Bespoke carpet from Wilton Carpets Commercial now adorns public areas of the stunning Grand Central Hotel Glasgow as it takes its place once again as the city’s leading four-star hotel. As part a £20m refurbishment and commissioned by Karen Cleaver, design director of hotel owner Principal Hayley; Axminster woven carpets from Wilton Carpets Commercial are now providing stunning looks and superb underfoot comfort for guests throughout the Grand Ballroom, Champagne Lounge and upon the grand staircase, as well as within meeting rooms, meeting room corridors, the first floor corridor and bedroom corridors.
The Axminster carpets were manufactured on Wilton Carpets’ state of the art Electronic Jacquard looms in a high performance 80% wool 20% nylon blend to provide durability and appearance retention throughout all areas and within the tight timescale set out by the refurbishment schedule. The refurbishment of the 350,000ft2 space involved stripping the hotel back to basics, uncovering many original features, such as marble floors and intricate cornicing that have been brought back to life.
The carpet created for the first floor meeting rooms and corridors took inspiration from a unique marble floor found in the hotel’s original Black and White club. This bold square motif was translated into carpet and coloured to harmonise with the more contemporary palette now adorning the hotel. This pattern was then used in varying scales for the first floor areas – a larger version for the corridor and a much smaller one for the meeting rooms. In other public areas a free flowing design, appearing in several colourways, was used to link different areas throughout the hotel, but while still retaining the same essence.
“Working with Wilton Carpets’ in-house design manager, Julie Robertson, we tried to achieve carpet designs that could bridge the gap between the traditional listed architecture of the hotel and contemporary influences,” explains Mark Santon, senior project designer, Charles Leon Associates; the interior design company responsible for the refurbishment. “Yet we also wanted to give each area an individual treatment, reflective of its ambience and usage.”
“The two stand-alone areas in terms of design were the Champagne Lounge and the Grand Ballroom,” continues Mark Santon. “For the Champagne Lounge we wanted to complement the gold and black of the feature wall coverings and to have an almost Art Deco quality. We achieved this through a striking chevron pattern in strong black, grey and gold colours. Due to the scale of the space, the Grand Ballroom needed to have a statement carpet and so we turned to a traditional Scottish theme – the thistle. We gave it a contemporary twist by the use of over-scale pattern and bold purple and silver hues, giving the resulting grandeur required of such a room.”
The Design Director of Principal Hayley, Karen Cleaver has worked with Wilton Carpets Commercial for many years, finding the manufacturer’s design service unrivalled, with in-house design manager Julie Robertson’s ability to interpret briefs first time round helping with time pressures. Wilton Carpets have provided solutions for other venues in the Principal Hayley group including the Grand Connaught Rooms, London.
“Working with Wilton Carpets Commercial was a pleasure,” says Mark. “We feel that Julie’s ability to interpret innovative designs added greatly to the process and helped to produce an end product we can all feel very proud of. We have given the Grand Central Hotel back a sense of importance that it so deserves.”
For further information contact Wilton Carpets Commercial on 01722 746000 or sales@wiltoncarpets.com
