We have now officially remodeled all of the guest rooms since buying the Inn in August of 2004. It's taken quite some time, and there have been several other projects along the way to divert our attention. But, we have now accomplished one of first main goals to freshen up and put our touch on the guest rooms.
As with many of our other projects at the Inn - this one took much longer than anticipated and well had its fair share of mis-directions before arriving at what we both wanted. As with many of our re-do's, Beth spent a lot of time looking at house 'eye-candy' magazines like Country Living, Coastal Living, ..., to name a few. And, she arrived on a great room design using Navy and White - really formal and elegant in keeping with the goal of the Jefferson Davis room. I liked the idea too. However, we missed one important fact - the wall's in the magazine room were more than half covered in molding, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, windows, ... all with white trim. So the Navy was more of an accent.
Not noting this - big mistake on our part - we jumped right in to the project. And, this is where the fun began. First, Navy is a difficult color to work with. As we've learned over the years - and any of you who've ever gone for a really dark red or blue - good luck getting any color consistency on the first or second coats - in this case it took 1 coat of battleship grey primer and 4 coats of the Navy to get the right color consistency. At this point - 2 weeks had gone by - and that's when we both started realizing that if we did the whole room this way - it was going to take forever and well, it was just going to be too dark - getting a little gothic to be exact. And of course, that's when we finally put on our thinking caps and made the realization noted above regarding the magazine room. Bottom line, we had too much wall - not enough molding and such that could be painted white to balance it out.
So - there we were 2 weeks in - turning away reservations - and starting over. Not good.
But, as with any project that has gone the wrong way - at the height of our frustration - we found a perfect color in a Behr paint brochure. We also got back to basics and remembered our color wheel lessons - rooms should be warm and inviting - get back to the earthtones. So we settled on a nice spiced brown color (Pepper Spice is it's name) and matched it up with a great rich antique white for the trim (Edwardian Linen from Ralph Lauren). Best of all - this color worked well with the existing furniture in the room. It really brought out the richness of wood tones in the furniture that the former color was dulling (which we hadn't realized until the change). So the remodel is pretty much complete. Well, at least we thought it was until the curtains we ordered online arrived - flimsy would actually be being kind.
Sooo - we are almost there - just have to figure out the curtain issue. And, I have this need to strip the bed frame and re-stain to a rich wood tone (we'll see where I get on this ...). And, of course, Beth is now eager to get started on the bathroom ...
We don't have any photos - yet - but they are on the way - once we have them - we'll get them up on our website at http://www.abigailsinn.com/ .
Oh - almost forgot - why is the room named after Jefferson Davis - especially in Camden, Maine? This isn't Richmond, VA. And, well, we weren't trying to bring our Southern roots north.
A little house history comes into play here. Jefferson Davis was a guest of the house on multiple occasions in the 1850's and stayed in this room on his visits. Why was he in Camden, Maine? We don't have hard facts, but here is what we've pieced together so far. Davis in the 1850's made numerous trips to Boston to speak to the town leaders regarding the problem of run away slaves. Essentially, trying to get Bostonians to feel as if they should help out the wealthy slave owner's of the South - good luck there (found this out doing a little channel surfing late one night and happening upon this story on the History Channel). Our guess is that as part of these trips, he also included visits to Camden, Maine, where US Congressman E.K. Smart lived. Smart was an outspoken critic of the South's claims for reparations for runaway slaves - as we found in a 16 page speech he delivered to the US Congress in 1852 (actually one of our guests last year found the speech and was kind enough to get us a copy). Basically, Smart laid out that if the South expected the North to pay $800,000 in reparations for run away slaves, then the South needed to pony up about $20 million to cover expenses for federal services in the South covered by the taxpayers of the North (postal service, coastal defense, ...). So our best guess is that Davis as part of his excursions North was also paying visits to an outspoken critic of the views he represented. This is what we know to-date, and of course we'll add more as we learn more.
