Reviewed by Guy Hunter-Watts
|
|
THE PEECH - REVIEW
In a quiet backstreet of Melrose, wrapped around by a mature, high-walled garden, this small boutique hotel offers guests a safe, comfortable and immensely stylish haven well away from the cut and thrust of the city centre. James Peech completely gutted, then refurbished this 1950s house and built two additional garden annexes to create one of the city’s coolest retreats, which happily marries the best of contemporary design with a big splash of afro-ethnic attitude.
A predominantly beige and white colour scheme provides a quiet backdrop for immensely colourful furnishings and fabrics. Suede sofas and pouffes in cool blue and tangerine, pinky-orange table cloths and shiny cérise bar stools sit alongside more ethnic elements like carved ebony tables, besbok and antelope skin rugs and kuba cloth wall hangings. The Peech’s 10 stylish and airy bedrooms have every mod con, the bistro restaurant is the talk of the town, there’s a rotating exhibition of painting and photography, and the hotel is imbued by the easy, open nature of its young owners. |