The Indigo Inn Project
Indigo Inn and CHI design indigo partnered in January 2023 to transform all 40 rooms with something indigo. In the 1850s, it was originally an inventory warehouse to store indigo dye, Located on Meeting Street and Maiden Lane, this unique downtown gateway is a bridge connecting past and present so what better than add a touch of modern indigo with the historic furnishing.
CHI design indigo grows and processes the historical indigo plant into indigo pigment. Some is sold to dyers or artists and some is stored to use all year long to create a line of products in house and execute large project such as the Indigo Inn project. With the help of our studio assistant, Caroline Harper manages, in just a couple of months, to create 100 prints on twill cotton to frame, 65 velvet throw pillows and 60 organic cotton throw blankets for the foot of the beds.
The prints feature Charleston’s icon flowers (magnolia, camélia), plants and trees (pineapple, fern, palmetto tree) and some parts of iron works that you can find on gates around the city. They are stenciled on fabric with a thick paste and dyed carefully in a flat plastic very large box a couple of times before washing the paste off, dryed, ironed and framed. “A very tedious work that took hours in a day, even during windy or rainy days to make the deadline. I loved every minute of it.” says Harper.
The rooms are almost all redone. The lobby area is a showcase for the region’s indigo history dating to the 18th century, with samples of indigo dye pigment, books about indigo, and framed indigo textile art. One must stay there and take in the beauty and the richness of this color.
“This is the right time and Charleston is the right place for local indigo textile art to become a more visible part of the experience of living and visiting here. With the complex history of indigo in South Carolina and such a hopeful future with growers, textile artists, and agritourism in the Lowcountry, we’ll be seeing more and more beautiful indigo blue everywhere.”