So -back to the topic of this entry - any of our previous guests to the Jefferson Davis Room - you will be in for a pleasant surprise on your next stay at Abigail's Inn.
As with many of our other projects at the Inn - this one took much longer than anticipated and well had its fair share of mis-directions before arriving at what we both wanted. As with many of our re-do's, Beth spent a lot of time looking at house 'eye-candy' magazines like Country Living, Coastal Living, ..., to name a few. And, she arrived on a great room design using Navy and White - really formal and elegant in keeping with the goal of the Jefferson Davis room. I liked the idea too. However, we missed one important fact - the wall's in the magazine room were more than half covered in molding, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, windows, ... all with white trim. So the Navy was more of an accent.
Not noting this - big mistake on our part - we jumped right in to the project. And, this is where the fun began. First, Navy is a difficult color to work with. As we've learned over the years - and any of you who've ever gone for a really dark red or blue - good luck getting any color consistency on the first or second coats - in this case it took 1 coat of battleship grey primer and 4 coats of the Navy to get the right color consistency. At this point - 2 weeks had gone by - and that's when we both started realizing that if we did the whole room this way - it was going to take forever and well, it was just going to be too dark - getting a little gothic to be exact. And of course, that's when we finally put on our thinking caps and made the realization noted above regarding the magazine room. Bottom line, we had too much wall - not enough molding and such that could be painted white to balance it out.
So - there we were 2 weeks in - turning away reservations - and starting over. Not good.
But, as with any project that has gone the wrong way - at the height of our frustration - we found a perfect color in a Behr paint brochure. We also got back to basics and remembered our color wheel lessons - rooms should be warm and inviting - get back to the earthtones. So we settled on a nice spiced brown color (Pepper Spice is it's name) and matched it up with a great rich antique white for the trim (Edwardian Linen from Ralph Lauren). Best of all - this color worked well with the existing furniture in the room. It really brought out the richness of wood tones in the furniture that the former color was dulling (which we hadn't realized until the change). So the remodel is pretty much complete. Well, at least we thought it was until the curtains we ordered online arrived - flimsy would actually be being kind.
Sooo - we are almost there - just have to figure out the curtain issue. And, I have this need to strip the bed frame and re-stain to a rich wood tone (we'll see where I get on this ...). And, of course, Beth is now eager to get started on the bathroom ...
We don't have any photos - yet - but they are on the way - once we have them - we'll get them up on our website at http://www.abigailsinn.com/ .
Oh - almost forgot - why is the room named after Jefferson Davis - especially in Camden, Maine? This isn't Richmond, VA. And, well, we weren't trying to bring our Southern roots north.
A little house history comes into play here. Jefferson Davis was a guest of the house on multiple occasions in the 1850's and stayed in this room on his visits. Why was he in Camden, Maine? We don't have hard facts, but here is what we've pieced together so far. Davis in the 1850's made numerous trips to Boston to speak to the town leaders regarding the problem of run away slaves. Essentially, trying to get Bostonians to feel as if they should help out the wealthy slave owner's of the South - good luck there (found this out doing a little channel surfing late one night and happening upon this story on the History Channel). Our guess is that as part of these trips, he also included visits to Camden, Maine, where US Congressman E.K. Smart lived. Smart was an outspoken critic of the South's claims for reparations for runaway slaves - as we found in a 16 page speech he delivered to the US Congress in 1852 (actually one of our guests last year found the speech and was kind enough to get us a copy). Basically, Smart laid out that if the South expected the North to pay $800,000 in reparations for run away slaves, then the South needed to pony up about $20 million to cover expenses for federal services in the South covered by the taxpayers of the North (postal service, coastal defense, ...). So our best guess is that Davis as part of his excursions North was also paying visits to an outspoken critic of the views he represented. This is what we know to-date, and of course we'll add more as we learn more.
So -back to the topic of this entry - any of our previous guests to the Jefferson Davis Room - you will be in for a pleasant surprise on your next stay at Abigail's Inn.
