In 1891, Texas developers came together to form one of the state’s earliest planned communities just north of downtown Houston. Oscar Martin Carter, the head of the project, saw the “streetcar suburb” of Houston Heights as a place for business leaders and working families to live and flourish outside the hustle and bustle of the growing city. Carter’s vision, along with the well-preserved Arts and Crafts architecture around the neighborhood, sparked excitement in Tenaya Hills, the head of design at Bunkhouse Hotels and its newly opened Hotel Daphne.
“From a hotel concept perspective, the starting point was really Houston Heights itself—its history of a planned, utopian community, with historic character and big intentions,” Hills says. “The secret drinking houses that popped up during Prohibition, the counter-culture energy of the 1960s, and all the patina and personality that came with those eras. You end up with a [neighborhood] that feels layered, lived-in, and shaped by generations of rebellious characters.”
That defiant spirit inspired the name of the hotel, which nods to the myth of Daphne—the Greek goddess who, in order to escape the pursuit of Apollo, shape-shifted into a laurel tree. “We loved the idea of a place defined by independence, transformation, and the quiet power of choosing your own form,” Hills says.
Below, take a closer look at the art- and antique-filled Hotel Daphne.
For the lobby, Hills sourced textured seating and vintage tables from antiquing trips to Round Top, Austin’s Joint Detail and Uncommon Objects, and Houstons Heights’s Antiques on Yale. Reupholstering furniture, such as the round entryway couch from Holler & Squall in Round Top, allowed for Hills to collaborate with Houston designers and incorporate pops of red to echo the trim and Vernon Fisher’s Physics Questions painting. House of Hackney pillows, overlaid with orange and dusky-blue flowers and griffons, amp up the whimsy.
“Our hope with Hotel Daphne is to create a community living room for both residents and guests,” Hills says. In the cozy library pictured above, guests can peruse the art within teal lacquered built-ins, thumb through art and design books, or play a game of chess with onyx pieces on custom game tables. A reclining figure, painted by Kelli Vance, takes center stage and ties in the room’s rich gold and dark blue hues. “The overall palette is eclectic and grounded in timeless architectural colors inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, including deep blues, earthy greens, and terra-cotta.”
The guest rooms play up that earthy palette and the mythological woodlands of Daphne. Hills sourced the fabric for the headboard from the English design brand Osborne and Little and felt drawn to its “moody mix” of coneflowers, grasses, daisies, and poppies from the Trebah Gardens in Cornwall. Overhead, the organic curves and silky fabric of the light fixture, crafted by Copenhagen maker Oi Soi Oi, balances the intricacy of the botanical textile.
160 pieces from the Cat Spring Collection—Bob and Nora Ackerley’s private art holdings—color the walls of the hotel’s library, lobby, guest rooms, and restaurant. Curated by Hesse McGraw (the former executive director of Contemporary Arts Museum Houston), this cache of museum-worthy works includes a 1992 lithograph from Joan Mitchell (pictured here in the dining room of the Terrace Suite) and paintings from Thomas Nozkowski, Vernon Fisher, Dorothy Hood, and Mark Flood, plus commissioned pieces from San Antonio artist Matt Kleberg and Austin-born multimedia artist Alexandra Valenti. “Daphne is full of art that’s accessible and relatable,” Hills says. “There’s something special about getting to experience a collection like this in such an unpretentious, home-like setting.”
The team worked closely with Valenti, whose original paintings of surrealist scenes of women in nature hang in the guest rooms. “We’ve always wanted to collaborate with her on a hotel, and Daphne finally felt like the right fit,” Hills says. “It was a chance to bring her point of view into the project in a way that feels authentic to the Heights and to the spirit of the property.”
Dark jade-green tiles pad a guest room bathroom.
The on-site restaurant Hypsi specializes in seasonal Italian fare from chef Terrence Gallivan, including house-made focaccia; roasted snapper drizzled with salsa verde; black squid ink radiatori; and roasted beets studded with blood orange, gorgonzola, hibiscus, and pistachio. The drink menu plays up Italian flavors, too: negronis with tomato- and black olive–infused campari, tiramisu milk punch, and pepperoncini martinis. A mozzarella cart delivers cheese, pickled fruit, aged vinegars, and squares of focaccia.
Gabriela Gomez-Misserian, Garden & Gun’s digital producer, joined the magazine in 2021 after studying English and studio art in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. She is an oil painter and gardener, often uniting her interests to write about creatives—whether artists, naturalists, designers, or curators—across the South. Gabriela paints and lives in downtown Charleston with her golden retriever rescue, Clementine.