The Trail Hotel debuted in May as the “world’s first bourbon-infused luxury hotel” and invites guests to explore Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail from the property’s Bardstown location. Louisville-based Joseph & Joseph Architects transformed the Holiday Inn Bardstown, which opened in 1970 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, into a celebration of bourbon’s history and culture.
Among The Trail Hotel’s 95 guestrooms are eight Signature Suites that showcase different aspects of the legendary spirit. “The owners wanted guests to feel immersed in the bourbon experience in every room,” said Shelley Malicki, lead interior designer, Joseph & Joseph Architects, “and it was our challenge to come up with eight different bourbon themes for the suites while retaining some common design elements.”
Connected to a king bedroom, each suite is ideal for entertaining, with a wet bar, TV, and unique welcome amenities. In addition to meeting the design challenge, the Joseph & Joseph team added a wooden wall to each room’s original concrete structure to accommodate plumbing and electricity. The four suites pictured below exemplify the Signature Suites’ intriguing variety of color palettes, furnishings, and decor.
LIMESTONE SUITE | A palette of deep caramels, charred oak, and soft metals distinguishes this suite, which showcases limestone water with black-and-white photos of Kentucky limestone caves set against a geological map of the state from 1920. The map over the bar table is a 1784 historic map of the Kentucky waterways. Calcium-rich limestone water is an integral part of bourbon production, and guests of this suite will receive a bottle of cold limestone-filtered water as one of their welcome amenities.
MASH BILL SUITE | This suite evokes bourbon-making grains such as wheat, barley, and corn with its color scheme of brown, tan, and yellow, as well as the grain-like textures of the wall covering and ottoman. A graphic details the mash bills of some of Bardstown’s bourbons, and guests will receive mash bill “recipe” cards as take-home gifts. The Mash Bill Room is also the only ADA-accessible Signature Suite.
PROHIBITION SUITE | Replete with dark, rich tones of burgundy and walnut and accents of bronze and silver, the elegant Prohibition Room features artwork, photographs, and images of news clips that tell the story of the period. “The vintage wall covering, velvet couch, gilded mirror, and other elements evoke a speakeasy of the 1920s,” Malicki explained.
DISTILLER’s DEN SUITE | Featuring deep colors, wood panels, and caramel tones, this suite focuses on the origins of bourbon and features photographs of key figures in its history, such as pioneering distillers Elijah Craig and John E. Fitzgerald; George Garvin Brown, founder of Old Forester (the first bottled bourbon); Margie Samuels, designer of Maker’s Mark; and Marianne Barnes, Kentucky Bourbon’s first female master distiller. “We wanted to create an ambiance where guests can comfortably lie back and imagine themselves hearing stories from these bourbon industry trailblazers,” said Malicki.