Sydney’s Best Boutique Stays

Primus Hotel, Sydney

A treat for guests only is the chic rooftop terrace, once a war-time rifle range, with a long marble bar, 20-metre pool, water features and cabanas. primushotelsydney.com

Primus Hotel, Sydney

The lobby is a show-stopper. It’s flanked by eight scarlet scagliola columns, a rarely seen plaster technique that imitates marble, which required restoration by a team of a dozen craftsmen from Italy. The newly illuminated space in the lobby houses a bar and 120-seat fine-diner The Wilmot, with an open kitchen overseen by Korean chef Ryan Hong, ex Rockpool Bar & Grill and Black by Ezard, and focused on an Asian-influenced, modern Australian menu. primushotelsydney.com

Ovolo Woolloomooloo

The industrial-heritage features remain but the shadowy central chasm has become a multicoloured laneway of lounges, bars and dining nooks arranged around an avenue of brightly lit faux trees. ovolohotels.com

Ovolo Woolloomooloo

Ovolo hospitality extends to nightly happy hours (actually two hours, from 5pm), free snacks and minibar, continental breakfast, 24-hour gym, Apple TV in every room and self-service laundries. ovolohotels.com

Ovolo Woolloomooloo

The cavernous warehouse that was until recently a rather sombre lobby and sepulchrally lit bar is barely recognisable in the hotel’s new guise. The Hong-Kong based Ovolo Group bought the century-old Woolloomooloo wharf-front hotel for $35 million in 2014, and has spent another $20 million renovating its 100 rooms and public spaces. ovolohotels.com

Ovolo 1888 Darling Harbour

All 90 rooms and suites are hung with details of a primary-coloured mural by Sydney artist Jasper Knight, the street-art look particularly striking teamed with 1888’s high ceilings, deep windows, distressed walls and ironbark beams. Many of the rooms and suites occupy odd-shaped spaces and the design solutions show flair. ovolohotels.com

QT Bondi

A wave of blond wood curls from the lobby to the lifts and bears a Bondi-inspired work by artist Shaun Gladwell, and his video art appears on pillar screens. qtbondi.com.au

QT Bondi

All have QT’s king-size “gel” beds, well-equipped kitchenettes, washer-dryers, storage, sofa beds and big bathrooms with bath, shower and double basins. Some have balconies; others have windows and louvres opening to a leafy atrium. qtbondi.com.au

QT Bondi

Though there are splashes of colour in rugs and soft furnishings, QT’s designer of choice, Nic Graham, has created less theatrical interiors than seen in sister QTs, the calmness enhanced by flattering backlit mirrors, parquetry floors and plenty of light flooding in through sliding doors and windows. qtbondi.com.au

Hotel Harry, Surry HiIls

Recently opened upstairs are 20 simple, comfortable and well-priced rooms that deliver on management’s aim to “provide everything you need and nothing you don’t”. This runs to thick royal-blue carpet, a few pieces of heavy oak furniture, Evo toiletries, free WiFi and well-appointed bathrooms, with styling by fashion designer Anna Hewett. hotelharry.com.au

Hotel Harry

Two levels of lounges, bars, parlours and dining rooms at Hotel Harry in Surry Hills have been cleverly styled by maverick designer James Brown to evoke a cinematic version of old Havana or Guadalajara while retaining the century-old building’s dark-timber joinery, stained glass and eccentric layout. hotelharry.com.au

Hotel Palisade, Millers Point

There are just nine guest rooms in this pint-sized 1915 hotel, refurbished and reopened after a seven-year closure.The top floors are now a split-level cocktail bar named for the engineer who built the hotel, Henry Deane, with fancy cocktails to match the views – a Stone Fruit Cobbler of manzanilla, prosecco and peach shrub, perhaps. hotelpalisade.com

Hotel Palisade, Millers Point

Interiors throughout were designed by stylist Sibella Court, whose richly layered, bower-bird approach works to great effect with the hotel’s solid heritage features. The ground-floor Public House bar and Parlour Room dining space have original green tiles, vintage beer-label mirrors and bare walls that look their age. hotelpalisade.com