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The Dexter Hotel, a 29-room property in Elk Rapids, Michigan, brings together custom furnishings, lighting, ceramics, signage and other work made with regional businesses and artists. Kinship Hospitality co-founder Daniel Caudill says the project grew from a deliberate effort to ask whether each addition could be made locally.
The 29-room Dexter Hotel in Elk Rapids, Michigan, brings regionally made furniture, lighting, ceramics, signage and art into a waterfront hospitality project. The property is the latest work from Kinship Hospitality, the venture co-founded by former Shinola creative director Daniel Caudill and Kamron Bije-Apple with Shore North Development.
Many of the hotel’s furnishings and fixtures were developed by Kinship Hospitality with makers from northern Michigan and elsewhere in the state. Caudill designed custom white oak furniture that Grand Rapids-based Wolf Studio manufactured for guest rooms, including beds, chairs, couches and nightstands. The studio also made the reception desk and the bar in the on-site Noble Lounge.
Other named collaborators include Britten Inc. of Traverse City, which produced custom flush-mount ceiling lights designed by Caudill, and Traverse City ceramics business ClaySpace, which made trays, vases and accessories. Bear Sign Company, also in Traverse City, produced wayfinding and exterior signs. Detroit’s Motown Hand Painting added hand-painted signs. Vintage furnishings came from Pernette’s, an antiques dealer in nearby Northport.
The hotel’s regional focus extends to its art and food. The art collection was curated by Detroit’s Library Street Collective and includes work by Michigan artists Pier Wright and Jesse Hickman, as well as a landscape Caudill found at a local thrift store. Noble Lounge serves cheese from nearby Suttons Bay and Northport. The source report does not provide prices, occupancy figures or a specific opening date.
Michigan Makers Shape the Guest Experience
The hotel offers a case study in how a hospitality project can put regional production at the center of its design. Its locally made pieces range from major furniture to small accessories, linking the guest experience to businesses and artists in northern Michigan and Detroit. That approach also gives visitors a way to encounter the area’s makers through a place to stay and eat, rather than through a separate gallery or store.
For the participating businesses, the project placed their work in a hotel setting and involved direct collaboration with its design team. Caudill described the ability to visit makers and refine details such as ceramic glaze and lighting color as a benefit of working nearby. The report does not quantify the project’s economic impact or establish how much of the hotel’s total spending stayed in Michigan.
The design also connects the project to the state’s manufacturing history. Caudill points to Michigan’s role in furniture production, while Wolf Studio’s solid-wood pieces and the hotel’s custom woodworking make that connection visible in guest rooms and shared spaces. The project’s scale is limited to one 29-room hotel, but its sourcing choices show how a regional identity can be expressed through both prominent furnishings and everyday objects.
From Detroit Design to Elk Rapids
Caudill previously served as creative director for Detroit-based watch and lifestyle brand Shinola, where he championed made-in-Michigan production. He co-founded Kinship Hospitality with Kamron Bije-Apple; the Dexter Hotel was developed in collaboration with Shore North Development. The property sits on Grand Traverse Bay, about a three-and-a-half-hour drive north of Detroit, according to Design Milk.
Caudill told Design Milk that he had owned property in northern Michigan for about a decade and saw the region as having both natural resources and a creative community. For the hotel, he said the team considered whether items could be made locally, including small objects such as soap dishes. The source presents that sourcing approach as a project decision; it does not report a formal local-purchasing target or provide a full supplier list.
The interiors combine newly designed pieces with vintage finds and contemporary artwork. Caudill said the vintage chairs helped give the hotel a relaxed, lived-in atmosphere. The report describes the completed design and names several collaborators, but does not set out the project’s full construction timeline or explain how suppliers were selected.
““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
Opening Date and Local Impact
The source report does not state the hotel’s opening date, room rates, booking figures or operating results. It also does not measure how much of the project’s budget went to Michigan businesses, how many jobs the work supported, or whether the hotel has a formal policy for local purchasing. Those details would be needed to assess the project’s financial or broader economic effects.
Caudill said the team was working on a zine about the designs and planning a gift shop that would sell some guest-room items. The report gives no release date, product list or confirmation that either plan has since been completed. It also does not say whether the soap dishes that Caudill said had gone missing during guest stays will be among the shop’s offerings.
A Zine and Gift Shop Planned
Caudill told Design Milk that Kinship Hospitality was working on a zine to share stories behind the hotel’s designs. He also said the team planned to launch a gift shop with selected items from the guest rooms, including soap dishes. The source provides no timetable for either project, so their launch status remains unconfirmed in the available reporting.
For now, the reported next steps are those two planned ways for guests to learn about or buy some of the objects in the hotel. Any further updates on the zine, shop or hotel operations would clarify how the project’s design work reaches visitors beyond their stay.
Key Questions
Where is the Dexter Hotel?
The 29-room hotel is in Elk Rapids, Michigan, on the shore of Grand Traverse Bay.
Who developed the hotel?
It is a project from Kinship Hospitality, co-founded by Daniel Caudill and Kamron Bije-Apple, in collaboration with Shore North Development.
Which parts of the hotel were made in Michigan?
The report names custom furniture and a bar by Grand Rapids-based Wolf Studio, lights by Traverse City’s Britten Inc., ceramics by ClaySpace, and signage by Bear Sign Company and Motown Hand Painting, among other regional contributions.
Will guests be able to buy items from the hotel?
Caudill said a gift shop was planned to sell selected guest-room designs, including soap dishes. The report does not give a launch date or confirm that the shop has opened.
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