Client: Experimental Group
Interior design: Dorothée Meilichzon
Graphic design: Studio L’Etiquette
Photos: Karel Balas e Patrick Locqueneux
The rooms’ windows offer a view of the marina and the Dalt Vila with its stone monuments and white façade buildings, decked in the light of brilliant sunlight. The MontesolExperimental‘s spaces offer a refuge from the heat, with soft pastels, in brick, yellow, green, and pink in contrast to the blinding sun.
This is a historic site of island hospitality. the 1933 neo-colonial hotel was bought by the Experimental Group and re-envisioned by designer Dorothée Meilichzon with bohemian atmospheres that nod to the building’s glorious past. From the 1950s to the 1980s, it was the go-to spot for guests the likes of Pink Floyd, Orson Welles, and Princess Caroline of Monaco.
Cool, soothing colors and fabrics featuring creative geometric patterns, full of fringes and pompoms, adorn the interiors of common areas and the 33 rooms and suites: cosmic elements abound here including lunar engravings in the carpets and on the walls, which also feature the handmade masks by the Majorcan artist AnnaAlexandra. Some of the round-lined furnishings feature the sun and the minibar is clad in glittering tiles in a dialogue with the glossy lacquered pastel-hued wardrobes and the Playdough stools by Diego Faivre.
The decor of Café Montesol on the street level is also studded with the sun and stars. The colorful gathering point joins the cocktail Bar on the rooftop. The reception is a cocoon space with soft hues of brick and dusty blues. “We chose cool, calming colors in the common areas, mixing them with light wood, colorful rugs, and walls with a special seashell pattern,” the designer explains.
Colors are also the leitmotif of the Experimental Beach Club in Cap Des Falco, the latest Montesol Experimental space, at the end of an unpaved road parallel to the Las Salinas Natural Park, placed in total symbiosis with the secluded nature of the place. “We wanted to respect the landscape and counter the “craft wicker” and bleached wood style of many beach bars, using a more subtle nautical theme with powder blue and turquoise pillows and painted white wood and a cocktail bar made out of an old boat,” Meilichzon continues.
The restaurant is protected by reed mats with light-colored fabric loveseats with echoes of the green of the plantlife and the sky blue chairs (as well as drinking glasses). This is a prelude to the lounge area on the beach with wooden sunbeds in a prime position to the water, the stage for one of the island’s most spectacular sunsets. Genius loci and creative verve go hand in hand here.
