La CHIARA™ 2 | Villa in Buchanan

Somewhere between an artist’s working studio, a rotating museum wing, outdoor grounds for sculpture, and a wonderspace for creating art yourself, you can find our beloved inn, La Chiara™ perched on the beautiful downtown bluff of Buchanan, Michigan.
La Chiara™ is a 4 unit complex that we’ve built into 2 lodging offerings plus our Innkeeper’s Quarters. The first lodging offering is an entire half of the vertically split duplex; the upstairs and downstairs units combined, and is one of the postal addresses which sleeps 6.
The second lodging offering (this one) is the upper unit of the other postal address which sleeps 4. So La Chiara™ can accommodate groups of 10 willing and able to book both lodges.
I’m happily available to help with any issues that arise as your innkeeper as I live on premises with my wife Katrina and daughter, Chiara, year-round.
While the properties are separate (separate postal address, parking, entrances, etc.) you may come across a fellow happy traveler smiling and waving from their own private balcony overlooking the Plane Courtyard or strolling the grounds for sculpture and art.
Boasting over two dozen works of art in media including photography, water color, sculpture, digital prints, laser, woodwork, printmaking, and repurposing, La Chiara™ aims to serve as an expanding, multi-faceted lodging and recreation wonderspace.
In addition to art, there is great kayaking on the St. Joseph river. La Chiara™ is located 1.2 miles from the Buchanan dam which lends itself to a spectacular downstream paddle or float from Buchanan to the Berrien Springs dam.
Outdoor activities include laying in the hammock, walking the grounds for sculpture and art, chilling on the porch swing, enjoying the breeze on your private balcony, creating original outdoor art yourself, corn hole, bocce, and the Plane Lounge. The last two listing photos are of the playground across the street and is open and available during the summer!
The Plane Lounge is a great place for coffee, wine, beer, provision or even an aviation-themed cocktail (alcohol and provisions not supplied). The Plane Lounge is a repurposed 1966 Mooney M20 fuselage - generally open from dawn till 12pm.
Mooney aircraft are part of a family of piston-powered, four-seat, propeller-driven, general aviation aircraft, all featuring low wings and tricycle gear, manufactured by the Mooney International Corporation.
Here at La Chiara™ however, the Plane Lounge is known for its exposed guts of tubes that now echo adventure with a Bluetooth speaker, a Stanley cocktail shaker set, phone charger, LEDs, and a mini-fridge.
Feel free to stock the mini fridge accordingly for your stay. We hope you find the Plane Lounge fruitful as a refreshing ambiance for conversation and ideas.
La Chiara™ is located 27 minutes from Lake Michigan and 25 minutes to The University of Notre Dame. One of our favorite aspects of living in Buchanan is access to the public kayak/boat launch 1.1 miles away that is free to use and is also free to park.
Safety for you, us, the surrounding community (most especially the Elementary School and our neighbors) is paramount. We’re honored and extraordinarily grateful to unofficially partner with the Buchanan Police Department to assist in making the neighborhood the safest possible drop-off and pick-up location for children that we can during the calendar school year as well as through their Summer programming. We have five outward facing security cameras in use: at the front doors, side windows and overlooking the Courtyard Plane Lounge. We do not allow smoking cigarettes. There is no smoking cigarettes inside, and no smoking cigarettes outside anywhere on the property.
It’s not uncommon to see an officer parked in a corner of the property so they can more easily direct school traffic and we consider ourselves very fortunate to be in a position to greater safety efforts for the Elementary School population.
Taking its name from our first grader daughter, La Chiara™ is as much of a creative, de-risked, development tool as we could design to guide our daughter through the adventures of entrepreneurship; from the janitorial to the curatorial art direction, and finance.
Chiara does everything with me from properly cleaning the toilets, to supplying the art program. She currently has 5 works of art on display and from what I’ve gathered, we should expect surprise installations.
Our family is on premises and very grateful to host you as Innkeepers. We believe strongly in remediation if any issues arise. In fact, our policy for any issue that arises is for me to handle it asap, but I also share every communicated issue with my daughter Chiara. It's actually a great policy for life too; if something is wrong, what words would you choose knowing a little girl will hear them and do her best to find a solution?
Our family moved here in 2021 and it’s easy for us to see why Buchanan, Michigan was named, “Nicest Place in America 2020.” We truly hope to be a lit doorway showcasing Buchanan and adding to its growing fascination.
We wish you double the adventure and quadruple the safety!
"La Chiara: What’s rad to you?"™
Frank, Katrina and Chiara

La CHIARA™ 2 is located in Buchanan. La CHIARA™ 2 provides accommodation, featuring Kitchen, Air Conditioner, Pet Friendly, among other amenities. This Villa features Kitchen, Air Conditioner, Pet Friendly, to make your stay a comfortable one.

La CHIARA™ 2 has 2 Bedrooms , 1 Bathroom, and max occupancy of 4 people. The minimum rental for this property is 1 nights, but this can change depending on the season you plan on staying. Previous guests have given good rated it, and VRBO labeled it a top-rated Villa because of the excellent services rendered by the owner or manager of this Villa, and has consistently provided great experiences for their guests. Most families or guests that use it recommend it to their friends and some of them are repeat guests. Villa has a friendly neighborhood, and the Buchanan has interesting places to visit. If you want to learn more about the Villa in Buchanan, such as places to visit and things to do nearby, you can check below to learn more.