The Guest Room Lesson, By Way of an English Manor and a Very Pink Bedroom

New York decorator Markham Roberts, writing in his Veranda column, says the best guest rooms borrow from unlikely teachers: an Elizabethan estate on one end, an all-pink room built for a tween on the other. His point is that comfort, not grandeur alone, is what a good host actually provides. A butler or a footman on hand certainly helps, he allows, though neither is required to make a guest feel welcome. The lesson, as he tells it, comes down to thoughtful detail over spectacle.

With reporting from Veranda.