Dakota Eurocentral, Scotland

Following the designs and specifications of international award-winning interior designer Amanda Rosa and her team, O’Donnell have manufactured and supplied a range of individual bedroom furniture for the first of the spectacular new Dakota destinations in Scotland.

Described as Scotland’s most stylish hotel, the Dakota Eurocentral is located on the M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh. It is a natural progression of Ken McCulloch’s Dakota Hotels concept, namely a boutique brand offering a high level of luxury and comfort without an over-inflated price tag. The first in the UK chain opened in Nottingham.

O’Donnell was chosen for this unique Scottish project because of their experience and state-of-the-art facilities for producing high quality bespoke hotel bedroom furniture. “In fact,” says Jim O’Donnell, managing director, “it was great to have a new challenge with hands-on experience of supplying an enterprise that is now considered as redefining what one would normally expect in a hotel.”

Whilst the Dakota Eurocentral’s gleaming black exterior is iconic, the interior has been given a warm, industrial feel with the use of exposed brick and earthy colours. The sizeable investment in creating the hotel (£12million) and bringing a new destination for food and style to Scotland is reflected in the dramatic features of its interior.

For example, the guest rooms feature a plasma screen, leather-clad writing desk, a big, comfortable lug chair and subtle wardrobe space behind the bed. The Dakota style that defines each individual space in the Hotel culminates in two fabulous suites that have a New York loft-type feel that is a long way from a typical hotel bedroom. As Amanda Rosa says: “We have created the Dakota style to appear as undesigned as possible. It looks natural, as though it could never have been any other way.”

In addition to supplying the plasma screen housing and the desks, O’Donnell followed Amanda Rosa and her team’s design concepts and contemporary style approach to produce painted MDF feature panels, bed frames, shower pod panels, wall mirrors, freestanding mirrors, side tables and the dressing room carcass in Walnut veneer for the two suites.

Jim is very satisfied with the way in which the O’Donnell factory approached the Dakota project. “At our practical, manufacturing level, we needed to fully appreciate Dakota’s design concepts and nuances to ensure everything fitted and worked in their unique environment. We consequently produced high quality products to match the innovation of their cutting edge hotel interior design and delivered it on time.”

The Dakota signature style has also just appeared at the other end of the M8 with the next of Ken McCulloch’s Dakota Hotels concept officially opening at Forth Bridge, Edinburgh.