The Colony in Palm Beach is closing for renovations. When will it reopen?

The Colony will be closed for three months, starting Wednesday,  for a renovation project that owner and president Sarah Wetenhall describes as “our largest undertaking to date.”

The project will center on redesigning the interiors of its 89 rooms and suites, though other areas including hallways, the pool patio, an entertainment space and the building’s trademark pink exterior will be "refreshed," Wetenhall said.

An early October reopening — just shy of the hotel’s 75th birthday in November — is planned.

'Our pink paradise': The Colony celebrates landmark designation with plaque unveiling

In case you missed it: The Colony reimagines its lobby

“It has long been our intention to align the guest rooms with the ethos of the rest of the property” with its ''sense of playfulness,'' said Wetenhall, who has spearheaded several remodeling projects at the hotel since she and her husband, Andrew, purchased the property in 2016.

During the redesign, The Colony, which employees 170, will lay off or reduce the hours of 135 employees between Wednesday and Oct. 1, General Manager Bruce Seigel told the Daily News, confirming a notice the hotel filed with the state.

In accordance with federal labor law requiring companies to give sufficient advance notice of significant layoffs to employees and state and local officials, The Colony notified the state in June of its temporary employee reduction.

“Knowing this summer redesign was coming, we also sat down months ago with every affected employee to make sure we could help each of them with a plan,” Seigel said, adding that affected full-time employees will retain their health-insurance benefits.

Some affected employees will take a vacation or visit family, while others have taken temporary part-time jobs elsewhere, he said.

For the renovation, different room-design and suite-design schemes will be employed, with “unique colors, textiles, accessories and art.” Some of the art is by such local artists as photographers Chris Leidy, Nick Mele and Nathan Coe, Colony officials said.

A custom-furniture collection in rattan, faux bamboo and select upholstery items has been designed for The Colony’s rooms by Society Social, a Charlotte, North Carolina, furniture-and-accessories company, Wetenhall told the Daily News.

The hotel is working with other design brands. For instance, Farrow & Ball has created custom paint colors for the walls (the company also is responsible for the hotel’s exterior pink hue); and Schumacher has created exclusive fabrics for The Colony in pink, green and blue, the hotel’s officials said.

Colony CEO makes top 10 list: Colony Palm Beach CEO Sarah Wetenhall named among top 10 independent hoteliers globally

She said guests regularly comment that The Colony’s overall design sensibility “resonates with them even after they’ve left Palm Beach and returned home.”

Palm Beach-based Kemble Interiors will lead the project to redesign the guest rooms. Kemble has completed other Colony projects, such as the lobby, which reopened in December 2020 as the Living Room with custom hand-painted de Gournay wallpaper depicting Florida’s native flora and fauna with alligators, diamond-wearing panthers, The Colony’s mascot monkey Johnny Brown and more.

“It’s such a compliment to play a part in Sarah Wetenhall’s vision of making The Colony a world-class destination,” Kemble founder and island native Mimi Maddock McMakin told the Daily News.

“The guest rooms and suites at the hotel won’t be like other hotel rooms you see today with their utilitarian and modern look,” she said. “The Colony’s will be joyful with color, whimsy and one-of-a-kind custom pieces you will remember and talk about.”

Upon completion, the rooms and suites will be “shoppable,” giving guests the option of purchasing room-and-suite furnishings and accessories via The Colony’s and some of its design partners’ websites.

“I felt strongly that these pieces should be accessible to guests as part of a larger Colony experience,” said Wetenhall, who in 2021 was named among Hotels Magazine’s top 10 independent hoteliers globally in the Lifestyle Operator category.

Last summer, the hotel shuttered for five weeks for a property-wide cleaning and routine maintenance while two flanking town road construction projects were underway.

In 2020, when county hotels were ordered to temporarily cease check-ins because of the coronavirus pandemic, The Colony closed for seven months and redesigned its villas, al fresco dining areas and lobby.

Also, the hotel in 2019 redid its main dining room to debut Swifty’s, a Palm Beach version of a former same-named New York society bistro.

Built in the British Colonial style in 1946-47 by the architectural firm of Simonson & Holley, the hotel was designated a landmark in January 2020.

The hotel is one of more than 350 landmarked properties, sites and vistas protected under the town's Historic Preservation Ordinance.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: The Colony in Palm Beach to close for summer for renovations