- - [Kit Kemp] It's a very exciting moment, because we've just opened the Whitby Hotel in Upper Midtown Manhattan. Right from the word go, I have to have an idea in my mind of what I want to achieve, and how the hotel will look, as it does today. The hotel is located just two blocks from Central Park. It's 16 floors, and we've built it, lock, stock, and barrel, right from the ground upwards. It's quite refreshing to actually walk into the lobby area of the Whitby Hotel. We feel that Midtown can be just a little bit too serious, and what we wanted to add was colour and wit. As you enter the hotel, on the right-hand side you see a drift of colours, which is a wallpaper by Kate Blee, and an artwork by Joe Tilson. What I like about Joe Tilson's work is his love of mythology, ecology, and symbolism. He was a pop artist of the 70s, but someone working way before his time. Over the reception desk is the loom artwork by Hermione Sky. It's a kaleidoscope of colour, but it actually sums up what we love, and that is to champion craft and fabulous, different artists. We have a grandfather clock between the lifts, and this is an art piece by Maarten Baas. The grandfather is actually inside the clock, and every minute, with his felt-tip pen, he's changing the time. All the rooms on the ground floor actually interlink. And there's always that wonderful length of view to draw you through to another environment or another feeling. So here we are in the Drawing Room. I wanted this to be a very calm and cosy room. And my love of fabrics is very evident in this room. There are a number of different ones that I've used, but one that is actually the most memorable is friendly flowers. If you look closely at the fabric, it's got little flowers with little smiling faces on, and the petals are settled in little handkerchiefs that fall down the face of the fabric. And so, they fall down the face of the curtain. All the rooms on the ground floor are adjoining and from the lobby, you're looking through to the bar and to the restaurant. Above the bar is our installation of baskets from New Craftsmen. They're a collection of 52 baskets from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and they all tell their different, little stories. Whether it's Kent apple-picking horn, the flower seller's basket, or what was on the back of a donkey collecting fish in Scotland. No longer used, these baskets tell a story about how things used to be. In the bar at the Whitby, I've used patterns and colours that maybe shouldn't work together, but they do. There's always something satisfying about bending the rules. So, opposite the bar, we have the Ramiro Saus, who's one of my favourite Spanish painters. It's a view which makes you think that you want to go on holiday immediately, with little birds and dogs, and huge sofas overlooking the sea. To my mind, he's just a very lyrical artist. If you make a collection of anything, it suddenly becomes interesting. We decided to make a collection of meat platters. They're the large dishes that grandfather used to carve the meat on every Sunday. Framed in Perspex with a black felt background, they suddenly become works of art in themselves. It's interesting to create different environments, and within this ground floor, we have so many different areas. So going from our bar, we then go into the Orangery at the back. Now, this is a long room. It's a room which is good for a celebration. All along the back wall, we have the piece de resistance, of Martha Freud's pots, which are placed in all the niches. They're landmark buildings and bridges of New York. And etched into each pot is the design of the building itself. It's a glow that you can see from the front of the building right the way through to the back, and it unites the back wall, and makes it into an inviting space to come into. I think the Whitby Hotel is a breath of fresh air in Midtown Manhattan. When you open the doors, you should be able to say, wow! I've arrived, and it's something that I'm going to remember, but somewhere that you want to return to, time and time again.