Hatteras Island, the southernmost of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, has a long legacy as a destination for kitesurfing, beach combing, and generally unplugging (complete with notoriously spotty cell service). Historically, lodging options included a smattering of inns, motels, campgrounds, and vacation rentals. Opening this month, the Edgecamp Pamlico Station hotel, designed by celebrity interior designer and potter Jonathan Adler,  ushers in a new level of accommodations. 

Pamlico Station owner Richard Fertig first came to the area in 2018 to learn to kiteboard. “I instantly found the island remarkable. The natural beauty, the wetlands—everything about it was so unique. I continued coming back year after year and found there were such limited places to stay,” he says. “I had the idea to create a hospitality experience that would open up this incredible destination to more travelers but also something that matched the Outer Banks’ world-class caliber.” The result is a residential-style hotel that offers a certain barefoot elegance along with wellness-focused amenities, concierge service, and easy access to nature. Each of the fourteen suites comes with an outdoor living space and water views of the Pamlico Sound. 

Inside, the suites are cozy and upscale. “Our initial inspiration was Mother Nature—she’s the world’s best designer—and the environment surrounding Pamlico Station,” Adler says. “The hotel is alongside one of the largest preserved parcels of the Outer Banks’ shoreline, which is so beautifully remote and majestic, and we infused elements of it in the colors we used.” The interiors capture Adler’s signature upscale midcentury style, with a mix of ceramic tiles, organic textures such as mohair and bouclé, and cool metals.

“Design has the power to reflect back your most interesting and glamorous self,” Adler says. “And who doesn’t want to feel especially glamorous on vacation?” 

Anchoring the bedrooms is the Adler-designed Riviera Wave Bed, featuring sand-colored bouclé and curved natural reeds that evoke the shape of water coming on shore. “I feel it’s important to design with a sense of place,” says the designer, noting that the colors of the surrounding landscape flow through the hotel’s living spaces in pops of green and blue.  

The building, formerly a retail center, has been thoughtfully designed to offer exterior access, which means guests can come and go as they please without having to traipse through a lobby. Railings and banisters are clad in organic material to blend into the landscape.

Each of the hotel’s fourteen suites comes with a dining area suited for four guests and a full kitchen, which visitors may choose to have pre-stocked with their favorite groceries. The concierge team can also arrange for a private chef to prepare in-room meals. “We’ve reimagined luxury by blending standout design, personalized and private service, and unparalleled access to outdoor adventure, creating an experience that’s really unlike anything else on the islands,” Fertig says. 

For the suite living rooms, Adler commissioned custom rugs made of 100 percent recycled materials. He says sustainability can also be about longevity and durability. “In everything I design, whether it’s products or places, I want them to be of extraordinary quality so that you can appreciate them for years and years without having to throw away or adjust a thing,” Adler says. “My motto has always been, ‘If your heirs won’t fight over it, we won’t make it.’” 

Adler, who considers himself “first and foremost a potter,” took pride in selecting artful ceramics and tile. The bedrooms are accented with his sculptural Grenade Column lamps and Soleil Tile Art, crafted from colorful ground recycled glass and stoneware. 

A circa-1968 photograph of a paraglider in Acapulco, by society photographer Slim Aarons, is the nostalgic centerpiece of a suite living room. Beyond taking inspiration from the Outer Banks, Adler says, “We drew upon other glamorous beachside locales, like the French and Italian Rivieras in the fifties and sixties.”