A Four-Star Hotel Room in 22 m²: Tamale Renovation Design

A four-star hotel room in Ghana needs more than a nicer bed. The Ghana Tourism Authority's accommodation regulations (L.I. 2239) set minimum room and bathroom sizes, ask for a bathtub with a hand shower, armchairs, a desk, a minibar, a luggage rack, air conditioning and a ceiling fan, and expect fire safety at the door. For a boutique hotel in Tamale, we had to fit all of that into an existing room of 22 m² with a 6.6 m² bathroom that had no shower at all.

This is how the 2026 renovation design for Room 105, the hotel's sample room, came together.

The starting point

The room was 6.1 m long and 3.64 m wide, with one window on the long wall. The entry and bathroom doors sat on the same axis, so guests opened the door onto a view of the bathroom. The bathroom had a WC and a basin only. Furniture was small and scattered.

The owner's brief was simple: a calm, upscale room that would justify a higher rate, built from finishes that cope with Northern Ghana's heat and Harmattan dust, and a design his local contractor could repeat across six rooms.

Five layout moves

1. Show the bed first. We re-hung the entry door on the opposite side. Now a guest steps in and sees the king bed against a panelled wall, not the bathroom door.

2. One long sideboard instead of three pieces. The wall opposite the bed takes a single 3.4 m walnut sideboard with one unbroken top. From the door: a TV cabinet with a pair of doors and a 55-inch TV above, an open writing desk with a mirror and lamp, and a minibar with a fridge door and open shelves. One continuous piece looks calmer and costs less to install than three.

3. Give the window a purpose. Two sage-blue tub armchairs and a small walnut table turn the window into a lounge corner. The clear walking width across the room stays at 3.43 m.

4. Use the niche. An existing niche beside the bed head takes a full-height walnut wardrobe, with a luggage rack and a recessed full-length mirror next to it.

5. Hide the fan. The four-star rules ask for a ceiling fan. A bare fan would spoil the tray ceiling, so the 680 mm linen drum pendant contains a concealed-blade fan with a remote.

The bathroom: from basin-only to tub and shower

The bathroom was the hardest part. In 2.96 × 2.22 m we placed:

a 1500 mm bathtub under the window, open, with a wall filler and hand shower
a separate walk-in shower behind 10 mm tempered glass in a brushed-brass frame
the WC on the side wall, facing a 1200 mm walnut vanity with a marble-look top
a 60-litre water heater above the WC on its own protected circuit

The wet zone is set 20 to 30 mm lower behind a stone water bar, with a linear drain in the shower. The whole floor is waterproofed and flood-tested for 48 hours before tiling. Guests get a dry floor every time they step out of the shower.

Materials chosen for Northern Ghana

Floors: matt wood-look porcelain planks instead of timber. They look warm, resist damp and termites, and are easy to clean after dusty days.
Walls: full-height panelling in fire-rated composite rather than MDF, so it will not swell.
Fabrics: fire-retardant upholstery and curtains tested to BS 5852, BS 7177 and BS 5867.
Electrics: everything specified for 230 V / 50 Hz with BS Type G sockets, a key-card switch, USB points at the bed and desk, and smoke detectors.
Joinery: walnut finish, sealed and treated, with brass hardware that ages well.

Style: Transitional American, kept practical

Cream picture-frame panelling, warm walnut, beige linen, sage-blue accents and brushed brass give the room a calm, classic look that photographs well for booking sites. The palette is short on purpose: the same six materials repeat across all six rooms, so ordering, spares and maintenance stay simple.

Built room by room

The plan allows about 32 site days per room in ten stages, from demolition through plumbing and electrics, waterproofing, ceiling, tiling, panels, joinery and fixtures to handover. Every main material must be on site before demolition starts, so all six rooms ship together from Foshan in one consolidated container to Tema. Once the materials arrive, rooms can run in parallel.

See the full project page with all images and the layout: Tamale Hotel Guest Room — Four-Star Renovation Design.

Upgrading your hotel rooms?

If you run a hotel or guesthouse in Ghana or West Africa and want to move up a grade, send us a floor plan and a few photos on WhatsApp +233 59 247 0446, or use our project brief form. We design to Ghana Tourism Authority grading, supply finishes and furniture from Foshan, and guide your contractor on site.

How We Fit a Four-Star Hotel Room into 22 m² in Tamale