Monday, July 13th, 2009
So I’ve decided to do some upgrading on the Magnolia Room. Of all the rooms, I’ve probably done the least to this room so far. In 2007, I did have the shower replaced as well as replacing the the bed with another queen bed and a new box spring. Oh, and I had a ceiling fan installed last year. For the most part, the room has remained the same since I bought the Inn in 2006.
I receive so many requests from people for separate beds and while the Lilac Room has a king bed and a child’s bed, the Rose Room has a king bed and a full-size futon couch, the Azalea Room has a king bed and a daybed, and the Sycamore Suite has 2 full size beds and a queen size sleeper sofa, I think I can get two beds in the Magnolia Room.
This decision really started because I plan on replacing the queen bed in the Holly Room with a new bed. What I decided to do was to move the queen Victorian bed from the Magnolia Room into the Holly Room. Instead of getting another queen bed, I’ve decided to get 2 twin beds which can be put together to make a king bed or separated into twins. This means that the room will fill two needs and that means happier guests.
I may have to downsize the furniture in the room to make it all work and I’ll have to move the location of the bed, but I’ve taken the measurements and it can work. It also means new bedding for both king and twin size beds and new mattresses, blankets, etc.
I’ve already gotten the twin beds from a new antique store in the Biltmore Village called Reunion Antiques and am having them sandblasted and powder-coated so they will be just like new. This shop has only been open for a month, but as soon as they have a website, I’ll post a link to it. The owner was extremely helpful and very willing to take offers (unlike some places) and she is arranging to have the beds done up nice for me. I can see myself spending a fair amount of time at this place.
I anticipate that with a king/twin bed option, this will become a more popular room. I’m on a mission now and should have the changes finished within the next month. So exciting!
Thursday, March 12th, 2009
Some innkeepers will pick one room each year that they update or renovate, but I find that too difficult because things come up throughout the year that need to be fixed or I see something that I want to add to a room or an idea I see in a magazine that I’d like to try and sticking with one room just wouldn’t work. Besides, with seven rooms, that means each room only gets renewed once every seven years. So, I update as something comes to me. I have also found that as I start a small project, it quickly escalates into something bigger. Take the Lilac Room for instance….
What started out as simply switching a heavy bulky TV for a newer flat scree
n, turned into needing to repaint the room. Here’s how it happened.
I decided to take out the 26″ TV that was housed in an entertainment center and replace it with a 26″ flat screen that I could put on the fireplace mantle, thus taking the entertainment center out and making more space in the room. Simple, right? Not so. One of the benefits of having the TV on the fireplace mantle is that the cable cord would be much closer to the cable jack. Where the TV was in the entertainment center meant that I had a 50′ cable cord that ran from the cable jack, up the right side of the mantle, across the mantle, down the left side of the mantle, along two short walls, around the molding of the bathroom door, and along a portion of another wall to reach the TV. All of the cable cord was in cord covers so you didn’t see it hanging out. Well, when I removed the cord cover from all over the wall, especially around the bathroom door area, it took off a large portion of the paint. Of course, I had not thought of this and realizing that I had guests coming to stay in that room in a few days, I took as much of the paint chips as I could to Lowe’s and matched (or thought I had matched) the paint perfectly. In fact, when the chips sat on top of the paint sample, there was no difference. NONE! Not so when I put it on the walls.
You know, I really knew in the back of my mind that it wouldn’t be an exact match because who knew how long the paint had been on the walls (certainly more than 3 years since that’s how long I’ve had the Inn), but I guess I was hoping for a miracle. Anyway, it was very obvious that the new paint is just slightly lighter than the original paint. So, I went back to Lowe’s and bought 2 gallons and decided to repaint the walls. I started seeing all the dings and scuff marks on the walls as I was painting them so this turned out to be a good thing because the walls look refreshed.
In addition, I wall
papered a section of the wall behind the bed to give the walls a little pop and I built a topper between the tops of the windows. I used some of the left-over material from the daybed bedding, some of which I had used to extend the curtains since nothing in this house is standard sized. Without the entertainment center (I subsequently sold it on ebay), the room feels even larger than it already is. I’m lucky that I have larger than normal rooms, and the feel of this room works even better with the TV on the mantle where guests can watch it either from the bed or from the armchairs at the end of the bed and in front of the fireplace.
