23 BIPOC Designers Made Over This Berkshires Inn
Designer showhouses have long been a staple of the interior design world. And while we love touring them for inspiration—and they've been the setting for some of the most iconic design moments—they're always somewhat bittersweet. At the end of a showhouse run, all of those beautiful rooms, complete with wallpaper, flooring, furniture, and window treatments, are disassembled and returned to whatever state they were in before their designers worked their magic. But that's not the case with the Kaleidoscope Project. Opened this weekend in Lenox, Massachusetts, the project is a first-of-its-kind showhouse filled with rooms reimagined exclusively by designers of color. And at the end of its run as a showhouse on June 6, the space will return to its original function as The Cornell Inn. Talk about a dream getaway.
The project was the brainchild of designers Amy Lynn Schwartzbard and Patti Carpenter, who hatched the idea late last year. "It really stemmed from a conversation between Amy and me about bringing more diverse voices to the table and to the industry," Carpenter tells House Beautiful. "Because all these voices exist—and you don't hear from them enough." When participating designer Jennifer Owen (a Berkshires local) heard of an inn whose proprietor was looking for a redesign, it seemed like kismet.
Schwartzbard and Carpenter began tapping talented designers of color from all over the country to make over the inn's reception area, public spaces, and guest suites. Then, the designers set about revamping what were worn, tired interiors–with help from sponsors that include The Shade Store, Kravet, Caesarstone, ED by Ellen Degeneres, and Saatva, which provided mattresses for each guest room.
Though the organizers did let designers mostly have free rein, the inn's rooms are organized around three central themes. "We didn't tell anybody what to select exactly, but what we said was, there are three tenets of why someone comes to an inn," says Carpenter: "They come for rest, so that's a neutral palette; they come for reflection, that's a cool palette; or they come for rejuvenation, and those are the warm colors."
With those starting points in mind, the project's designers conjured a treasure trove of rooms fitting every style and mood. Given that the showhouse will eventually convert to an inn, designers had to think more practically than they might have in a typical showhouse, allowing space for things like the hotel mini fridge and reception desk, and accommodating for working bathrooms. While that may have made for a more challenging design process, it also ensures their visions live on—and are enjoyed by guests for years to come.
Though the house's designers hail from everywhere from Los Angeles to North Carolina and New Jersey, the Berkshires location holds special significance as Carpenter sees it: The first piece she selected for her second-floor room was a carpet from the Classic Rugs collection from Gee's Bend Quiltmakers, an interpretation of the graphic quilts historically made by Black women from an isolated community in Gee's Bend, Alabama. "There's this idea that the quilts used to point people north," notes Carpenter. "And now you have all these people of color up here, in Massachusetts, doing this. It's sort of full circle."
Tour the Kaleidoscope Project below and buy tickets to the showhouse here.
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