element is the prong-patterned quatrefoil crest that decorates the property's high circular windows (including those in the guest room pictured). Dating back to the century-old, late-Ottoman-era construction, the crest helps give cohesion to the two buildings, which open at one end onto a grand terrace laden with plush couches fit for a pasha. Although the hotel lacks a formal restaurant, a hearty breakfast is served in the dining room, and Israeli wines and pan-Mediterranean tapas are offered in the 900-year-old cellar. Not to worry: Jeremias's legendary restaurant Uri Buri, one of Israel's best for seafood, is just a short stroll away.\nThe name Ett Hem means \"a home\" in Swedish, and the phrase perfectly describes this ultrahomey hotel in Stockholm's residential L\u00E4rkstan district. Set in a century-old redbrick townhouse, Ett Hem features 12 guest rooms conceived by Ilse Crawford, the influential editor-turned-designer based in London. Working with Ett Hem owner Jeanette Mix, Crawford has created an urban country house, with earthy wood paneling, cool ceramics, brass minibars, and even a garden greenhouse, where sun-drenched breakfasts are served. Crawford describes the hotel as \"a comfortable, cultured house, where it feels as if you're staying with a friend.\" In keeping with this low-key vibe, guests have round-the-clock access to a bar and kitchen stocked with chilled wines and local cheeses. And while Ett Hem may seem informal, Mix has mastered the art of attentive yet unobtrusive service. \"We want guests to feel at ease here,\" Crawford says, \"as if they wouldn't want to stay anywhere else.\" From $525/night; etthemstockholm.se\nBuilt in 1910 by noted architect Fredrik Dahlberg, the Arts and Crafts\u2013style townhouse began life as an art-collecting diplomat's residence. Each of Ett Hem's 12 rooms is uniquely conceived by Crawford, who created many of the furniture pieces. \"Glamorous yet extremely livable\" is how she describes the style of the bedrooms, whose fine architectural bones provide a welcome sense of gravitas. The largest bedroom (pictured) features a bespoke four-poster, antique wall paneling, and a working ceramic fireplace that Crawford retained \"to keep the character and soul of the original house.\" Adding a dash of stylish comfort is a vintage rattan-and-bamboo Svenskt Tenn chair designed by Josef Frank in the 1930s. Crawford also installed one of her custom-made brass cocktail cabinets, which is, as she puts it, \"far more exciting than a typical minibar.\"\nWarm Nordic light pours through the geometric-paneled windows of this spacious bathroom designed\u2014like the rest of the hotel\u2014for lingering. The centerpiece is Crawford's custom-made marble tub, which is paired with a vintage sheepskin chair in case that lingering is for two. While many of Ett Hem's bathrooms do feature walk-in rain showers, bathing \u00E0 deux is actually what Crawford had in mind when she conceived the room. \"The chair is perfect for sitting with your companion while they enjoy a soak,\" she says. A similar ethos of sharing and socializing can be felt throughout the rest of Ett Hem, from the cozy living room, with its well-stocked library and recital-ready piano, to the small yet complete spa and gym.\nSet on a 615-acre working farm and winery in the foothills of South Africa's craggy Drakenstein mountains, Babylonstoren (Dutch for \"Tower of Babel\") is the latest chic retreat to open in the increasingly touristed Cape Winelands, about an hour's drive from Cape Town. The 12-cottage property\u2014which dates back to the late 1600s\u2014is the brainchild of Karen Roos, a former design editor with a sharp eye for period details paired with contemporary whimsy. Babylonstoren's dominant style is Cape Dutch, beloved by Roos \"for its thick, whitewashed walls under dark thatched roofs.\" Its restaurant, Babel, is set within the property's original sheep-and-cattle enclosure, pictured here with the Simonsberg hills, where some of South Africa's best wines are cultivated, in the distance. From $375/night; babylonstoren.com\nMeals at Babel are taken in either a glass-walled dining room or a tree-lined courtyard. The regularly changing menu incorporates selections from 300 varieties of plants and vegetables grown on the organic estate's eight acres of gardens, which produce everything from pumpkins to prickly pears. (The gardens were conceived by Patrice Taravella, best known for designing the grounds at Prieur\u00E9 Notre-Dame d'Orsan in the Loire Valley.) Babel's state-of-the-art kitchen serves healthful seasonal cuisine paired with wines from Babylonstoren and the rest of the Simonsberg area. The daily offerings are posted on a tile wall decorated with a cheeky bull mural, which Roos purchased in Milan last year during the annual design fair. \"It's an artist's drawing for Ceramica Sant'Agostino, and it felt just right for a farm hotel,\" Roos says. Teak tables and stools and cement floors complete the simple decor of the light-filled space. An on-site distillery now produces sweet\u2014and potent\u2014fruit liqueurs, which are also sold in Babylonstoren's farm shop, along with house-made preserves and chutneys.\nThe property was first cultivated by French Huguenot refugees, and its spare yet sophisticated design reflects those ecclesiastic origins. Set along an oak-lined pathway, the guest cottages are capped by high, gabled roofs and feature walls of windows that allow for maximum views of the surrounding landscape. Roos says this indoor-outdoor quality was central to her concept: \"I wanted to achieve a kind of balance with the interiors\u2014clean, simple, uncluttered design with no single overpowering feature.\" She paired slim-legged Cape Dutch\u2013style seating with natural fiber rugs and minimalist cube canopy beds (as seen in the cottage pictured). \"This way the dramatic garden and mountain landscape may be best appreciated,\" she notes. A small number of antique pieces add a dose of history to Babylonstoren's guest rooms, Roos says, \"continuing the tradition of quality and purity of the original Cape Dutch buildings.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/luxury-boutique-hotels-slideshow>