The Rug Company founders on turning their home into the hotel of their dreams

As you wander through the grounds of Casa Bonavita, a new 17-bedroom hotel in Malta, it is easy to forget you are in a hotel at all. With its golden limestone walls, palm-fringed pool and gardens scented with jasmine and orange blossom, it feels more like the home of a particularly fortunate friend. That, its owners Christopher and Suzanne Sharp explain, is entirely the point.

The founders and former owners of The Rug Company stumbled across the dilapidated 18th-century house in 2010 and were instantly bewitched. Over the next 15 years, they gradually brought it back to life, first as their family home and later as a hotel, which opened in late spring 2026.

Casa Bonavita is located in the sleepy village of Attard, one of Malta’s historic Three Villages and around 20 minutes from the capital, Valletta. Five minutes’ walk away is Villa Bologna Pottery, the renowned ceramics studio, shop and restaurant owned by the Sharps’ daughter, Sophie Edwards. But Casa Bonavita makes retreating behind its garden walls especially tempting.

Almost every bedroom has its own private outdoor space, yet even in the gardens or beside one of the hotel’s two pools, it is possible to enjoy complete solitude.

The terrace-wrapped restaurant centres on an open, Sicilian tile-clad kitchen with a Lacanche range, further blurring the distinction between hotel and home. Open to guests throughout the day, it welcomes outside diners in the evening, serving Mediterranean dishes including pan-roasted sea bass, verdura mista and buffalo mozzarella.

While Christopher revived the gardens, the interiors are the work of Suzanne’s London-based practice, Suzanne Sharp Studio. Drawing on her southern Mediterranean heritage – she grew upin Malta – she has created welcoming spaces that appear to have evolved over generations. Antique furniture, Murano glass lighting, textiles and art are layered with hand-painted murals that sweep across walls and ceilings, most notably in the restaurant where Alfonso Orombelli and Luna Aulehla Greppi have created a leafy scene that brings the hotel's garden foliage inside. The bar is wrapped in a bespoke de Gournay wallpaper depicting 17th-century Valletta, while artists from the nearby pottery studio hand painted the lampshades. Every surface has been considered.

A subterranean spa encompasses a hammam, sauna, cold plunge and gym, its blousy floral fabrics and deep-green zellige tiles creating a glorious meeting of English and Moorish pattern.

The best bedroom is hotly disputed among staff and guests, but Wallpaper* believes that Room Five – the only suite in the main house – just takes the crown, thanks to its generous proportions, its bathroom, set within the house’s former chapel, and private terrace overlooking the gardens.

Here, Wallpaper* speaks to Christopher and Suzanne Sharp about memories of Malta, designing through instinct, and finally realising a lifelong dream.

The home that became a hotel

Wallpaper*: You’ve both said that opening a hotel had been a lifelong dream. Where did that dream begin?

Christopher Sharp: When we were in our mid-twenties, Suzanne and I dreamt of opening a small hotel in Tuscany. Looking back, had we somehow managed to pull it off, it would almost certainly have been an unmitigated disaster. We had neither the financial resources nor the experience to make such an ambitious venture succeed. Having now opened Casa Bonavita, we appreciate just how much knowledge, resilience and patience it demands. Quite simply, we weren’t ready. Even so, that early dream never really disappeared. It became one of those quiet ambitions that stays with you, surfacing every few years to remind you that there is something still left to do.

Over the course of our lives, we’ve had several different careers, and we often joke that our philosophy is to do everything once – and leave while we’re still enjoying it. When we found this house, everything seemed to align. We finally had the right property, the experience that had been missing all those years before, and the resources to realise the vision properly.

More importantly, we had reached a stage in our lives where we understood what kind of hotel we wanted to create. Casa Bonavita was never conceived as a commercial exercise; it was the opportunity to fulfil a dream. Sometimes the best ideas simply need time before they are ready to be realised.

W*: Before it became a hotel, Casa Bonavita was your family home. How did living here influence the decisions you made as you transformed it into a place for guests?

CS: Living in Casa Bonavita before it became a hotel gave us an understanding of the house that would have been impossible to acquire from architectural plans alone. It allowed us to experience its rhythms and subtleties through every season: how the light moves through the rooms at different times of day, how the sun travels across the garden, and how the character of each space changes throughout the year.

It also taught us the practical realities of living in a historic Maltese house. Although Malta enjoys abundant winter sunshine, the humidity means good heating is essential for comfort. In the height of summer, effective air conditioning is equally important, but we also came to appreciate the value of ceiling fans. There are many evenings when a gentle movement of air is far more pleasant than the constant chill of air conditioning.

Perhaps most importantly, living here allowed us to understand how the house actually functions as a home. Spending time in every room revealed what each space needed to make it both practical and comfortable, while living in the village gave us the opportunity to get to know our neighbours and become part of the local community. We hope that sense of belonging and authenticity is something our guests experience too. The house was designed not simply to look beautiful, but to feel natural to live in, and we believe that has made all the difference.

