By Barbara De Lollis, USA TODAY  It's getting harder to find an ordinary painted wall in upscale hotels these days.  Whether a trendy boutique or a mass chain hotel, hotels are increasingly finding new ways to dress up prepped and painted sheet rock.  Walls, structural columns, elevator walls - all have become a new canvas for interest, if not art.  "We're moving away from designs that are timeless," Jerry Calguire, who's been in the hotel business for 30 years and is now managing the about-to-open, dual Renaissance and Residence Inn hotel in Crystal City, Va.  "Before we looked for walls that were easy to maintain," Calguire told me yesterday. "Today, you're looking for something that's unique and that's going to set you apart."  Hotel designers are also finding new products to incorporate into hotel spaces.  In the Renaissance portion of Calguire's hotel, walls of the hallway leading to the ballroom are covered with 3D water droplets made from a mix of gypsum and plaster. In the hotel's large light-filled lobby, bulky structural columns are covered in a 3D sculptural material that's made of fiberglass - the same material used to build boats.  To cater to the growing desire for texture, as well as for green materials, for instance, Chicago-based wall covering maker Maya Romanoff this year is introducing a leather alternative called Polyhide.  It's soft and supple, and can handle modern finishes like metallics, Laura Romanoff told me via email.  It seems only a matter of time before travelers spot Polyhide in a hotel.  "We just did a sneak preview in Hong Kong, Singapore and Las Vegas, and the reaction was great," Romanoff said. It can also be used for drapery, making design easier, she said.  At the high-end Trump SoHo in New York, elevators are covered in real leather, which has a nice effect but looks as though it can get scratched easily.  In fact, English hotel designer and design tracker Patrick Goff - editor of hoteldesigns.net - said there is a potential down side to the leather tiles, embossed wallpapers, sculptural forms and other materials increasingly being used in hotel design.  "Their use in hotels is very dependent on housekeeping, as they are real dust traps," he said.  For instance, he's been noticing an uptick in hotels in England that have been bringing back Victorian-era velvet "flock" wallpaper.  "Flock wallpapers made a comeback recently," he said, "but maybe it is all because we have a new generation that hasn't experienced the downsides in terms of maintenance."  Readers: How do you like the growing use of texture on hotel walls? If you have examples where it works well - and where it doesn't - let us know.  Posted Mar 1 2011 7:42AM
From leather to fiberglass, upscale hotel designers are increasingly relying on materials other than paint to add interest or a trendy look to hotel walls.