CONSIDER YOUR SHEETS

Hotel visits are a great way to test out design ideas for bedrooms, from furniture arrangements to color palettes to bedding. If you discover sheets you love at a hotel, ask the staff for the brand name and type of fabric.

“Everybody talks thread count,” Morris says, but find out whether the hotel sheets that impress you are percale or bamboo or jersey or something else. “Bamboo sheets are really silky and soft,” she says, “compared to the really crisp nature of percale.”

Another bonus when staying in a beautiful hotel room: Take a good look at the tiles in the bathroom. Hotel bathrooms “tend to be a little over-designed,” Burnham says. But you may notice a nice tile arrangement. “Or you could love the use of a small-scale tile on the floor versus a largescale stone on the wall.”

If you take photos “and you really think about it while you’re experiencing it,” she says, “you can bring a lot of that home with you.”

Want one more finishing touch? High-end hotels and restaurants are often subtly scented with a signature fragrance, Morris says. If you find out that one delights you, ask the staff if they can find out what it is. If they tell you the space is flavored with vanilla, Morris says, you go to a home retailer “and you buy yourself a vanilla candle. You do not need tons of money to make this happen.”

And if you love a particular public space, don’t hesitate to ask the staff who designed it. You can get the designer’s name, follow them on Instagram and perhaps even direct message them a question.

“I have people reaching out to me all the time on Instagram asking me questions,” Gordon says.