Every ibis Styles Hotel now has a unique artwork and theme. Not a token colour scheme or a logo slapped on a wall, but a genuine artwork, and design story rooted in the place it calls home. For ibis Styles The Entrance, that story starts with a pelican.
It is not a random choice. The pelican is as much a part of The Entrance as the lake itself. Walk along the foreshore and you will find them perched on lamp posts, gliding low over the water, completely unbothered by the world around them. They belong here. So when we set out to give this hotel its own visual identity, the pelican felt less like a creative decision and more like an obvious one.
The theme we built around it is called Lakeshore Spectrum. It draws from three core ideas:
The quality of light on Tuggerah Lakes, particularly the way sun reflects off still water in the morning and late afternoon
The soft, layered palette of a lakeside town: painted timber, sailboat canvas, reeds bending in the breeze
The feeling of summer on a calm stretch of water, rather than the energy of the surf
That last point matters. This is not a beach hotel. It is a lake hotel. And there is a real difference in how those two places feel.
Coastal design in Australia has a well-worn visual language: whitewash, navy, rope, driftwood. It works, but it is everywhere. We wanted something different for The Entrance, something that felt just as connected to the water but with its own quieter, more luminous character.
Tuggerah Lakes has a particular quality of light. On a still morning, the water becomes almost mirror-like, catching the sky and throwing it back in gradients of pink, gold, and pale blue. By late afternoon, everything softens. The reeds along the bank catch the last of the sun. A sailboat moves slowly across the middle distance. It is calm in a way that the ocean rarely is.
Lakeshore Spectrum is our attempt to hold that feeling inside the hotel.
The visual language of the theme draws from sky gradients at dawn and dusk, the faded pastels of painted lakeside towns, sailboat canvas and rope tones, and the organic textures of reed beds along the water’s edge. Summer light itself, the way it diffuses across still water and makes everything feel a little more generous.
The result is a palette that feels joyful without being loud, and sophisticated without being cold.
Ask anyone who has visited The Entrance what they remember most, and the pelicans come up almost every time. They have been part of the town’s identity for generations, originally drawn to the foreshore by the old fishing co-ops and the scraps they left behind. They stayed, and eventually the town built its character around them.
Central Coast Council’s Project Pelican captured this beautifully, commissioning eight life-size fibreglass pelican sculptures created by local high school students to celebrate the connection between the community, the bird, and the health of the Tuggerah Lakes estuary. It was art, education, and local identity woven together.
“The pelican is not just a bird you see near the water. At The Entrance, it is a symbol of the place itself.”
For ibis Styles The Entrance, using the pelican as the heart of the hotel’s design theme felt like a way to honour that local story rather than invent something from scratch. It grounds the hotel in its location, gives guests an immediate visual connection to where they are, and reminds everyone that this is a place with real character, not just a room with a view.
The light on Tuggerah Lakes is worth seeing in person. So is the palette we built around it.
ibis Styles The Entrance is ready to welcome guests into the Lakeshore Spectrum. Take in the artwork, find the pelican in the lobby, and when you do, remember what the sign says: “Art looks better with a guest.” so snap a photo with it!
