By Mette Frydensbjerg Jacobsen/ege carpet
Photo credits: Ricardo Casal, photographer & brand designer
This project features Colortec carpets made from exquisite pre-dyed wool
The Palácio Ludovice Wine Hotel is located in the heart of Lisbon, Portugal, and is former private residence of João Federico Ludovice, architect to King João V. In the early 1700, Ludovice arrived in Lisbon, commissioned to transform the king’s architectural desires into reality. In search of a place to build his private residence, Ludovice found this perfect spot.
Ludovice developed a facade in five floors of unequal heights and dimensions, balconies with stunning views over Lisbon, 18th century white-and-blue tiled walls, a chapel with Masonic symbols and a Hebraic inscription, palatial rooms with stucco ceilings and a majestic staircase. This was the first place of its kind and one to occupy an entire block.
After the Ludovice era, the building was turned into the headquarters of the police. And more recently, it was home to the Port Wine Institute – a historical fact with great impact on the current design concept, including the beautiful Colortec carpets featured in this article.
A port wine inspired luxury hotel
Recently, the palace was completely transformed and turned into 61 rooms and suites. The interior is tailored to create the ultimate luxury boutique hotel experience and includes 600 m2 soft and luxurious premium quality Colortec carpets made from exquisite pre-dyed wool. The custom carpets feature an elegant design inspired by the vineyards and slopes of the Douro, the place of origin of the port wine.
In charge of the renovation work at Palácio Ludovice Wine Hotel was the renowned Portuguese architect and designer Miguel Câncio Martins, internationally recognised for projects such as the Buddha Bar in Paris and the Opium in London. Under his care and creative direction, the original white-and-blue tiles from the 18th century, the fresco paintings and the stucco ceilings were preserved, and a new and palatial accommodation arose in this historical landmark.
All the advantages of Colortec carpets
With Colortec, high level aesthetics combine with plush comfort to deliver timeless elegance, perfect for achieving the ultimate multi-sensory experience. But the Colortec concept offers so much more to your project.
Here’s what you get:
- Protection of people and the planet: Colortec is Cradle to Cradle and Indoor Air Comfort Gold certified, so you’re guaranteed a top performing flooring choice – also when it comes to sustainability related matters.
- Strong visual storytelling: In addition to our elegant selection of pick-and-produce patterns, Colortec allows for complete design freedom. Using special colours or other signature elements from your brand identity, you can tell a visual story using your own creative ideas. Our industry leading manufacturing technology and use of pre-dyed yarn produce clearly defined pattern and design outputs.
- Infinite colour palette: Whatever your colour inspiration, we can match the shade perfectly with our pre-dyed yarn. Coupled with the capability of including different colours in a single design, you’re guaranteed a creative expression that delivers on your vision.
- Adapted widths to reduce waste and minimise cost: Unlike many other types of wall-to-wall carpets, we’re able to adjust the production width, thereby reducing waste and minimising cost and installation time. We offer two standard widths of 400 and 500 cm, but any widths from 300 cm are possible to match the actual room size as closely as possible.
- Pre-cut to size service: Make the most of our pre-cut service where we cut your carpet to size before shipment. An ideal option for rooms and corridors in cruise ships and hotels that’ll reduce your installation time significantly. Also, skirtings can be done before shipment and rolled separately to make handling on site much easier.
- Higher comfort, better acoustics and easy installation: Our laminated backings are available in textile and felt, with both options providing enhanced comfort and improved acoustics while guaranteeing the carpet is adequately supported. Our lamination process reduces the total weight of the carpet as the raw carpet and backing are fixed by a thin lamination layer. Our textile backing can be used with separate underlay and grippers or double stick, while the lightweight and flexible integrated felt backing is a more sustainable option, containing 80% regenerated polyester that allows for more speedy fitting (direct stick).
- Easy decision-making process: Visualisation through realistic carpet samples and large-scale paper prints eases your decision-making process. A small prototype in real materials allows you to feel the exquisite yarn, evaluate the pattern details and sense the impressive colour combinations. In addition, a large paper print is supplied to visualise the pattern scale.
