The Hotel Chelsea Shoot Shows How to Plan Around a Room That Already Has Art in It

Britt Jones Co has produced a styled wedding editorial at the Hotel Chelsea in New York, and the idea behind it is useful to anyone booking a venue with a strong character of its own. This was an editorial rather than a real wedding, so read it as a reference, not a record of a working day. The design brief was to add art on top of the art the building already holds, which is the opposite of the usual approach of covering a room up. The shoot is also built around the hotel's history and treats each period of the building as material to work with. For a bride weighing a historic property against a blank ballroom, the takeaway is simple: in a building like this, the design can follow the walls instead of hiding them. Before signing with a venue that has this much on its walls, ask the planner whether the plan works with the room or against it, because the answer changes both the look and the decor budget.

With reporting from Style Me Pretty.