Lauren, here.
So, you may or may not know this, but I'm a bit of a serial entrepreneur. Besides running my full-time interior design business, I have a side hustle (QuickSites.co) creating beautiful websites for small businesses (not unlike LFID), I run our church art gallery and plan our bi-monthly gallery opening events, and I've also been working on something VERY exciting that I'm so pumped to reveal to the world!
Ready for it?
We turned our spare room + attic loft into an AirBNB! Crazy? Wonderful? Scary? All of the above? Yes.
I'm sure all of you have seen the latest AirBNB Netflix show, Stay Here, with brilliant interior designer Genevieve Gorder? Yeahhh, that might have given me a little bit of the AirBNB bug...
We've had long term renters in the past, but as we were exploring possibilities, we thought, what could it look like to turn the space into a vacation rental instead of a long term rental? We loved the idea of flexibility and not necessarily having to rent the space all the time.
We also LOVE travel and exploring new cities, so the chance to curate an experience for people visiting our home city sounded like so much fun. And of course, we also liked that it gave us an excuse to fix up some of the things in our house we'd been wanting to do for a while but just couldn't justify fixing at the present.
So, of course, I couldn't just slap the space on AirBNB and call it good. Nope! Our space has a name, an instagram account, and a full-on dedicated website to give local recommendations and tips to our guests.
Here it is, folks! Introducing....
The Loft on Madison
a unique AirBNB in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids
Check out our website here.
And now for the goodies...here are a few photos of the space, and you can see the full gallery in our portfolio here.
The space includes one bedroom, a private bathroom, and access to our third floor living space. The bedroom is super cozy and right across from the bathroom. I kept the decor nice and neutral (duh!) with hints of blues and green. Since the room is small, I leaned a large wall mirror on one wall, which makes the space appear and feel larger.
And you might recognize the below bathroom from our home tour series. Within the last year, we did some minor upgrades to this bath, including new counters, light fixtures, a coat of paint for the cabinets and walls, and new LVP flooring:
Upstairs, we wanted the loft to feel like an open-concept studio space. We created several distinct areas, including a sitting area, a reading nook, a sleeping area, and a dining room complete with "kitchenette" using an existing dresser, microwave, and mini-fridge: everything you need for a little weekend getaway or mid-week business trip to Grand Rapids.
Because the space is so big, I used two large area rugs to create some distinction betwen the two main areas—the dining area, and the living area.
This reading nook (above) is my favorite spot in the loft...its so cozy and full of sunlight, and the absolute perfect spot for sippin' coffee (or wine) and reading a good book!
I also wanted the space to be SUPER functional for guests—so I thought a lot about the things I value when traveling. One of which is the ability to hang up my clothing! So, I included a stand alone clothing rack with lots of hangers.
I also wanted to cater to people who might be on a work trip, or who even just love to journal, so I created a little work station in the far back corner. This would be great for putting in a couple hours of work, or maybe even writing about your adventures!
The sitting area is super spacious, with room for 5+ people. We furnished the space with fun vintage furniture, along with a TV/DVD/Apple TV so guests can enjoy a movie or Netflix. We also included a bookshelf with many interesting titles in case people felt like learning something new or relaxing with a light read.
So what do you think? Would you stay here?? And if you're from the city and have friends and family, by all means, we'd LOVE to host them! Feel free to send them to our website (www.TheLoftOnMadison.com) for rates and availability.
Work with Lauren Figueroa Interior Design
LFID is a full-service interior design firm serving West and Southeast Michigan known especially for our Designed in a Day service.
We work with clients from Detroit, to Grand Rapids, to Holland, to Traverse City, and anywhere in between, and we pride ourselves on creating bespoke, people-centered spaces—because after all, people are what this life is all about!