Il Sereno Lago di Como by Patricia Urquiola: 2016 Best of Year Winner for Resort
Take your yacht for a lap around Lake Como to steal a peek at George Clooney’s 18th-century retreat, which comes into view amid a profusion of storybook villas and palazzi set against the snowcapped Alps. Then, after you’ve had your fill of celebrity voyeurism and architectural nostalgia, dock at a boutique hotel by Interior Design Hall of Fame member Patricia Urquiola. She has made her reputation with a bravura use of color and pattern, however this modernist-minded ground-up property showcases her at her most restrained.
Gray-flecked breccia, a local stone, sets the tone in the lobby lounge, a space that furthermore incorporate groups of Urquiola’s distinctive furniture including her long-standing best sellers for Cassina, where she serves as art director. The color palette for fabrics is likewise locally sourced, if you will. Sky blue for the generous sofas is complemented, for throw pillows, by a leafy green and a moody blue-green recalling water. “The lake—it’s always present,” she says. Nautically inspired smooth walnut planks panel certain walls in the guest rooms, just 30 of them. Their loggia balconies and the penthouse suite’s wraparound terrace have balustrades strung with netting to evoke Lake Como’s fishermen. Catch George Clooney if you can.
