Interiors: The Atholl, Edinburgh - Features - Scotsman.com By Gaby Soutar Published on Sunday 3 June 2012 12:58 FORGET the Wow factor. When it comes to interiors, The Atholl has got the Holy Smoke factor. No expense has been spared. That's obvious from the moment you step into the grand foyer, with its grey marble floor and scented candles a-flickering. From the entrance hall, turn left, into one of this Edinburgh townhouse's four suites. This is The Dundonald, which features an expansive drawing room, three plush bedrooms, an upstairs whisky room (a snug, with endless single malts behind glass) and a huge open-plan kitchen dining room, where up to ten oligarchs can be catered to by one of Albert Roux's chefs, direct from his Chez Roux eatery at Greywalls in East Lothian. The aforementioned suite is a mere £2,500 per night, while the one- bedroom Palmerston suite can be enjoyed for £1,000 (including brekkie which, we're guessing, will be more epicurean than Coco Pops). Surely, with those rates, The Atholl must be the capital's most expensive hotel? Owned by property developers Alison Davies and Malcolm Gray, the place is managed by Inverlochy Castle Management International, whose portfolio includes Inverlochy Castle and Rocpool Reserve in Inverness. According to the venue's interior designer, Ian Smith of Ian Smith Design, the owners had planned that The Atholl, formerly a solicitor's office, would eventually be a set of apartments for sale. However, thanks to the recent dip in property prices, they decided to create the last word in catered accommodation instead. The project has been huge, as this four-storey townhouse is massive, with more staircases than an Escher print. Davies knew what she wanted to achieve with the decor. "The client was keen that it didn't become just another boutique hotel," says Smith, who has been responsible for the look of various top-notch establishments, including Martin Wishart's Edinburgh brasserie, The Honours. Her preference is for a luxurious look. So we developed a design that wasn't too traditional, as we didn't want it to look like a pastiche, but it still had to have an edge. When it comes to the furniture, Smith prefers to hire local makers to realise his own designs. This time he used Edinburgh-based company Laurence McIntosh. "Instead of shopping abroad, we like to find things that are manufactured here," Smith explains. After all, stuff we used to buy overseas is three times the price it used to be. The French have always been good at this, in that they make use of their own artisans. However, they did go slightly further afield for a few pieces. The plush rugs were sourced in Istanbul, the colourful upholstery comes from Northern Ireland and some of the wallpaper is by Hermès, no less. Bathrooms are from Victor Paris with fixtures and fittings by Philippe Starck, sound systems by Bose and crockery by French porcelain makers Bernardaud. And then there's the artwork throughout The Atholl, all of which is big and bold. "It was a conscious decision between the client and myself that we wanted to put original art in," Smith explains. It doesn't have to cost a fortune and it's better than buying a set of prints that you'll see in every other hotel. We didn't want the art to be typical, either, so there are no ancestral portraits. Instead, we wanted it to be contemporary and the scale was important too. In The Dundonald suite's swanky charcoal-coloured Bulthaup kitchen, there's a huge, almost four-foot square, framed portrait of a craggy man, and another of an elderly lady wearing a headscarf. These pieces are by Spanish artist Omar Arraez and the wrinkles on the faces of his subjects are made from tiny creases in the paper ("It's almost like origami," Smith says), accentuated with charcoal. Davies and Smith spotted this artist's work on separate visits to an exhibition at Edinburgh gallery Axolotl. "Except, unlike me, she actually bought one," says Smith. Later, we were introduced to the artist - a young Spanish guy from Barcelona who came across to meet us. Then we commissioned him to do another four. The artworks help create a unified style throughout the townhouse. However, each of the individual residences has its own personality. While The Dundonald and The Palmerston are formal and grand, the basement level Abercromby has an air of modern tranquillity, with horizontally striped wallpaper, and a Japanese-style garden, complete with hot tub and an al-fresco fireplace. Then there's the two-bedroom Cluny residence, up in the attic, which has a cosy, but sexy, bachelor pad vibe. Because the ceilings are lower, this space, which boasts a private balcony, doesn't feature the oversized furniture that can be seen in some of the other rooms. Instead, everything is low-slung and cosy, with Vivienne Westwood cushions scattered around. "We felt that The Cluny suite had more of a Parisian feel," says Smith. When you're there, it's like you've been transported elsewhere, and we wanted it to have a more contemporary look. This has resulted in an entire wall covered in graffiti, not done by errant hoodies, but by local artist Rachel Bell. On a grey background, she has made artful abstract loops, with broad brushstrokes of white paint. "You don't know what the reaction is going to be, when you do something like that," says Smith. It's quite a bold statement. Bell also decorated the white-painted main staircase, which links the downstairs hall with two of the upper level suites, with a mosaic of monkeys, trees and foliage, all picked out in gold leaf. Outré. However, Smith has shown restraint, when it comes to The Atholl's original decor. For example, the cornices and ceiling roses haven't been fiddled with too much. I don't like those period features to be over-gilded. Just paint them in a pale neutral colour and let the plasterwork do the talking," he says. I love the symmetry of Georgian properties, the big windows and high ceilings. In fact, my favourite detail at The Atholl is the amount of light that floods in. www.theatholl.com; www.laurence mcintosh.co.uk