Luxury hotel designer Tatiana Sheveleva, who has worked with brands such as The Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis, has been involved in some remarkable projects and knows a thing or two about hospitality
Tatiana Sheveleva has been a luxury interior designer for 15 years, covering hotels, resorts and yachts(Image: Handout)
A luxury hotel designer has revealed the key feature in every room that guests might miss, but it can make a huge difference.
Tatiana Sheveleva, originally from Kazakhstan but living in Toronto, Canada, has been a luxury hospitality designer, including for hotels, resorts and yachts, for 15 years and runs her company, Chapi Design. During her creative career, she’s worked on incredible projects with major brands, including St. Regis Hotels, The Ritz-Carlton, and The Luxury Collection.
These projects have taken Tatiana all over the world, designing interiors for hotels and resorts in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru, Antigua, Orlando, Nashville, and Toronto. She’s even designed a luxury yacht for the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, Luminara, which boasts 226 suites with private terraces, five restaurants, seven bars, and a wine vault.
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One of Tatiana’s most recent projects was for St. Regis in Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, which was completed last year. “I like to do big properties, and everything we design [at Chapi Design] is custom-made,” Tatiana told the Mirror, “I have been very fortunate to work on different properties around the world.
“But it’s still so surreal for me that I’m working on the most amazing properties in the world, even though I have been doing this for 15 years.”
With a wealth of expertise on luxury interior designs, Tatiana revealed that there’s one key element in every hotel room that guests regularly miss.
The designer said: “The most money is spent on the headboard. Typically, it’s the most expensive piece as it’s often a feature. How you design the headboard depends on the bed’s location, and it can be a strong element of the project’s narrative.”
Tatiana revealed another important feature of any hotel room. “I would say the bathroom, believe it or not. It always gives the guests a good impression, and it’s the first place they go when they check into the room.
“The bathroom area is important. If you design a very unique layout for the washroom, people will start to talk about it. In the washroom, you can create something very sculptural and unique.
“If you are successful enough to create this interesting washroom, first of all, people will be spending more time there, they will have a bath and feel more relaxed. And actually, we spend a lot of our time in there.”
She added: “The light in the bathroom should be accommodating for different scenarios, bright enough to put on make-up but cosy and romantic at the same time. For me, every single washroom I design is very unique.”
Another feature of a hotel room that Tatania argues warrants attention is the bed.
“The mattress has to be comfortable, and the bedding. Also, there might be special glasses by the bedside table; it’s these details,” she said.
The designer likes to add a special feature inside the closet, such as interesting wallpaper, a splash of color, or a pretty stone.
“That’s a unique element you don’t notice right away, but you notice it after,” she added.
For Tatiana, the joy of the job comes from travelling and working with different people. She said: “The whole process is quite fun, and during this process, you get to meet a lot of interesting people who are passionate about projects. I also like to investigate new locations and new countries, because when I was in Kazakhstan, I didn’t really travel much. So, my first project for St. Regis was in Mexico, and it was my dream to go there.
“Mexico has a very unique culture, it’s very colourful, there’s amazing food, and they use alot of bright colours – there’s a lot of celebrations. It was very different, and I was very excited about that. The Dominican Republic is the same. It’s very comfortable, the people and land, it’s very nice.”
And her travels aren’t stopping anytime soon. Tatiana is currently working on mega interior design projects for St. Regis in Costa Rica, The Luxury Collection Hotel in Mexico, and Luxury Hotels in Peru and Antigua, and some projects can take as long as six years to complete.
You can read more about Tatiana’s projects on the Chapi Design website. You can also follow their Instagram page.
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