Four Seasons

This was the first hotel we worked in, and the first time we imported flowers ourselves. Over two thousand hydrangeas came in from the Netherlands for it. Everything in the room is that one flower.

We designed to a brief set by Jacki Haddock, one of two stylists appointed globally by Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, which meant the standard was fixed before we began and the only question was whether we could meet it.

The top table runs on white. Hydrangea heads massed the length of it and spilling onto the floor at both ends, packed dense enough to read as one continuous bank rather than as separate arrangements, with the linen and glassware kept plain so nothing interrupts it.

Above the table, colour. Five spheres on tall clear stems in burgundy and Dutch blue, lifted clear of the sightline so guests can see across the table and still sit under something. The height also puts the colour where the ceiling beams are, which is what ties the flowers to the architecture rather than to the tablecloth.

The palette stops at three: white, blue, burgundy. In a room with this much gold in it, restraint is the only thing that reads as expensive.

Four Seasons published the work themselves.