Iconic Interiors: The Master Designers Behind Our Most Distinctive Properties

May 21, 2025 by Hidden Doorways

Behind some of the world’s most extraordinary hotels stand visionary designers whose artistic sensibilities transform spaces into truly immersive environments. These master creators don’t simply decorate rooms – they craft entire worlds where every choice reflects a cohesive vision, from custom furniture and commissioned artwork to the smallest details and accessories.

Join us as we explore nine legendary designers and the remarkable properties that showcase their signature styles.

The Fifth Avenue Hotel by Martin Brudnizki

Swedish interior architect and designer Martin Brudnizki is known for many things: he’s the founder of design studio And Objects as well as internationally acclaimed studio MBDS. His is the name behind some of the most tantalizing spaces and places across the globe from private member’s club Annabel’s in London’s Mayfair to Paris’ newest hotspot, Le Grand Mazarin, and his lavish and fantastical interiors have made him a worldwide icon in high design and in even higher expressions of luxury.

Enter The Fifth Avenue Hotel – a 1907 Renaissance-style palazzo building in New York and one of the last mansions of the majestic Gilded Age. In other words, a masterpiece in the making. In the hands of Brudnizki, it’s now a celebration of “Bohemian romanticism and the glamour of the gilded age” where rooms come to life in a rich palette of grassy greens, buttercup yellows and pinks punchier than peonies. Bold patterns and textures create a harmonious riot – tautological and yet somehow true. Guests can expect to feel influence from all over the world as eyes absorb Pagoda-style table lamps, Murano glass chandeliers and expressions of old-age grandeur here, there and everywhere – marble, arches, paneling galore.

Shinta Mani Hotels by Bill Bensley

Architect, interior designer and landscape designer Bill Bensley counts over 200 hotels and palaces across 30 countries within his impressive portfolio. The Bensley studio is based in Bali and Bangkok and describes itself as being a small, youthful and energetic atelier that knows no limits. Rosewood, Four Seasons, Six Senses – the list of upper echelon hotels they’ve touched is endless, but it’s the Shinta Mani collection where all of Bensley’s greatest passions unite.

“More than a hotel” they say, and they’re not wrong. With three locations within the Shinta Mani family – Wild, Angkor and Mustang – each one offers complete immersion in his creative vision of luxury, transformational experiences and an opportunity to do good. And the interiors are as noteworthy as you’d expect, too. At Shinta Mani Wild in Cambodia’s Cardamom Forest are 15 canvas-roofed tents designed to be romantic oases of timelessness and whimsy with no two being quite the same. Shinta Mani Angkor in Siem Reap’s tree-shaded Royal District has 105 meticulously appointed rooms and suites or go for one of its ten Bensley Pool Villas – decadent duplexes with private pools, rooftop living areas, butler service, and VIP amenities. And his latest creative genius in the magical district of Mustang, Nepal showcases interiors that reflect the local flavor and textures in suites filled with carved wood furniture, Tibet-inspired art, hand-woven blankets and views of the snow-capped peaks of the Nilgiri range.

Twin Farms by Jed Johnson

Arguably one of America’s most renowned interior design firms, Jed Johnson Associates, was made famous by its eponymous founder, designer and filmmaker who rose to fame in the 1970s on the NYC art scene with a world-famous collaborative relationship with Andy Warhol. His interior design firm specializes in bespoke interiors that unite lavish layers of detail from églomisé artists to parchment and shagreen workers to celebrate extraordinary craftsmanship for its roster of impressive clients (Mick Jagger and Yves Saint Laurent to name but two).

An ode to Johnson’s mastery of privacy, familiarity, fun and design flair, is Twin Farms in the Vermont countryside. Today, it’s a symphony of collaborative work by a small collection of interior designers and architects such as Ann Sargent, Thad Hayes and landscape architect Dan Kiley with an art collection boasting works by contemporary artists like David Hockney and Cy Twombly. But it was Jed Johnson who first fashioned its no-expense-spared 15 original accommodations for the farm’s debut in 1993. His legacy is felt from room to room as fine art and antiques combine to create a getaway that feels exuberantly luxurious with schemes inspired by Moroccan desert palaces, Scandinavian country estates and Appalachian log cabins. It’s the very definition of rustic meets refined.

The Fife Arms by Russell Sage

British designer Russell Sage is a man known across both the fashion and interiors worlds having his eponymous fashion label heralded at London Fashion Week before returning to his greatest love and opening Russell Sage studio in 2005 to decorate to his heart’s content.

His inspiring hand and detail-driven eye can be seen and felt across Scotland’s design powerhouse of a hotel, The Fife Arms. With its owners being the famed Hauser & Wirth gallery owners, The Fife Arms in the Highlands was always destined for design greatness. As you might expect, the art is outstanding with a Lucian Freud in reception, a Picasso in the drawing room and 14,000 pieces more, and so Sage was able to gleefully follow suit with an interior scheme to impress. Multicolored neon meets Persian rugs and a palette of Highlands watercolors. Sage went to town with William Morris wallpapers in the bedrooms, Victorian antiques, copper bathtubs, wooden cabin beds but equally opulent four-posters in the aptly named Royal Suites and a room acting as an ode to the author Robert Louis Stevenson who began writing Treasure Island when holidaying in Braemar – stuffed parrot, treasure chest and all.

