Design Inspiration: Francis Ford Coppola Bernalda Hotel In Wall Street Journal Magazine

Allow us to dream a little this weekend. Ever since we flipped through the latest issue of Wall Street Journal Magazine, which hit newsstands this weekend, we've been thinking (a lot) about filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola's new hotel/family home/palazzo. And we say the place is all of the above because it seems to basically serve as a home for the Coppola family when they're there but doubles as a very luxurious boutique hotel.

Located in the Southern Italian (and totally obscure) town called Bernalda, this hotel is Coppola's fifth, and as is with his movies, he went all out. Not only did Coppola recruit the famous designer Jacques Granges to help with the interiors, he also tapped his sons and filmmaker daughter Sofia to pitch in on the hotel's design. They each got to design a room, and the end result is basically a series of spaces that look like really lavish movie sets, naturally. Nonetheless, it wasn't an easy project given that the original structure dates from 1870. "This was a restoration project, but the idea was to restore it with a younger, summer feeling, hence the wicker furniture and the palette, which is so modern and fresh," says Grange.

And we can definitely see what Grange is referring to, especially in the bedroom that he designed with Sofia Coppola (shown, above). Inspiration for the room came from another nearby villa, and both Granges' impeccable style and Sofia's feminine touch are apparent in there, from the trellis patterns on the wall to the pastel-color checkered floor. Of course, we also found there to be a bit of Marie Antoinette grandeur in Sofia's bedroom.

To read the full article and see more photos of the Coppola family's palazzo hotel, head over to Wall Street Journal Magazine. And let us know in comments below what you think of Sofia's bedroom and the hotel.