The Journey

The Faena Hotel and district was the grand vision of Alan Faena, ambitious hotelier and owner of the Faena Group. Faena’s vision was to bring the old Saxony back to life with grand design and beautiful materials. In an effort to move away from more traditional hotel concepts, Faena enlisted some movie magic - director and producer Baz Luhrmann and Oscar winning costume designer Catherine Martin - to mastermind the renovation and bring back this hotel to its former glory.

The brief for Faena Hotel Miami was to become no less than a fantasyland, where every cinematic detail was carefully curated to create a particular “latino-deco” aesthetic. The interiors aimed to pay homage to the golden-age glamour of Miami while remaining thoroughly modern. Baz and Catherine were central to the Faena's design.
They had never worked on a hotel before, but had a clear narrative for the project, expressed through Catherine’s signature visual splendour.

As a regular collaborator with Catherine Martin, Designer Rugs were the obvious choice to execute this specific visual style so desired by the client owner, in the high quality that was expected of this luxury establishment.

“Designer Rugs has history of delivering highly sought after pieces for commercial and retail spaces,” says Catherine. “We share the same enthusiasm and passion for creating timeless, elegant yet functional pieces making Designer Rugs the best choice for this project. We have long history of creating wonderful pieces together and their attention to detail and quality is second to none.”

The Solution

For a project of this scale with such an exacting brief, great care was taken by the Designer Rugs team at every stage of the process, from initial designs right through to logistics and delivery. Constant communication between Catherine and Baz in New York, project managers in Miami and our team in Sydney was key to the project’s success.

The sheer scale of this fit out was one of the greatest achievements for Designer Rugs – over 200 rugs in total were created for this project. Each of Faena’s 169 rooms and suites had 1-2 rugs each, and impressively oversized rugs were also created for the hotels library, restaurants and bars. Each rug had to be individually designed and measured to perfectly fit the dimensions of the hotels many room styles and sizes, and four different designs were used across the rooms.

Colours were carefully selected to seamlessly pair with Catherine’s chosen palette. As well as our usual extensive sampling process, full size prototypes were created for the room rugs in order to ensure they were a flawless fit and produces in the high quality expected by the client. To ensure the final rugs were of the same exacting quality, and that the designs and colours were being faithfully produced, the Designer Rugs team travelled to our manufacturer in China to personally inspect each rug before they were shipped to Miami.

The Result

The result is one of the world’s most remarkable and visually stunning hotels. Guests describe stepping into their rooms is like stepping into a scene in a Hollywood movie with its luxurious finishes and attention to detail.

Faena Miami is more than a hotel, it is an experience that lingers with guests long after they leave. Our custom rugs form an integral part of this experience – the quality of the finish, the soft and luxurious feeling underfoot as one steps out of bed, the vibrant turquoise are red colour palette and the unique and glamorous art-deco design.
“I have always loved working with Designer Rugs. There is a natural alignment in our creative visions and aesthetics that always push the creative envelope in such an exciting and collaborative way.” – Catherine Martin.