17 Designers Joined Forces to Create the Airbnb of Your Dreams
What do you get when you combine an historic home—on the National Register of Historic Places, no less—a charming town, and 17 talented designers? One spectacularly photogenic home. That's the case in Kingston, New York, at the second annual Kingston Design Showhouse. Founder Maryline Damour, who started the Kingston Design Connection to create a network for designers and manufacturers in New York's trendy Hudson Valley, held the first Kingston Showhouse in her own home last year, with 10 designers participating. This year, though, she upped the ante to 17 designers, including dozens of Hudson Valley-based vendors and manufacturers. If you're intrigued, the house is open to the public through October 26 (tickets cost $17). But, unlike many design showhouses, this one won't just go back to normal at the end of its run—it will be listed on Airbnb.
That means "anything that's built into the home will stay here," Damour says. That includes the cane-detailed cabinetry in the kitchen by Elizabeth Mercer, the stunning wallpapered ceiling in a dining room by Ana Claudia Schultz, and the kitchenette on the second floor by Brooke Erin Lane.
The home is owned by a local family, who live in part of it and rent out the rest as apartments on Airbnb. For the past month, the family—with all their six children!—have been living in a basement apartment while 17 designers completely transformed the building, which was built in 1890. In doing so, they kept in mind the home's function as both a family home and a set of Airbnb apartments.
"The designers worked to keep the family's spaces and the public spaces," Damour explains. "And to keep a cohesive theme throughout them." So, the downstairs kitchen and dining room flow into each other, while upstairs, a lounge space contains its own kitchenette and dining area, adjacent to a bedroom and a home office.
When the show house wraps up, Damour and the designers will work with the family to determine how best to rearrange furniture for the Airbnb, keeping the vision of the 17 designers with the functionality of a multi-purpose space—and leaving the family (and lucky visitors) with what just might be the best-designed Airbnb ever.
Follow House Beautiful on Instagram.
You Might Also Like
