- - I'm Kit Kemp, Design Director for Firmdale Hotels. Every room is like a painted canvas. It has to tell a story. Whenever I think of the Covent Garden Hotel, I think of her as being the grande dame of our hotels, really. She's in a very historic part of London, and as you enter the doors, it's rather theatrical. In front of you, you have the embroidered and needlepoint curtains. The concierge is to the left, and to the right is our restaurant, Brasserie Max. We go up the stairs and arrive into the drawing room where we are now. This is a gorgeous, traditional room and it's wood panelled. The panelling actually comes from the League of Nations building, which was a historic building very near Trafalgar Square. When it was taken down, we bought these beautiful old panels and then put them into this room. This is from Canada. It's a Canadian Maple and it's very warm and inviting no matter what time of year. The room itself has got a lot of needlepoint and embroidery within it, very hard to find these days and very difficult to renovate when they get old and tired, but it's worth doing because some of these 18th and 19th Century pieces can't be repeated. Also we have a cartoon, and a cartoon is actually the canvass before the embroidery is put onto the piece. And if you look closely, you'll see little numbers. And that would've been what the thread was that was actually going on to it. But they're very decorative in themselves. There's always a log fire burning in the grate, and there's always a very comfortable chair. All we need, really, is one of the dogs to be sitting beside you. But, instead of just having a real dog, we've got the old, traditional dog paintings. Some are Scottish from the Highlands, the Retrievers with the baskets and the beautiful blue-gray hills behind. And then, another 18th Century painting above the fireplace of King Charles Spaniels chasing after a pheasant. In the centre of the room is the rather more contemporary sofa. It feels gorgeous, it looks very bright, and actually, it just adds an added bit of life to the room. My favourite rooms, really, are panelled because they never seem to age, you never have to replace it, and books are just about the most wonderful wallpaper that you can possibly have. So the drawing room is a traditional room, but the way that we have approached the loft suite, which is one of our most beautiful rooms within the hotel is taking embroidery, but doing it in a more modern way. You can see that the embroidery within this room, which was actually done by someone called Christine Vanderhurd, is much more contemporary. The feeling that you get as you walk into the room is of airiness and light. It's a double height space with a large, very contemporary chandelier in white. And there are two arched windows looking out over Monmouth Street. And the fireplace is sort of rather old and magnificent in marble, but the watering cans above it just add a sort of whimsical, fun feel to the room. As you go up the stairs, the headboard has also been woven with French knots, chain stitching and very intricately done. Here the dog pictures are taken from old postcards that we collected in France and then put together. Between the windows, we've got a really witty portrait of Lord Alfred, who was painted in 1912 by, obviously, a very adoring owner, and he's just holding court, looking quite majestic, listening to every conversation that's going on.