What's Inside The Mystery Art Deco Chamber At Jumeirah Essex House?

When we slipped in through the back entrance of the Jumeirah Essex House last week, we hardly were expecting to stumble upon a mini treasure trove of an art collection. In fact, we were actually just looking to use the bathroom.

But a pair of heavily gilded double doors proved too alluring NOT to open, and curiosity got the better of us. So we entered through the doors, and found ourselves in a little room�more of an antechamber really�that was so exotic and bizarre, we had to linger for a few minutes taking pictures (and hoping no one from security would show up and eject us Jenna Talackova-style from the premises).

Though it now effectively functions as a coat room for the larger (and less exotic) conference room beyond it, the "Red Room," as we've nicknamed it, was full of panther statuettes, art deco-inspired furniture and gold-framed mirrors.

Click through to see the rest of our photos!

Upon walking through the double doors, we immediately made a right into the little art-filled room, which is no bigger than an average hotel bathroom. And yet if our hotel bathroom had half the stuff this room did, we might find ourselves skipping the museum visits and just taking extra-long baths.

The walls are lined in gold fabric on one side, and blood red fabric on the other; and there's a window at the end with a curved art deco-inspired love seat in front of it. In front of the love seat is a small round wooden desk�the handles around the edges make it look like you can pull out drawers, but they are just for decoration.

But our favorite was on the red side of the room: a dramatic statuette of a panther, spine raised, head lowered, sat on top of a matching black lacquered sideboard. Another panther, this one more modestly posed, rested on the window sill.

Luckily for us, we managed to snap all our pictures, and squeeze in a little extra time to just admire the space, before finally heading out. After all, we still needed to find that bathroom!

[Photos: HotelChatter]

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