It’s hard to beat Margot House’s location right across from Gaudí’s glittering Casa Batlló along Barcelona’s poshest shopping street, Passeig de Gràcia. Occupying the entire first floor of a circa-1800s building, Margot House is a discreet hideaway with just nine rooms designed by Sandra Durany, co-owner of the property with her father Sergio Durany. The first-time hoteliers, who also own the Natura and Be retail stores in Spain, were not planning to open a boutique hotel when they came across the space that would be Margot.
Looking for a space to open a third Be location in the city, Sandra came across an ad for a large space zoned for a hotel. “I don’t know why, but I called them up. Two hours later I was there,” she explains. “I decided that opening a hotel could be an interesting venture. Sergio saw the same potential.” Construction on the project ended up taking a year, Sandra says. “The venue was a mess; there were no walls, or light.”
Sandra named the hotel after Margot Tenenbaum, Gwyneth Paltrow’s character from the movie The Royal Tenenbaums, and drew inspiration for Margot House’s interiors from her own travels around the world. Light oak and natural tones dominate in guestrooms, some of which enjoy views of Casa Batlló, while others look out onto a leafy interior courtyard. Every room is different, but all feature chalk-hued walls and white Egyptian cotton sheets with gray accent pillows and bedcovers.
In a few rooms Sandra employed white wainscot along the walls, while others feature slatted white wood panels. Gray and green headboards, made from cotton and plush fabrics, add a bit of color to mostly pale interiors with the help of cashmere throws in mustard tones. Suites contain cushioned reading nooks set against picture windows that let in abundant natural light.
“The hotel’s design feels a bit Nordic, however most of the furnishings are from Catalan designers and Catalan companies. We have excellent local designers and we wanted their work represented in the hotel,” says Sandra.
Bathrooms vary from room to room, some featuring bathtubs, others double showers, and a few have single showerheads. All share sleek floors and walls made from gray microcement.
Though too small for a proper restaurant or café, Margot House does offer guests a communal kitchen, lounge, honesty bar, and breakfast area. Located in a covered patio, the lounge and breakfast area enjoys generous sunshine through multiple skylights. Sandra made what could have been a dark and boxy space into a luminous and inviting room by rendering the floor, walls, and ceiling in white and off white. A large oak bookshelf spans one wall and white linen sofas are clustered together with armchairs in corduroy, cotton, and leather. A long oak table for eight sits upon a vibrant orange rug that Durany picked up on a jaunt to Paris.
While creating the hotel was not the Duranys’ original plan, “we’d like to open more Margot Houses in the future,” Sandra says. “We believe in the concept, but for the moment we’re going to focus on enjoying the new hotel and learning about the industry.”
