Monday 2 March 2015
Refurbishment
Name: Jordan Littler
Role at The Old Stocks: Interior Designer
More about me …
I went to art college and worked voluntarily with friends who had an interior design company, before studying interior design at university in Birmingham. I spent eight years working in London for Blacksheep, who specialise in interior design for the hospitality industry. During that time, I worked across various hospitality projects including UK and international Jamie’s Italian restaurants, which was a great experience and really allowed me to hone my skills and creativity.
My vision for the Old Stocks design …
The design is all about old meets new, and our starting point was to do something different from the other hotels in the area. Traditionally, there tends to be a dark and rustic aesthetic that runs through Cotswolds hotels, but we wanted to create something that was a little brighter. It’s about striking a balance between the authenticity of this beautiful old building and tying it in with new, bolder finishes and colours.
The real defining feature in this refurbishment is the colour. We wanted to stay away from chintzy, floral fabrics, instead sticking with bright colours and fabrics that will make everything feel fresh and inviting. When you see that colour against the stone and the beams, you really get the feel of old meets new.
An even more unique Grade II listed building …
Every room is unique and we soon realised you can’t control every aspect of the space. The character comes from the Cotswold stone walls and exposed beams and those are things we couldn’t, and didn’t want to, change. We wanted the rooms and the space to speak for themselves, so we tried to minimise the amount of furniture in the rooms to come up with one unit for each room to fit that unique space.
The challenges I’ve faced so far …
The hotel hadn’t had any love for 20 years or more, and when Tekne came in to begin the renovations, we discovered that there was a lot more to do than we initially expected.
Working with different tradespeople, like plumbers, electricians and plasterers, it’s important to keep communicating and keeping a good rapport with everyone who is on site all the time. That way, all challenges can be overcome.
On a project like this, you have to react to the building and work with it. Every time you move or change one thing, it has a knock-on effect on other aspects of the room. One of the cast-iron baths was so heavy we couldn’t actually get it upstairs to the room it’s supposed to be in! Two people could lift it, but it was hard to get it down the narrow corridors and narrow doors, so we had to devise a process and work with all the tradesmen to find a solution. So while you’re soaking in the tub in one of our Great Rooms, spare a thought for the hard work it took to get the bath in there in the first place!
I’m really looking forward to …
I’m excited to see the reaction of local people who have known the building for years. It’s going to be very different to everything they’ve ever known about the hotel before, but I hope they’ll appreciate that we’ve been sympathetic to the building and that we’ve kept the individuality of the place intact. It’ll be great to see how former guests find it on their next stay as well, although we’re confident they’ll love all the changes we’ve made!