The Suite Life
The Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach Ocean-view Suite Upgrades include Woven Wood Roman Shades, Blackout Ripple Fold Draperies with Linen Sheers
Ocean views were prioritized in this suite at The Waterfront Beach Resort (Hilton) in Huntington Beach with sheer draperies and unlined woven wood roman shades. Only a few blocks south of Main Street, and a short walk to the pier.
The Project
We got the opportunity to meet with the team at The Waterfront Beach Resort, a Hilton Hotel, a little over a year ago as they were in the planning stages for their ocean front suite upgrades. If you live locally, you know this property as it sits right on PCH a few blocks south of the pier with its large swimming pool catching ocean breezes just across the street from the surf. Having grown up surfing those very waves (still to this day, for that matter), the opportunity to work on such an iconic SoCal property in a prime location was exciting.
When it came to the window treatments, there was a lot of room for improvement. They wanted to simplify the aesthetic and also make things more user-friendly for hotel guests, while of course bringing it up to date. Being a high-traffic, premium commercial space, we needed to weight the demands of daily use just as heavily as a premium aesthetic.
Previously, all windows had dual drapes with a sheer inner panel and room darkening or opaque outer panel. In the most basic sense, this “worked” okay, but left us wanting something a bit cleaner both in the bar area, which had short, counter-height drapes, and in somewhat tricky corner windows, where dual drapes and dual rods connected by elbows were very busy. That was one room, while other suites had heavy shutters all around.
We wanted to preserve the benefit of having a sheer inner layer everywhere possible to keep the ocean-views in play any time the blackout was not drawn. Adding unlined woven wood roman shades to the corner windows while switching to a single drapery rod was the perfect solution in those corner windows. A woven wood roman shade was right at home in the coastal contemporary aesthetic of the new design, and we picked a pattern that felt beachy but far from kitschy. Deleting the dual rod in those corners really did clean things up, and in this case, the feel of the woven wood roman shade really helped reinforce the vibe - muy importante at the beach.
On the various sliders, the idea of a dual drape did not bother us, but we needed to revisit fabrics. Dual drapes are a great solution, and are much more cleanly implemented without a corner to contend with. Drape style and fabric selection were key, going with a bright and airy linen-like sheer and a warm-toned single-ply blackout panel that reminded us of the sand only a few hundred feet away were a perfect combo.
The new design of the rooms read on the contemporary side of beachy, and when we can, we love to do ripple fold style drapery on the waterfront. The smooth flow of the ripple folds reinforces the oceanic movements, and with the fabric selections feels contemporary but not cold in any way. We also opted to swap out brushed nickel rods with matte black, for a classic, timeless statement without being overbearing. This also tied in to various black accents throughout the room, including fixtures and furniture, and provided a really nice line of site just below the ceiling, helping to define and unify the whole flow.
All in all a great project and one we are happy to be involved with as we work with the team there to tackle more of the suites. If you need a nice place to stay that is conveniently located with exceptional amenities, we recommend The Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach!