What makes a place memorable?

I’ve been thinking recently about the places we remember.

Hotels we still talk about years later, a restaurant we can’t wait to go back to, a shop we happily spend far too long wandering around. A tiny bar discovered on holiday that somehow just gets everything right.

And, perhaps surprisingly for an interior designer, I don’t think it’s always about how beautiful the place is.

Obviously, I notice the interiors, I always will, I notice the lighting, the furniture, the colours, the materials and all the tiny details that somebody has spent hours agonising over.

But I also notice everything else...

How you’re greeted when you walk through the door, the music, the smell. Whether you instantly know where to go or feel slightly awkward standing there wondering what to do. How the menu feels in your hand. Whether the lighting makes you want to stay for another drink. Whether somebody remembers your name - or your coffee order.

Even the loos. I’m definitely someone who notices the loos. It’s all part of it.

Beautiful isn’t always memorable

I’ve been to some incredibly beautiful places that have left me completely cold. Everything has technically been right - fabulous furniture, expensive finishes, beautiful lighting, immaculate branding and yet...nothing.

Equally, I’ve been to places that weren’t remotely perfect where I’ve immediately thought, I love it here! Usually because of how they made me feel.

We talk a lot about design, branding, customer service and customer experience as though they are separate things. But as a customer, we don’t experience them separately. We experience all of it.

Think about booking a restaurant. Your experience doesn’t begin when you sit down at the table. It probably started on Instagram, Google or the restaurant’s website. Was it easy to book? Did the photography make you want to go? What did the confirmation feel like? Then you arrive. Can you find the entrance? Does somebody notice you? Are you warmly welcomed or left hovering awkwardly by the door? By the time you’ve actually sat down, you’ve already had numerous little interactions with that business. Every one is telling you something about it.

The interior is part of the experience - but it isn’t the whole experience.

It’s often the tiny things

I think the places that do this brilliantly understand that experience is created in the details, and not necessarily expensive details either. A genuinely warm welcome costs nothing. Neither does remembering someone’s name, or simply thinking carefully about what a customer might need at a particular moment.

It’s why I love observing businesses when I’m out and about - hotels, restaurants and shops particularly. I’m fascinated by what works, what doesn’t and the tiny things that could completely change an experience. There is almost always something that makes me think that’s clever. Or, occasionally, why on earth have they done that? My family are very used to it!

Perhaps this is why I’ve never really been interested in design purely for design’s sake. Of course I want something to look beautiful. But I’m much more interested in how it feels, how it functions

and how people experience it.

My background before interiors was in fashion, marketing and brands, and increasingly I realise that I’ve never really stopped looking at the world through that lens. Who is this for? What do they want? How should they feel? What would make this better? And what will they remember?

Whether it’s a home, a hotel, a restaurant, a shop or a brand, they’re surprisingly useful questions. Because ultimately, people probably won’t remember the exact shade of paint on the wall.

But they will remember how somewhere made them feel. And that’s what makes a place truly memorable.