Expert Advice: 9 Hard-Wearing Material Recommendations from a Hotelier
Hotels are designed to take a beating: Everything that goes into them, from building materials to bedding, has to be not only exceedingly comfortable but resilient. What looks great day after day—and even gets better over time?
For advice, we turned to hotelier Ray Pirkle, a hospitality pro and aesthete who earned his creds working for Ian Schrager and Amy Sacco, among others. Ray is currently co-owner of Hudson, New York’s Rivertown Lodge, a former movie house that he transformed with Workstead design into lodgings that are as fresh looking as they are cozy—see A Hotel with a Sense of Place. And recently, Ray opened Camptown: A High-Style Cabin Retreat in the Catskills. Here are Ray’s tips for hard-wearing interior materials.
Photography by Matthew Williams, unless noted.
1. Iron accents
2. Wool upholstery
3. Matte wood floors
4. Vegetable-tanned leather
