After seeing what designer Mark Tracy of Chemical Spaces had created for rooms at the Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas, the owners of the recently opened Rumor Hotel decided to call on the local designer to bring a loud yet classy edge to their new Fantastic Four suites. "They only said they wanted a lot of color, like the Hard Rock rooms," says Tracy.
Lots of color ensues, as does various textures, bold images, and "bling." "I wanted the rooms to provide a complete party atmosphere," Tracy says, also adding that his firm fabricated all the drapery, art, paint, and casegoods for the project. Beds are found in the living space, and the bathrooms boast 18-feet-long lounge benches and five-person showers. "Mix in a little alcohol and music and you have got yourself a party," he says.
Perhaps the biggest eye-opener is the wide range of mysterious and seductive images, many of which portray women. For instance, the black room is rich in sex appeal, thanks to crisscrossing mirror strips and black-on-black tones with silver accents. These are further enhanced by an image of a woman's corseted torso in the bedroom and one of her pulling off her panties in the bathroom. "It was all about hiding out and partying during the middle of the day with a dark atmosphere," explains Tracy. "I like the shock value."
In the red room, a red-lipped woman in black and white holds a red rose; while a gray suede headboard cantilevers up the wall, across the ceiling, and down the opposite wall, forming another headboard to another bed across the room. In the blue room, the black-and-white face of a woman with a blue eye and matching hair acts as a headboard, while amoeba-like shapes in varying shades of blue “spill across the ceiling like a giant lava lamp,” says Tracy. And for the pink room ("The owner actually requested that I do a suite in pink for a girlie feel," he explains), Tracy utilized crisscrossing, pink mirror strips and silver metallic porcelain tile. In the bathroom, there's a close-up image of pink-lipped and purple-lipped women kissing on the wall next to the shower. "I wanted the images to flow around the room, not so 'stamped' looking on the headboard wall," he says. The images are softer, like the feel of the pink paint and white sheers."