17 Places to Sit

A new postcard find that I find myself staring at far too much. Eye, if you will, the Murrieta Hot Springs Hotel, circa...1970?



I went searching for the Murrieta, to see if it still exists. No luck so far, but I've got to know three things:

1) Does it still have two couches and four squishy chairs, making for a total of ten seats, angled around a small table? A very impressive conversation nook. Nearby are seven more seats huddled together. Everyone share. NOW! It's the '70s.
2) The Victorian globe lamps. Again, like the chairs and couch, there are... a lot. Maybe over 30 in this one snapshot.
3) Dried flowers, branches, buds, everywhere. A tiny Toltec idol on an end table. A rock wall. Red carpet. Red wallpaper. Red ceiling. White drapes.

1970s hotel style, you had it GOING ON.

Lobbying for the Lobby

Not every lobby is fortunate enough to have half a millenium to build atmosphere, like the parlor at Thornbury Castle Hotel in England. But I do believe every public space, whether it was built two months or two hundred years ago, needs its thing. Something the tourists can associate with the hotel, or marvel at, or question, or fall in love with.

Thornbury's thing? Gothic candlebras. A fireplace that's never allowed to fizzle out. And a mood that says you just might find yourself in an Agatha Christie plot at any moment. Suspect everyone, and watch for clues.

Nice/Unnice to See in a Lobby

Nice: Chess board.



Unnice: A grimy, manhandled pack of cards missing all the aces.

Lobby Chair

1. Mostly empty.
2. Mostly nice.
3. High dozing potential (employees too scared/polite to approach drooling guest)
4. Perfect perch to spy check-ins, whip up origin stories of oddly attired patrons.
5. Bar typically nearby; table for placing gin & tonic nearby-er.
6. Table typically teak or some chi-chi wood; makes one feel fancy.
7. Opportunities to feel fancy continually diminishing in a world short on cash.
8. Fabric, often by law, incorporates flowers, plaid and/or stripes. Soothing.
9. Fosters a sense of importance in one's heart that one typically lacks.
10. Plush. Squishy. Deep. And, often as not, reeks gently of old cigars.
11. Smile-getter. Or nod-generator. Watch the smiles/nods rack up as you sit.
12. Sitting in public -- lost art.
13. Guests always dashing to next commitment. Lobby chair: the anti-dasher.