Suzanne, you grew up in Malta. What is the Malta of your childhood that you remember, and in what ways did those memories find their way into the hotel?

Suzanne Sharp: My inspiration has always come from memory rather than a particular design style. I grew up in Malta when life was slower and houses were lived in rather than styled. I remember the cool stone floors, high ceiling rooms with shutters closed against the afternoon sun, family houses filled with objects and furniture collected over generations, and gardens that seemed overgrown. There was an ease to the way we lived and entertained that has stayed with me.

Casa Bonavita was never intended to recreate my childhood, but to capture that feeling. We wanted it to feel like a much-loved home where everything has found its place over time. If guests leave with a sense of the Malta we remember – its warmth, generosity and quiet beauty – then we’ve achieved what we hoped.

Designing the interiors

W*: The wall and ceiling murals are one of the hotel’s most distinctive features. How did the idea first emerge?

SS: As we restored the house, we uncovered traces of its past that reminded us how colour in Maltese houses was used. That became the starting point for the murals. We didn’t want to recreate anything historically, but rather continue the story of the building in a way that felt natural.

W*: How closely did you direct the artists, or were they given room to interpret the spaces themselves?

SS: I had a very clear vision for each room and worked closely with the artists, discussing colours and atmosphere, but I also wanted their own creativity to shine through. It was a genuine collaboration. Each mural was designed specifically for its space, so no two rooms feel the same, yet together they create a narrative that runs throughout the house.

W*: You worked with your son, the antiques dealer Jamie Sharp, to source many of the antique and vintage pieces. Are there particular periods, styles or objects that you’re instinctively drawn to?

SS: I’ve never collected according to period or fashion. I’m drawn to pieces with character, craftsmanship and a sense that they’ve already lived a life. Christopher and I, together with our son, spent years searching for objects that simply felt right for the house. Some came from antique markets, some from dealers, and others have been with our family for years.

W*: What do these older pieces bring to a hotel that contemporary furnishings perhaps can’t?

SS: Older pieces bring a warmth and authenticity that is very difficult to manufacture. They carry imperfections, stories and a sense of scale making a room feel as though it has evolved naturally rather than been installed all at once.

W*: Are there any particularly special pieces that guests should look out for?

SS: Rather than highlighting one or two star pieces, I’d much rather guests discover things for themselves. There are paintings, sculptures, ceramics and small objects tucked away throughout the hotel that reward a second look. I hope people notice something different each time they wander through the house – that sense of discovery is part of the experience.

Rediscovering the gardens

W*: The gardens feel wonderfully established, almost as though they’ve always been this way. What did you inherit when you first bought the property, and what has the process of shaping and restoring them involved?

CS: When we first bought the house, the garden felt rather forlorn. Its underlying structure was still there, but it had received little more than basic maintenance for many years. There were several citrus trees, though they were in poor condition, and the planting lacked both coherence and ambition.

The garden revealed itself all at once rather than unfolding gradually as you moved through it. We wanted to create a sequence of spaces – a sense of journey and discovery – where each turn offered something new. Because the house was becoming a hotel, it was equally important to create places where guests could find privacy, as well as areas that naturally encouraged people to gather.

The scale also needed rebalancing. There were too few mature trees to give the garden the sense of enclosure and permanence we were looking for. We planted twelve full-sized palms, together with a wide variety of smaller trees and shrubs, to restore both proportion and depth. If anything, I preferred to overplant. It is always easier to remove a tree or thin out a border than to wait decades for a garden to mature.

W*: Were sound and fragrance important to the experience you wanted to create?

CS: Yes, the scent and the sounds of the garden are enormously important. Although we are in the heart of a village, there is a remarkable sense of tranquillity. One of the pleasures of the garden is that it allows you to forget where you are. Beyond the walls there is village life, but within them there is a feeling of calm and enclosure.

Sound is a large part of that experience. The gentle movement of water has an almost timeless quality; the wind passing through the crowns of the palms, the chorus of crickets on a hot summer afternoon, and the birds at first light all become part of the rhythm of the day. None of these sounds demands your attention, yet together they create an atmosphere that is deeply restorative. Scent is just as evocative. The fragrance of jasmine in the evening, lantana warmed by the sun, citrus blossom in spring and herbs releasing their oils in the heat all anchor you in the Mediterranean.

Perhaps most importantly, I wanted the garden to feel alive. I like the idea that there is an entire world of insects, birds and small creatures carrying on their own lives, quite oblivious to our presence. A garden should never feel like a stage set; it should feel like an ecosystem. If we have done our job well, guests are simply passing through a landscape that has its own life and rhythm, rather than one that exists solely for their enjoyment.