Jennifer Bertrand and Gabriel York Launch The Midnight Lobby Co.
A New Creative House Based in Kansas City
The multidisciplinary practice launches with residential commissions and new work spanning interiors, hospitality, product design, fragrance and retail.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — August 30, 2026 — Co-founders Jennifer Bertrand and Gabriel York have launched The Midnight Lobby Co., a multidisciplinary creative house based in Kansas City and created to serve clients across the country and around the world.
The Midnight Lobby Co. works across residential and commercial interiors, hospitality, product development, brand creation and experiential design. It was created for ideas that do not fit neatly into one category and for clients who want to shape not only how something looks, but how it feels, functions and is remembered.
Often, the work begins with something less defined than a traditional brief: a feeling, an instinct, an idea someone can sense but cannot quite articulate. Bertrand and York find the thread, build the story around it and turn that unfinished vision into something clear, cohesive and real. The result might be a residence, a hospitality space, a product, a brand experience or something that does not fit neatly into a category. The medium can change. The approach does not: understand what something should feel like, then determine what it needs to become.
The name grew from a familiar ritual: after events, meetings and long creative days, Bertrand and York would find themselves in a hotel lobby for “one more” cocktail. Once the official conversation ended, the expected ideas often gave way to the more interesting ones—ideas that crossed categories, challenged assumptions and began with the question, “What else could this become?”
“Those conversations never stayed in one lane,” said York. “A room could become a brand, a product could become an experience, and one idea would become five. The Midnight Lobby gives those ideas somewhere to go and the strategy and structure to make them real.”
“People may notice how a space looks first, but what stays with them is how it made them feel,” said Bertrand. “The Midnight Lobby gives us the freedom to consider the entire experience—the room, the objects, the story and the way people live, gather and connect within it.”
Residential design remains a cornerstone of the practice. The Midnight Lobby is currently working with residential clients to create highly personal homes that reflect not only how they want to live, but how they want their spaces to feel.
In Kansas City, Missouri, The Midnight Lobby is designing the new Rolling Room experience for the KC Cigar Co. centered on craftsmanship, ritual, and gathering. The project reflects the firm’s interest in designing not only the room, but the complete experience surrounding it.
In a strategic creative partnership with Rocktops Granite & Stone in Olathe, KS, The Midnight Lobby is bringing its perspective to showroom design, material curation, and collaborative experiences.
For Seville Home, a luxury home furnishings destination in Leawood, KS, the company is developing an exclusive collection of occasional tables and home objects, translating The Midnight Lobby’s refined and unexpected point of view into collectible form. The partnership will also debut The Midnight Lobby’s signature home fragrance collection, available exclusively at Seville Home, featuring two original scents, Happy Hour and Last Call, across candles, room sprays and a limited-edition boxed candle set. Together, the collections extend The Midnight Lobby experience beyond interiors and into the objects, atmosphere and rituals that shape how a space is remembered.
Bertrand and York bring distinct but complementary experience to the company.
Bertrand first gained national recognition as the winner of HGTV’s Design Star, where more than five million viewers connected with her direct, accessible approach to impactful design. Her work has since included residences throughout the United States and abroad; collaborations with Ronald McDonald House Charities involving the NFL, MLB and MLS; and a NICU respite space at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago. She currently appears as the designer on Lifetime’s Military Makeover with host Montel Williams. Bertrand has also served on Monogram’s Design Council, as an NKBA Insider and as a presenter at KBIS Voices of the Industry.
York is a multidisciplinary creative and business leader whose career spans interior design, brand development, luxury retail, real estate, operations and customer experience. Over more than two decades, he held leadership roles with internationally recognized companies including Anthropologie, Burberry and Kohl’s before bringing those disciplines together through his own design, real estate and creative ventures. Most recently, York led the concept development and launch of Marble & Canvas at the Kansas City Art Institute, shaping its brand identity, retail strategy, merchandising, events and visitor experience.
Together, Bertrand and York have built The Midnight Lobby to do what their late-night conversations always did best: follow the strongest idea, then give it a way to become real.
About The Midnight Lobby Co.
The Midnight Lobby Co. is a multidisciplinary creative house based in Kansas City, founded by Jennifer Bertrand and Gabriel York. Working across residential and commercial interiors, hospitality, product development, brand creation, and experiential design, the firm serves clients locally, nationally, and internationally with a refined and unexpected point of view rooted in how people live, gather, and connect.
The Midnight Lobby does not simply design places, objects, or brands. It shapes how people experience them.
Follow The Midnight Lobby at www.midnightlobbyco.com or on IG @midnightlobbyco
Media Contact
Gabriel York, Co-Founder, The Midnight Lobby Co.
Gabe@theyorkandco.com
(913) 215-2223
www.midnightlobbyco.com