La Suite Dior by Peter Marino

Said to be NYC’s most famous designer and architect in the fashion arena, name-to-know, Peter Marino’s name is one associated with luxury through and through – Tiffany, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Graff are all retail stores he’s carefully crafted. He’s known for his love to experiment, designing new textiles, carpets and stone treatments for the foundations of all of his spaces before conjuring up concepts that are a little bit out of the ordinary to say the least.

He put his name to Dior’s first residence at 30 Montaigne in Paris, giving its boutique, restaurant, patisserie, haute couture ateliers, gallery and prestigious suite two years of detailed renovations. Marino introduced over 100 different materials to nod to the house’s history of works: wooden moldings, stone carving, Versailles parquet and toile de Jouy. Plus three gardens created with landscape architect Peter Wirtz speak to Christian Dior’s love of flowers – head to the third floor for his collection of Mr. Dior’s favorite apple trees and roses. In La Suite Dior specifically the luxe material palette continues with onyx, leather and feathers galore alongside notable artworks for the discerning overnight guest (who also gets 24-hour access to the boutique below).

Playa Grande Beach Club by Celerie Kemble

What began as NYC-based designer Celerie Kemble’s personal vacation home has evolved into one of the Dominican Republic’s most distinctive boutique properties. Playa Grande Beach Club represents the ultimate expression of Kemble’s design vision, as she is both owner and creative force behind this preppy-meets-tropical escape. A sense of family runs deep in Kemble’s approach, as her mother founded their design company in Palm Beach before Celerie followed in her footsteps after her Harvard graduation, embracing her self-described “compulsion for design.”

With a childhood spent on Florida’s white-sand beaches (shaped by four generations with her great-great grandparents being among the first settlers on Palm Beach Island in the late 1800s), Kemble has been drawn to coastal commissions across Nantucket, Naples, Malibu and the Caribbean. The resort is comprised of a collection of traditional Dominican colonial bungalows and a Beach Club, which includes a Great Room with a dining area, lounge, bar, library, an upstairs evening bar, and a lap pool with adjacent cabanas.

To stay here is to immerse oneself into the enchanting wild romance that Kemble knew as a little girl. She summons the spirit of her childhood home but adapts it to the Caribbean landscape and the Dominican culture — think whimsical Palm Beach follies in a tropical jungle setting with crystal blue sea waters just steps away. Victorian fretwork meets Kemble’s iconic, playful style, antique wicker daybeds, vintage D. Porthault linens, and an overall sense of barefoot luxury within a very personal tropical haven that retains a distinctly intimate feel ideal for complete property takeovers.

The Mercer by Christian Liaigre

The French designer Christian Liaigre is known for his pared down interiors and furniture collection – restrained sensibility would be his trademark. The impression he left on the design world before his passing in 2019 was characterized by calming geometry, neutral color palettes and exquisite timelessness, all of which abounds at The Mercer in NYC which he designed in 1997.

Set in the trendy SoHO neighborhood, checking into any of its Christian Liaigre designed spaces means the hustle of the SoHO streets is soon forgotten. In his words: “decoration should not be a fashion” and that’s certainly felt in the understated yet unquestionably chic touches he’s threaded throughout its 73 rooms and suites. The very essence of New York City loft living, exposed brick meets cozy fireplaces and French iron doors that open onto tranquil courtyards, flooding its rooms with natural light. Romantically minimal with an emphasis on comfort, balanced proportions and soothing color palettes, this is one of the few hotels in the USA where Liaigre’s visionary aesthetic is fully realized.

Son Net by Lorenzo Castillo

A match made in heaven, Spanish antiques dealer and decorator Lorenzo Castillo transformed the hidden 17th-century Mallorcan estate that is Grand Hotel Son Net, opening in just 2023. All 31 of its rooms and suites have felt Castillo’s signature touch – extravagance meets comfort and just the most extraordinary detail and sense of heritage is impossible to ignore. Barley-twist beds, Spanish pottery, religious engravings, reams of passementerie – even the keys have mega tassels. To say Son Net has been meticulously restored is to put it lightly. Every inch of the Palacio and its grounds have been carefully preserved to be proud of its past, weaving in a sense of majesty, magic and Castillo’s authentic expression of luxury.

From professional to personal commissions, he’s the man behind Loewe’s boutiques in Madrid, Shanghai and Hong Kong as much as he is the interior designer of numerous private residences over the world, drawing upon his education in art history and his training as an antiquarian for each and every project.

Airelles Le Grand Contrôle by Christophe Tollemer

And finally, also honoring the past is the great Christophe Tollemer who recreated a sense of the pre-revolution pampered French court at Airelles Le Grand Contrôle in Versailles.

For the remarkably royal commission that was creating a hospitality space within the Palais de Versailles, he drew deeply upon its history, dedicating four years studying the archives of Versailles, the personal stylistic preferences of Louis XVI, and the interiors of Petit-Trianon. Le Grand Contrôle’s 14 rooms have all been furnished with fittingly antique furniture, historic art and artifacts, wood-carved paneling to mirror those of the same era, and textiles from the one and only Pierre Frey to both unearth, restore and refresh centuries worth of luxury for today’s discerning traveler.