STANLEY HOTEL CARETAKERS COTTAGE

This project renovates the former “Caretaker’s Cottage” on the historic Stanley Hotel campus in Estes Park, CO into a series of tour spaces that celebrate both the hotel’s early 20th-century history and its role as inspiration for Stephen King’s novel The Shining.

The existing cottage building was first constructed in 1909 as a residence for the hotel’s winter caretaker, while the hotel was closed. Over the past several decades, the building has served several roles for the hotel, including most recently as an administrative office space. The MOA team collaborated closely with the client team to transform the building into a new tour location for the hotel. The renovation restores the first floor to how it might have appeared in 1909, resetting the office space into a residential suite, including a living room/library, dining room, kitchen, and sunroom. The MOA interiors team drew on contemporary design catalogs and other historical resources to create an authentic feel, down to the furniture, lighting fixtures, upholstery, and kitchen appliances. The renovation of the second floor explores the Stanley Hotel’s role as inspiration for Stephen King’s seminal 1977 horror novel The Shining, offering a series of playful spaces depicted in Stanley Kubrick’s celebrated 1980 adaptation of King’s novel. A spacious bathroom offers a meticulous re-creation of the infamous Room 237 bathroom. (If you aren’t familiar, one of the film’s more terrifying sequences occurs in this bathroom.) The bathroom mimics the original set design, with its mid-century modern aesthetic, 1970s-era mint-green finishes, and unique bathroom fixtures. The second floor also features two suites that draw on the striking set designs of the film, including a bathroom imagined as belonging to the Grady twins, the ghosts who appear in the film.