Anyone who has been to Brussels will attest to its being a drab town with good bars and restaurants but disappointingly bland hotels. Until now. Pantone, the undisputed color authority, is the latest brand to attach its name to a hotel, having opened a 59-room boutique establishment in the Belgian capital last May.
Occupying a white 1970s tower on a tree-lined square near the shopping district on Avenue Louise, the Pantone Hotel pulls off the seemingly impossible, successfully extending the brand's multihued DNA without being an eyesore.
The interior designers Michel Penneman and Oliver Hannaert thankfully exercised restraint when applying the Pantone logo and its scope of colors throughout the hotel. The sparsely furnished white rooms and suites (beginning at $137 per night) create breathing space for photographs of Brussels's more lurid urban features — a red bridge here, striped blue and white flags there — by the Belgian photographer Victor Levy. Floor-to-ceiling windows make the capacious rooms appear even bigger and brighter, and the salt-and-pepper shag carpeting feels soft underfoot.
The hotel's seven floors were each designated a different color — a gesture meant to entice customers to select a room to match their mood. There is a rooftop terrace offering excellent views of the city and a lobby boutique selling a range of Pantone merchandise from coffee mugs to stepladders. And if a color consultation with a Pantone expert won't do the trick, another corner of the lobby has a small library where guests can read about color therapy if they're feeling blue.
Occupying a white 1970s tower on a tree-lined square near the shopping district on Avenue Louise, the Pantone Hotel pulls off the seemingly impossible, successfully extending the brand's multihued DNA without being an eyesore.
The interior designers Michel Penneman and Oliver Hannaert thankfully exercised restraint when applying the Pantone logo and its scope of colors throughout the hotel. The sparsely furnished white rooms and suites (beginning at $137 per night) create breathing space for photographs of Brussels's more lurid urban features — a red bridge here, striped blue and white flags there — by the Belgian photographer Victor Levy. Floor-to-ceiling windows make the capacious rooms appear even bigger and brighter, and the salt-and-pepper shag carpeting feels soft underfoot.
The hotel's seven floors were each designated a different color — a gesture meant to entice customers to select a room to match their mood. There is a rooftop terrace offering excellent views of the city and a lobby boutique selling a range of Pantone merchandise from coffee mugs to stepladders. And if a color consultation with a Pantone expert won't do the trick, another corner of the lobby has a small library where guests can read about color therapy if they're feeling blue.
