LEGO Boutique Hotel

If you read my 2023 post about my LEGO Jazz Club, then you already know what a blast I had building it and that even before I finished it, I purchased the building kit that had been released in 2022—a Boutique Hotel—with turn-of-the century inspired European architecture.   But with all my doll house activities during the year (I built three), it was not until right before Thanksgiving that I got a chance to start working on this hotel.  And as I have done before, I first laid out all the individual bags that came in the kit.

I counted a total of twenty large bags numbered 1 through 14 (some of the numbers had two bags).  As before, there was a very large book of instructions, nearly 300 pages long, that showed which bags were required to complete each of the three floors of this hotel.  And on many of these pages, there were interesting ties back to previous modular building kits.

Starting with Bag #1, I used my grandson-taught skill of organizing the pieces by color.  The two plastic containers to the right hold the contents of each of the two small bags inside the big bag that contain the very small parts.  I don’t organize these by colors as they are so small, I am afraid I may lose some of them if they are not kept together.

In less than 30 minutes, I had completed the first bag.

Continuing with this same approach, I worked through Bag #2 and Bag #3 which completed the ornate lobby floor and reception desk.

While completing Bag #4, I discovered that right next door to the hotel was a tiny modern art store with the proprietor already at her desk ready to make a sale.

Working my way through Bags number 5 and 6 I had completed the first floor of the hotel.

Bag #7 was the start of the second floor.

When I started with Bag #8, there was a large number of pieces for this step as there were two large bags with three small bags inside.

Part way through, I had added all the furnishings for these two hotel rooms.  The larger room, the luxury room had a bay window, green bedspread cover, and even a writing desk with a typewriter.  The smaller room, the economy room, is much smaller much like some of the European hotel rooms I have stayed in before.

Finishing Bag #8 I had all the walls up…

… and when I finished Bag #9, the second floor was complete.

The second floor could then be placed on top of the first floor with the backpacking tourist leaning over her balcony to get a photo of the street activities below.

Bag #10 was a small bag which added the outdoor rooftop bar.

When I dumped out all the pieces for Bag #11 (which was two large bags and two small bags inside) and organized them, I knew I would be working on the third and final floor of the hotel.  As I worked through the remaining pieces, I was once again amazed at the manufacturing prowess LEGO has in ensuring that no pieces are missing from the kit.  It just blows my mind how exactly the right number of small, intricate, and different colored pieces can be packaged into these bags in what must be a major manufacturing operation.

When I had finished this step, I had a good start on the third floor which included what is called a “water closet (WC)” in Europe complete with toilet paper and an old-style cabinet television.  There were many pieces in this step where I got the satisfaction of hearing that characteristic “snap” as the pieces tightly come together.  I also applaud LEGO for ensuring all these little pieces are extremely well engineered.

Bag #12 went off without a hitch adding walls and windows and then once I completed Bag #13 (also with two bags), I had finished the third floor.

I assume this is the “presidential suite” as it takes up the same square footage as the two rooms below and includes a King size bed, television, and a private bathroom.  With the third floor complete, it could now be placed on top of the second floor.  Now all that remained to complete the hotel was the ornate roof…

… which also went smoothly.

And when I put my new Boutique Hotel next to my Jazz Club, it made for an interesting miniature city block.

As with the Jazz Club I built, I had a blast building this hotel.  If you have followed my blog for a while, you know I love to put together puzzles during the winter.  And I think the reason I have fallen in love with building LEGOs, is it is much akin to a puzzle, only a 3-D version.

With this being my fourth large LEGO kit, I also must be getting better at assembling them with no missed steps and no serious flaws where I had to go back and remove some of the pieces.  The only problem I encountered was occasionally I had to pull up the LEGO app on my phone when building something with the dark brown or black pieces as the colors were so dark on the instruction page, I could not see the details of how the pieces fit together.  But they were clearly visible on my phone, and I could even blow them up enlarging the image for easier visualization.

While I was still working on the hotel, LEGO revealed the 2024 building, the 17^th in this “Modular Building” series, a Natural History Museum.  I immediately thought this seemed to complete my buildings even more as in the miniature LEGO world, I could explore the museum during the day, visit the jazz club for dinner enjoying some great music, and then settle in for the night in my hotel room with all three buildings within easy walking distance of each other.  What more would I need in this miniature world?