Nantucket’s Newest Boutique Hotel Is a Delightful Mix of Vintage and Botanical Details

Life House Nantucket reimagines a 200-year-old mansion as a retro inn inspired by local flora.

Nantucket’s Newest Boutique Hotel Is a Delightful Mix of Vintage and Botanical Details

Life House Nantucket reimagines a 200-year-old mansion as a retro inn inspired by local flora.

Much of the furniture in the public spaces is vintage, sourced from local shops and collectors.

It’s a delicate process to remake a piece of history. It’s often more challenging to restore an old structure than to build anew, and to replicate the aura that comes with a building that’s welcomed visitors for nearly 200 years—like the recently opened boutique hotel Life House Nantucket.

The 1830s mansion that is now Life House Nantucket was originally built by whaler <span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;">Captain Robert Calder and opened as an inn in 1870.</span><span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;"> </span>

The 1830s mansion that is now Life House Nantucket was originally built by whaler Captain Robert Calder and opened as an inn in 1870. 

Life House

Life House is the newest chapter of the island’s oldest continually operating hotel, an 1830s mansion that has been carefully revamped to "celebrate the coastal Federal-style architecture and pay homage to the island flora," says Rami Zeidan, founder and CEO of Life House. 

"Historic buildings have a lot of nuances," notes Zeidan. "In this particular house, every room is different. You can’t just design one thing and replicate it across every room. Each room has its own unique qualities."

Native flora features heavily in the design, like the modern interpretations of 1800s scientific botanical drawings found in the guest rooms. The artwork on the far right is made with poetry from a colonial-era journal that the in-house design team found at  the local public library.

Native flora features heavily in the design, like the modern interpretations of 19th-century botanical drawings found in the guest rooms. The artwork on the far right is made with poetry from a colonial-era journal that the in-house design team found at  the local public library.

Life House

But that varied, historic character is part of the attraction for Life House, which currently has three other locations in Miami, the first of which opened in the Little Havana neighborhood in 2019. These buildings come with stories, and Life House aims to honor them.

In Nantucket, the landscape plays a significant role in the design, in part because of the island’s rich history of conservation, but also because native flora has been part of the building’s character for decades. The previous innkeepers, who ran the hotel for 35 years, named each of the guest rooms after local foliage and flowers—black dahlia, white narcissus, sweet pea, and thistle, to name a few. The original brass room name plates are now used in the custom key cabinet used at check-in.

The custom key cabinet hangs above the vintage inlaid walnut check-in desk, wrapped in a handwoven jacquard fabric with silk fringe from Castel Maison.

The custom key cabinet hangs above the vintage inlaid walnut check-in desk, which is wrapped in a handwoven jacquard fabric with silk fringe from Castel Maison.

Life House

See the full story on Dwell.com: Nantucket’s Newest Boutique Hotel Is a Delightful Mix of Vintage and Botanical Details
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