David Carter is a renowned English designer who turned his London townhouse into the boutique hotel 40 Winks. After hosting fashion shoots and celebrity guests, he realized the space could be a luxury hotel. After 12 years of renovations, Carter opened 40 Winks, aiming to give creative guests an affordable but cutting-edge place to stay that still felt like home. He designed each room based on mood rather than theme, blending classic, eccentric, and kitschy furnishings. Photos provide examples of rooms featuring Carter's eclectic and whimsical design style.

1. A case study of three
Boutique Hotel
40 Winks

2. There’s one word for design that follows a formula:
boring.
Style is about breaking the rules, following your
impulses, taking a chance and seeing what works. At
least it is to David Carter, a renowned English designer
who recently turned his Queen Anne townhouse into a
swank boutique hotel in the heart of London. When it
was his private residence, Carter’s eclectic but wellcurate design had always caught the eye of his guests,
but after a number of fashion photo spreads were shot
there and dozens of Hollywood stars (Orlando Bloom
and Helen Mirren, to name a few) graced his halls, he
realized the space had real potential as a luxury
destination.
After 12 years of renovation and decoration, Carter
opened up the space as 40 Winks hotel, with the goal of
giving creative types the opportunity to stay in a
cutting-edge hotel without the five-star price tag. The
successful, now-glam hotel is fit for the hottest of style
makers but remains a place that feels like home.

4.  “For
me, the most successful work has a strong
emotional resonance. It’s not just a question of going
out and buying expensive furniture and pictures;
rather, it’s to showcase the things you love,” Carter
says. So, instead of designing each room to evoke a
particular trend, theme or time period, he organized
spaces according to mood, blending classic furnishings
and old-world touches with the fun, the eccentric and
the kitschy.

5. After 12 years of renovation
and decoration, Carter opened
up the space as 40 Winks hotel
(a British expression for a quick
nap), with the goal of giving
creative types the opportunity
to stay in a cutting-edge hotel
without the five-star price tag.
The successful, now-glam hotel
is fit for the hottest of style
makers but remains a place that
feels like home.

6. The hotel’s music room is
mostly used for relaxing
and socializing during
the day. To add panache
to the off-white space,
Carter designed many of
the elements in the room
himself, including the
graphic gray rug and the
swirling sunburst mirror
that hangs above the
fireplace. A trompe l'oeil
sky, based on a treatment
he saw in an old French
chateau, creates an
enchanting ceiling.

7. Carter found the
poppy Beatles drum
set in a London
antiques shop. It’s the
perfect finishing piece
for the aptly named
music room.

8. To create drama in a relatively simple bedroom, Carter hand-painted
charcoal gray stripes onto the off-white walls. A mirror hanging
above the floor-to-ceiling fireplace reflects the walls’ striking
pattern.

9. . “The chaise is
understated and
elegant,” Carter says.
“The Union Jack is quite
tongue-in-cheek. It’s the
relationship between the
two that makes it
interesting visually. I’m
not trying to create
museum like interiors
that are historically
correct and dull. I
wanted it to feel happy
and joyous.”

10. The double bedroom faces south
and is filled with natural light. The
neutral walls and accents have a
mellow and peaceful effect, but the
room is never dull. With floors of
whitewashed pine and a collection
of interesting objects, such as an
antique dress form, the nautical
Queen Mary life preserver and a
mask purchased in Venice, the room
is packed with whimsy. One corner
features a lacy corset lamp,
designed by Carter, that is also
found in several other rooms
throughout the house.

11. The room thus becomes a
“cocoon like” cave; Carter
describes it as “opium den
chic.” With its faux
bearskin and leopard
throws, a dark-green and
gold wall treatment and
lacy corset lamps, the
overdone look is strangely
enchanting. “It’s lovely to
have a house where I can
explore different
atmospheres,” Carter says.
“There are very light rooms
that glow and are
wonderfully happy. Then
there are darker, more
mysterious, seductive
spaces where you can curl
up and read a book or feel
cosy and chat.”

12. Carter wanted to create a gilded look
in the lush bathroom. He used a goldleaf-covered wallpaper by
de Gournay. Instead of installing a
glass backsplash to protect the delicate
paper, Carter lets the splashes of water
that come with normal use of the
bathtub alter the paper, creating a
come-what-may staining effect.

13.  Wharekauhau
(pronounced, furry, as in hurryko-ho) is a New Zealand Manor house lodge in
a spectacular location. The site, on the south
coast of New Zealand’s North Island, is a
short flight or a 90-minute drive from
Wellington, and spans some five thousand
acres of land, a functioning sheep station
between the Rimutaka mountain range and
the waters of Palliser Bay.

14. The location of Palliser Bay in the lower Wairarapa region

20. Chateau Wellington is a 4,600 square foot splendidly furnished
three-bedroom dwelling. Each bedroom features an open gas fire
and en suite with claw foot bath and shower. This luxury home is
surrounded with a security wall enclosing private grounds and
gardens. A private chef and personal security can be arranged for
total privacy and seclusion.

30. Wharepapa Cottage

32. Voted one of the world’s best holiday
resorts in the 2008 Condé Nast Readers
Choice Awards