For Colleen Bashaw, the best hotels are the ones people instantly settle into. As executive director of design at Cape Resorts, she oversees the interiors across the company’s properties, including Congress Hall, Beach Shack and The Virginia Hotel in Cape May and The Pridwin Hotel & Cottages on Shelter Island. Across each space, her focus stays consistent: creating interiors that feel welcoming, layered and deeply personal from the moment guests arrive.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become less interested in designing rooms and more interested in creating emotional connections." - Colleen Bashaw
That perspective is deeply personal, as her grandfather purchased Congress Hall in 1968 and she spent summers there as a child long before joining Cape Resorts professionally. Those early memories still shape the way she approaches hospitality design today.
Her interiors feel as if they were collected naturally over time. Heavy linens, wicker furniture, painted floors, soft lighting, and vintage-inspired fabrics all work harmoniously to create spaces with an organic, warm feeling rather than something overly styled and polished. Much of the guest room furniture and carpeting is designed by Bashaw herself, always with comfort and livability top of mind.
“Lived-in means the space has been loved for years,” she said. “My goal is comfort and the sense that the room has a history.”
That philosophy comes through especially clearly at The Pridwin, the historic Shelter Island property Bashaw describes as feeling more like an adult summer camp than a traditional hotel. Spread across nearly ten acres, with cottages, docks, boating, tennis courts, a pool, and a beach, the property encourages guests to fully immerse themselves in the experience.
Some of the design choices are subtle but incredibly intentional. Bashaw restored many of the original wicker and rattan dining chairs instead of replacing them and sourced a vintage linen she loved enough to reproduce throughout the public spaces. At the Crescent Bar, she designed a pink-and-red striped awning fabric meant to blur the line between indoors and outdoors.
“The stripe is cheerful and nostalgic,” she said. “I think it makes people feel like they are immediately on vacation.”
One of the property’s most memorable details is the poppy-green painted floor inside the bar. Bashaw said painted floors have long been part of American coastal architecture, and the green brought “an energy and whimsy” to the room.
Guests often describe The Pridwin as nostalgic, though Bashaw believes they are usually responding less to the hotel itself and more to what it reminds them of: childhood summers, family vacations or the kind of retreat they always imagined somewhere in the distance. One of the compliments she hears most often is that the hotel feels as though it has always looked exactly this way.
For Bashaw, some of the most impactful design decisions are often the least obvious. Flooring, in particular, is something she returns to constantly because it shapes a room's atmosphere before guests even register the furniture or artwork around them.
“Whether it’s carpet, a painted floor or a natural fiber rug, the floor establishes the foundation for how a room feels,” she said. And for Bashaw, a room is complete when everything belongs together naturally.
Q&A with Colleen Bashaw
Where does your inspiration come from?
“I’m inspired by the tradition of American summers: clapboard houses, historic inns and coastal retreats where families return year after year. I love spaces that become part of people’s lives. I’m also drawn to Victorian furniture and interiors that feel layered and collected over generations.”
When a space needs updating, how do you make sure it still feels like itself?
“I always try to preserve the personality of a space. I respect the original color story and refresh rather than completely replace things. It’s more about refining and evolving while keeping the original spirit intact.”
Is there a room that has generated the most meaningful response from guests?
“The Brown Room at Congress Hall has probably created the strongest response from guests. People stop me on property or email me to tell me it’s their favorite room in the hotel, sometimes even their favorite room anywhere. Guests have told me they’ve designed rooms in their own homes inspired by Congress Hall, which is the ultimate compliment.”
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