One of our readers commented that we have been too focused on international design lately and not enough on Israel. Tchochkes is an international interior design blog based in Israel. However, the design in Israel is limited, as is our time. Sometimes we can’t make it to stores or homes for reviews and sometimes we want to write about design in general. Other times we aren’t in Israel. Furthermore – most of our readers aren’t in Israel. My point – if you think we aren’t doing enough on Israel – help us out – go take pictures of your home and send it in (keeping in mind that I’ll critique your place and Patti is nicer than I am. 😉 With that said – my next few posts will be about China – because I was there for 2 weeks and took a few hundred photos.
I was in Shanghai for school and decided to go a few days early to see the city and pamper myself a bit. I wanted to find a place to stay in the French Concession – an area of town developed by the French. After checking numerous boring, expensive hotel sites I wandered over to see what the nytimes.com suggestions were for places to stay and came across a recommendation for the Quintet Bed and Breakfast.
After checking out their website – I knew where I was going to stay – in the Fleur de Shanghai room.
There were a few things about the room that were positively divine. The main one being the bath (sorry about the schmutz at the bottom – it’s bath salts from my bath the night before and I didn’t notice it when I took the picture).
What’s missing from this bathtub? It’s deep, long, and missing that water thingy that takes the water out if it goes above a certain level. You can fill this tub up to your neck and there’s nothing stopping you. Bad for the environment, admittedly – but I took quick showers the rest of the trip to redeem myself of my water wasting sins.
The tub even has great legs.
You can’t have a fabulous tub without amazing bath products. In the room were products from some posh Chinese soap manufacturer.
Rain shower anyone? Love the chocolate shiny railway tiles.
I took everything off the bed to get a better shot of this weird semi-art deco headboard.
The lamps were amazing.
And the artwork was mildly kitsch. The bed was hard – but I slept really well. I think hard mattresses are a thing in China because the bed in the hotel in Beijing was the same.
The breakfast at the Quintet is by The Closed Door, a restaurant below the B&B. I went there one night for dinner and had the best saffron seafood risotto I’ve ever had in my life (sorry for the koshrut folks reading this, but if you ever decide to cheat – this would be worth it 😉
Shira Abel is the CEO and founder of Hunter & Bard, an award-winning public relations and design agency that works with scale-ups and enterprises on building their brand, awareness and thought leadership.
As CEO of Hunter & Bard, Shira oversees a team that manages public relations, marketing, design, and brand development for clients across multiple industries. She develops strategies for organically growing companies through sincere digital engagement and the application of behavioral marketing.
Clients include JELD-WEN, Benchling, Sixth Continent, Totango, Folloze, Radix DLT, Axa Tech, Allianz, and many more. Shira is also a sought after corporate speaker and marketing mentor, and has spoken at events such as Confluence and Content Marketing World, and taught at institutions such as Kellogg School of Management and S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai.
Read more about Shira’s company Hunter & Bard at https://www.hunterandbard.com