Furnishing the Inn
While the Inn is under construction, we’re working feverishly on the furnishings and decorating to prepare for guests. Thankfully, we’ve had enormous help and support from numerous professionals and would be remiss if we didn’t mention them.
Christine Butler of Elegant Interiors in Melfa, Virginia tops the list of experts and supporters. We anticipated having to search for reupholsterers, tile suppliers and installers, window treatment designers and fabricators, color coordinators and interior design experts. And then we found Christine. It was our lucky day when someone mentioned that if we were looking for window shades, we should contact Elegant Interiors. It turned out that Christine did it all. She has provided guidance, suggestions, craftspeople, problem-solving, service par excellence and endless support in this project while working with our tastes and within our budget. We can’t thank her enough.
One year ago, when we began purchasing furniture, Dragonfly Design Decor caught our attention in advertisements in several home design magazines.
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It turned out that Dragonfly was located nearby and we stopped in for a visit. I spoke at length with Kim Hessler, the owner, about our plans to open a b&b with unique guest rooms inspired by our favorite places around the world. One of those favorite places is the Far East, Kim’s specialty. Despite the fact that it took us a full year to actually purchase furniture for the “Asian Room,” Kim kept us in mind and prepared for “selection day” by researching our website and hand-picking various pieces that she thought would work in the room. We spent several hours reviewing the floor plan, moving furniture and changing our minds before settling on just the right items. I’ve attached photos of some of the furniture to give you a preview of the room.
We have searched antique shops and markets over 6 states during the past year looking for just the right pieces to create the style and atmosphere we were looking for. Finding some of the right furnishings was more difficult at times especially when considering room sizes and shapes. In particular, the Maine Room with its sloped ceilings created a challenge when looking for an armoire. The sloped ceiling on the designated wall begins at 50″ and as hard as we tried we couldn’t find a cabinet (old or new) to serve as an armoire that would fit the space. While looking through the Eastern Shore News one day, we noticed an advertisement for a furniture maker called
White Barn Cabinetmakers, specializing in New England style furniture.
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Doug and Kathy Kutz were new to the area having just moved from Massachusetts - our own roots. We made an appointment to visit the Maine Room and discuss the options. We fully expected that handmade furniture would be completely beyond our budget, but thought we should meet with them anyway since we were at a loss for the right piece. We were immediately impressed. Doug is the woodworker and Kathy is the finisher and together they offer 25 years of experience, custom service and their personal guarantee. They not only designed the armoire to all our specifications, but offered samples of finishes to select from - they even visited our storage area to determine the right finish to match antique pieces already purchased for the room. It turned out that they were able to design and build the perfect cabinet for less than we could buy new, IF we’d even been able to find it. We were so delighted with the end result that we asked them to build two bathroom vanities and modify the Asian armoire to meet the functionality we wanted. We’ll post those photos once the pieces are complete.
Our thanks to all of them for their expertise, patience and support. We couldn’t have done it without them.