Ackselhaus & Blue Home

Rooms

Between them, Ackselhaus and Blue Home have 35 rooms., studios and apartments of varying sizes, themes and categories.

In the original, ochre-coloured Ackselhaus, all the rooms are actually mini-flats with an entrance hall, bathroom, bedroom and a sitting room with a kitchenette. In addition, the apartments have an extra room which can be used as second bedroom - useful for families. Bedrooms and drawing rooms are packed with photos, paintings, furniture and other knick-knacks to evoke one of 6 themes: China, Venice, Rome, Movie, Honeymoon and Maritime. Our 'China' room had lacquered cupboards, silk cushions, Chinese lanterns, water colours and prints of all things Chinese, and no end of other chinoiseries. It is mesmerizing in parts, but less may have been more; certainly, we preferred the subdued white-navy colour scheme of Maritime, with its sail-like fabrics, porthole-shaped windows, fish prints and faux hurricane lamps. Bathrooms, by contrast, are rather ordinary and poky; and kitchenettes are small and functional, equipped with the basics but no more. In the smaller studios, which are around 40m², there isn't an inch to spare.

Blue Home, just down the road, is a more recent refurb of a similarly aged tenement house from the Gründerzeit (late 19th century); and we thought it the more stylish and glamorous of the pair. There are 4 different categories of rooms: single rooms, studios, apartments and spacious suites. Expect plenty of handsome Balinese teak furniture (canopied beds, desks, coffee tables) and beautifully fitted teak surfaces in the bathrooms. Walls are calming whites and creams, with a feature wall of floral fabric here and there, as well as prints of tropical birds, fish and plants to add colour and a touch of the colonial. Only the suites have kitchenettes (the rest just have fridges), which allows for larger bed- and sitting rooms in the studios and apartments. These, while only a bit larger than in Ackselhaus (45m²), feel much more generous. Single rooms, unusually, get four-poster double beds, but space around the bed is limited (just 25m² in total). The larger suites have a second bedroom, making them perfect for families.