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The Dexter Hotel, a 29-room property in Elk Rapids, Michigan, brings together furniture, lighting, ceramics, signage and other work made with regional businesses and artists. The project is led by Kinship Hospitality, co-founded by former Shinola creative director Daniel Caudill and Kamron Bije-Apple, with Shore North Development.
The Dexter Hotel, a new 29-room property on Grand Traverse Bay in Elk Rapids, is making regional manufacturing a central part of its design, with furniture, lighting, ceramics and signage created in collaboration with Michigan makers. The project is from Kinship Hospitality, co-founded by former Shinola creative director Daniel Caudill and Kamron Bije-Apple, in collaboration with Shore North Development.
The hotel is about a three-and-a-half-hour drive north of Detroit. Its waterfront location sets the scene, but the design approach continues inside: Kinship worked with manufacturers, studios, artists and businesses from across the region on elements ranging from guest-room furniture to the exterior sign. The source report, published by Design Milk, describes the property as a project focused on making or sourcing items locally where possible.
Guest rooms feature custom white oak furniture designed by Caudill and made by Grand Rapids-based Wolf Studio. The collaboration produced beds, couches, chairs and nightstands. Caudill told Design Milk that the pieces use solid wood rather than veneer, and that the team worked on details such as the shape of chair arms and the slope of backs to make the furniture comfortable. Vintage furnishings and decor came from Pernette’s, an antiques dealer in nearby Northport.
Other Michigan contributors include Britten Inc. of Traverse City, which produced custom ceiling lights designed by Caudill; Traverse City pottery business ClaySpace, which made ceramic trays, vases and accessories; and Bear Sign Company, which produced wayfinding and exterior signage. Detroit’s Motown Hand Painting added hand-painted signs. The hotel’s art includes works curated by Detroit’s Library Street Collective and pieces by Michigan artists Pier Wright and Jesse Hickman. At the on-site Noble Lounge, the regional approach also extends to the menu, which includes cheese from Suttons Bay and Northport.
Michigan Makers Shape the Guest Experience
The project offers a visible example of how a hotel can use local production as part of its identity, rather than treating furnishings and decorative details as generic fixtures. Its regional sourcing connects the guest experience to Michigan’s furniture-making and craft communities, while putting work from several businesses and artists in front of visitors to Elk Rapids.
Caudill’s approach also highlights the practical value of working nearby: he told Design Milk that local collaborators made it possible to review finishes and refine products in person. That process can give a project more control over details such as a ceramic glaze or the color temperature of a light. The source does not provide figures for how much of the hotel’s spending or materials came from Michigan, so the scale of its local economic impact cannot be quantified from the available information.
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From Shinola to Elk Rapids
Before the hotel project, Caudill was the creative director of Detroit-based watch and lifestyle brand Shinola, where he championed made-in-Michigan production. He told Design Milk that he had owned property in northern Michigan for about 10 years and saw the region as a place with natural resources, farms and a creative community. Kinship Hospitality is his venture with Kamron Bije-Apple; the Dexter Hotel was developed in collaboration with Shore North Development.
The hotel’s furniture choices draw on Michigan’s history as a center of furniture manufacturing. Caudill described Wolf Studio’s work as classically American in design and emphasized its use of solid wood. Rather than reproducing a single historical style, the rooms mix custom pieces with vintage finds, textiles and contemporary local art. The result, as presented in the report, is a design assembled through partnerships across northern Michigan and Detroit.
“We looked at every single thing that we were adding to this property through the lens of, ‘Can we make it here?’”
— Daniel Caudill, quoted by Design Milk
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Opening Details and Local Impact
The Design Milk report identifies the Dexter as a new hotel but does not provide its opening date, room rates, occupancy figures or operating details. It also does not quantify the proportion of the project’s materials or budget sourced within Michigan, or report how the local partners were selected and compensated. Caudill’s descriptions of the hotel’s atmosphere and the value of local collaboration are attributed views, not independently measured outcomes.
The report says guests may not recognize the origin of every object and that Kinship is working on a zine to share those stories. It does not give a release date for the publication or confirm when the planned gift shop will open.
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A Zine and Planned Gift Shop
Caudill told Design Milk that Kinship is working on a zine about the designs and their makers, though no publication date was stated. He also plans to launch a gift shop selling selected items used in the guest rooms, including soap dishes. The report says some soap dishes have gone missing, but provides no further detail about how many or when the shop will open.
For now, the confirmed development is the hotel’s regional design program and its partnerships with Michigan businesses, studios and artists. Further details on the zine, gift shop and the hotel’s operations have not been announced in the source material.
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Key Questions
Where is the Dexter Hotel?
The 29-room hotel is in Elk Rapids, Michigan, on Grand Traverse Bay, about a three-and-a-half-hour drive north of Detroit, according to Design Milk.
Who developed the Dexter Hotel?
The project is from Kinship Hospitality, co-founded by Daniel Caudill and Kamron Bije-Apple, in collaboration with Shore North Development.
What parts of the hotel were made in Michigan?
Reported examples include guest-room furniture by Grand Rapids-based Wolf Studio, lights made by Traverse City’s Britten Inc., ceramics from ClaySpace, and signage by Bear Sign Company and Detroit’s Motown Hand Painting.
Will guests be able to buy items used in the hotel?
Caudill said he plans to open a gift shop selling selected guest-room designs, including soap dishes. The source report gives no opening date or confirmed inventory beyond those examples.
Source: rss
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