About Us
What do you get when you mix entrepreneurship drive, a love of interior design, and an appreciation of stillness and relaxation? The Atwells! In all truthfulness, we rarely do sit still. (Although, that kind of happens when you have two little ones who never stop.)
Now more than ever, having small children has made us realize the importance of being still and soaking in the moments with our family. That’s one of the main reasons we wanted to create Dune Dwellings. We aim to provide convenient, comfortable spaces in an area that hosts activities for visitors with diverse interests. Although we only moved to the Dunes a few years ago, we immediately fell in love with the beach, the people, and a wide variety of local attractions. We truly feel that Northwest Indiana is the best-kept secret of the Midwest.
We met on a dock on Lake Michigan in 2013, got engaged in the same spot a year later, were wed in a cottage on Lake Michigan a year after that, and bought a serious fixer-upper on Lake Michigan a little over a year after our wedding. It’s safe to say that we’re slightly obsessed with the lake, and clearly we’re in love with all that this area has to offer.
In 2018, we started hosting short-term vacation rentals. In doing so, Kirby could live out his passion for being an entrepreneur, and Taryn could take the company credit card to antique shops (hallelujah!) and HomeGoods while stocking up for each vacation rental. We’ve truly enjoyed meeting the groups that we host; it’s so fun to see guests with such diverse interests enjoy the different perks of Michigan City and the Indiana Dunes.
While the creation of Dune Dwellings is our dream now realized, our ultimate goal is for our spaces to provide opportunities for the fun to last beyond our walls: where families create memories along the beaches of Lake Michigan, where couples celebrate anniversaries at a local winery, and where friends can reunite to make up for lost time. We love this area and can’t wait for you to fall in love, too. We hope to host you time and time again!
All our best,
Kirby and Taryn Atwell