Luxurious interior
from the Bavarian Forest

The Grand Hotel Quellenhof in Bad Ragaz in the Swiss canton of St. Gallen is one of the flagships of Switzerland’s premium hotel industry – especially after an extensive € 45 million renovation. The sleek new décor in the 90 rooms, eleven junior suites and the King Suite comes mainly from the Bavarian Forest: hotel fit-out contractor Felix Graf from Zenting was responsible for renovating the rooms. Describing the scale of the undertaking for his company, which was established in 1955 by his parents Felix and Mathilde Graf as a construction and furniture carpentry workshop, company CEO Graf says that the team of 55 employees worked on this major project for almost six months.

The contract, worth more than seven million euros, had to be completed in record time – from the production of a sample room to the working drawings and the turnkey handover, the Lower Bavarians remained on schedule. Felix Graf says, with a certain degree of pride, that it was the largest single contract in the company’s history.

And the clients were satisfied with the work from Lower Bavaria. Reto Schwengeler, Head of Infrastructure and Security at Quellenhof says: “When it comes to the renovation work at the Grand Hotel, nothing must be allowed to go wrong. Our schedule is extremely tight. It is actually impossible to achieve such a project in this time frame. But we are making the impossible possible.” Not a problem for Felix Graf: “The fact that we manufacture our furniture in our own factory makes us independent of suppliers and guarantees us a quality that meets the highest standards.” The standards were particularly high here. Gilded cabinet fronts, burl wood with a high-gloss finish, and real leather and natural stone accents using materials such as Carrara marble, especially in the King Suite, went far beyond the scope of normal carpentry work.

The interior design was planned by Swiss interior designer Claudio Carbone, with whom Felix Graf GmbH has had a business relationship for many years.

The next major international projects are already in the pipeline: company CEO Graf cites the renovation of 212 rooms at Swissôtel Zurich, 165 rooms at Hotel Kursaal Bern and the complete renovation of 15 holiday apartments at the “Zermatt residences” as examples. But the company has also made a name for itself in the region, designing the interiors of several country inns.

The family company has set the course for the future. Both of the Grafs’ sons, Felix (25) and Valentin (23), intend to continue running the company. Felix Graf Jr. completed his Master’s degree in interior design at the Royal College of Art in London last year, while Valentin successfully qualified as Bachelor of Engineering, specialising in interior engineering, in Rosenheim. “Both will be joining the senior management team soon,” announces company CEO Felix Graf Sr.

− pnp/ek
Passauer Neue Presse, 16 Oktober 2019