SK Stokes Kennedy Makes History After Winning HGTV’s ‘A Very Haunted Renovation’

After 31 days inside Bihl Manor, the Long Beach designer took home $50,000 and became the first Black-masc-lesbian winner of an HGTV competition series.

Before HGTV’s A Very Haunted Renovation premiered in September, SK Stokes Kennedy told Gaye exactly what she wanted from the experience.

“This show is the first time I got to do the work as fully myself, and I hope it pushes someone else to do the same,” she told Gaye writer Juhi Page.

Six episodes later, Stokes Kennedy won the whole thing. Stokes Kennedy watched the finale alongside her partner, family and friends at a watch party celebrating the end of the season and, ultimately, her win.

HGTV crowned Stokes Kennedy the Season 1 winner after the Oct. 20 finale, awarding her the $50,000 grand prize. She beat fellow finalist Logan Wright after the two completed the mansion’s dining room and kitchen.

SK Kept Winning Her Way Through the House

A Very Haunted Renovation moved six designers into Bihl Manor, an 1890s Victorian mansion in Fremont, Ohio, for 31 days of room-by-room renovation and elimination challenges. The house sat vacant for years and has a reputation for unexplained activity, including stories about the spirits of former residents Lizzie and Alvie Bihl, along with reports of strange noises, shadows and other activity inside the property. The designers had to restore the house while competing against one another and sleeping under the same roof, giving HGTV a renovation series that also works particularly well as a Halloween-week binge, hint, hint.

Stokes Kennedy’s road to the finale started with a rough first challenge.

She, Wright and Bershan Shaw took on Lizzie Bihl’s bedroom in the premiere. Shaw became so uncomfortable living inside Bihl Manor that she left in the middle of the night, leaving Stokes Kennedy and Wright to finish the room without their third teammate. They lost the challenge, but the judges praised their craftsmanship and how cohesive the finished room looked.

Stokes Kennedy took over the living-room ceiling in Episode 2. Her team won the challenge, and mentor and judge Michel Smith Boyd called her ceiling the room’s “showstopper.” The judges named Stokes Kennedy the episode’s Most Valuable Designer.

The following week, she partnered with John Ryan on Bihl Manor’s front entrance and staircase. The pair preserved the home’s original woodwork while updating the space, and the judges gave them the Episode 3 win.

Then came the attic.

The final four designers had two days to turn the neglected space into a Gothic game room and speakeasy. Stokes Kennedy built a custom game table, and guest judge Billy Porter joined the panel as the judges named her Most Valuable Designer for the second time that season. They specifically praised her craftsmanship and the details in the piece.

By Episode 5, only three designers remained. Stokes Kennedy took on the exterior, replacing Bihl Manor’s faded yellow siding with navy blue and building a garden trellis from scratch. Wright won that challenge, but Stokes Kennedy survived the elimination and joined him in the final two.

And she was doing all of this while actually sleeping in the house.

When Stokes Kennedy first approached Bihl Manor, she spotted vultures circling above it. Later, a producer described shutting down filming after a REM-Pod used to detect movement or energy began going off while lights in the production control room flashed faster and faster. Stokes Kennedy later joked online that a cheerful cast photo taken before filming started was the first and last time everyone smiled that big.

 

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Then Came the Final Fright

For the finale, Stokes Kennedy and Wright first worked together on Bihl Manor’s dining room while competing against each other on individual design elements.

Each finalist had to turn a captain’s chair into a Victorian throne. The judges initially found Stokes Kennedy’s chair less impressive than Wright’s. Then they turned it around.

Stokes Kennedy had added a burgundy corset to the back, laced with black satin ribbon. That detail won her the challenge and gave her control over the design direction for the final room of the season.

She chose a moody, apothecary-inspired kitchen with sienna walls, a dark ceiling and diamond-patterned flooring. Stokes Kennedy took responsibility for the countertops, paint and trim and designed the stove and hood as her feature project. Her stove wall included an arch and a hidden spice rack. Boyd called it “a bounty of good decisions,” while Oscar-winning production designer Hannah Beachler, who joined the finale judging panel, praised the surprises built into the design.

Then host Anna Camp, Boyd and Beachler named Stokes Kennedy the winner.

“I feel amazing. Validated,” Stokes Kennedy said after the announcement.

That word lands differently after what she told Gaye before the season began.

Stokes Kennedy entered A Very Haunted Renovation talking about what it meant to stop editing herself for an industry that had taught her “who I wasn’t allowed to be.” She left Bihl Manor with two Most Valuable Designer wins, several winning rooms, $50,000 and an HGTV competition title.

You Still Have Time for a Haunted Binge

If you missed the season as it aired, Halloween week gives you a good excuse to catch up. You know Stokes Kennedy wins, but you still have to watch six designers spend 31 days sleeping and renovating inside Bihl Manor to get the full haunted experience. The strange noises, alleged paranormal activity and what happens when the designers actually have to live inside the house are part of the fun.

All six episodes of Season 1 are now available to stream on HBO Max.