Steal the style: CitizenM at Bankside

Hip yet affordable, Dutch chain CitizenM's first London hotel opens in Bankside next week. Netherlands architect Rob Wageman was hired to come up with a look that would appeal to design-savvy travellers but many Londoners may also lust after its high-fashion furnishings and cutting-edge gadgetry.


"The idea is that guests feel they're walking into the living room or kitchen of a chic, city-centre apartment," explains Robin Chadha, chief marketing officer of the group, which opened its first hotel at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport in 2008 and plans further sites in London and in New York.

At Bankside, self-service check-in/ check-out stations will greet guests in the lobby before they make their way to compact guest rooms, dubbed "mood pads". There they will find Samsung Galaxy tablets that they can use to control lighting, window blinds, temperature, music, digital art (on the TV screen) or arrange a customised wake-up call ("wake me gently", "wake me wildly").


All 192 rooms are identical and cost from £99 to £199, depending on when you book. Add a further £10.95 for a cooked breakfast (when pre-booked).

Though the rooms are tiny (14sq m), they all have wall-to-wall super-kingsize Sealy beds (square-shaped, so you can sleep in any direction) with luxurious Frette bedlinen and en suites with Hansgrohe rainshowers, global socket systems and toiletries developed, says the company, by the "nose" who created fragrances for Viktor & Rolf and Comme des Garçons.

MATCHING THE LOOK

The relaxed lobby and ground-floor area is divided into seating, eating, reading and work zones plus a bar. Contemporary and classic Vitra furniture and lighting dominate, so anyone on a budget wishing to echo CitizenM's style need only visit a Vitra retailer for Heart Cone seats (£2,236 each), Eames elephant stools (£70), witty Wiggle stools (£323) or a Starburst clock (£236).

If you have plenty of money you can exactly match the hotel's look by investing in some of its statement pieces, also from Vitra: a Monopod chair, £1,355; LCW calfskin chair, £1,739; the La Chaise, £4,937; Eames Lounge chair and ottoman, from £5,249; Arba floor lamp, from £1,044 or Frank Gehry's diaphanous Mammacloud light (from £5,760).

Perhaps choose one expensive piece and then find some good-value accessories, such as Union Jack cushions (get yours from M&S Home for £15 each ) and coloured glass tealights (available everywhere) with a Gubi Bestlite lamp (from £179 at Geoffrey Harris) perched on a wooden coffee table.

You can copy the look of Modernica's translucent Bubble lamps, designed by George Nelson in 1947 and used in the hotel reading area, with round and egg-shaped paper lanterns (£4 each from John Lewis).

* CitizenM is at 20 Lavington Street, SE1 (citizenm.com).

Get the look at alessi.com; geoffreyharris.co.uk; gubi.com; jaspermorrison.com/shop; johnlewis.com; marksandspencer.com; tomdixon.net and vitrapointuk.com