Located in Bangkok’s lively Sukhumvit district, the Cabochon boutique hotel officially opened this week. The property occupies two floors of the historic four-story Walpole Building, an architectural gem reminiscent of turn-of-the-century Shanghai chic.

The hotel’s eight units — four guest rooms and four suites — aim to recapture that bygone era with vintage-style furniture and classic murals. Some of the rooms feature double-leave French doors that open onto balconies, which overlook a courtyard garden framed by palm trees. Also framed by palms is the hotel’s rooftop garden, which offers a refreshing evening breeze and a 22-meter swimming pool.

For a drink or two, guests can stop by the ground-floor “Joy Luck Club” (a nod to the mahjong club in Amy Tan’s novel), which is fitted out with antique furniture and memorabilia from around the world, including French museum cabinets, travel trunks, and classic model airplanes and ships. The nostalgia continues in Thai Lao Yeh, a restaurant across the lobby that serves up authentic Thai and Laotian flavors in an old-world Oriental setting (it includes panels fashioned from century-old timber that was salvaged from a Thai village).