Where The Wild Things Are

Palm Beach’s iconic Colony Hotel is reimagined by owner Sarah Wetenhall and de Gournay’s Hannah Cecil Gurney

- Thobeka Phanyeko

When a treasured icon revered for its gracious hospitality meets interior designers who specialise in creating the world’s finest hand-painted wallpapers, the result can only be an exceptional collaboration. ‘I have long had a love affair with de Gournay wallpapers; the beauty and artistry have always spoken to me,’ says Colony Hotel owner Sarah Wetenhall, who was introduced to de Gournay scion Hannah Cecil Gurney (founder Claud Cecil Gurney’s daughter) through a friend. ‘We immediately had so much in common. The Colony Hotel and de Gournay are both second-generation family businesses, so we share a passion for our brands’ history and vision. The creative process behind the Colony paper was, therefore, personal, and the final product incorporates not only flora and fauna indigenous to Florida, but also our family’s spaniel, the Colony’s mascot monkey, Johnnie Brown, and other symbols representing my children and husband,’ she says.