Channeling My Inner Lorelai

What inspired me to create an Inn in downtown Suffolk?

“I stop drinking coffee, I stop doing the standing and the walking and the words-putting-into-sentence doing.” -Lorelai Gilmore

Despite the title of this blog post, I have not had the lifelong dream of opening an Inn like Lorelai Gilmore, though I appreciate how her style and attitude are depicted in the show. My journey is a bit different in regards to how I became inspired to open an Inn in downtown Suffolk. Truthfully, I have often thought that I would like to leave Suffolk and this 6,000 square foot estate that I have shed blood, sweat, and tears to maintain for so many years. Instead, I have begun to see the amazing potential the Pinner house holds. It is easy to live our lives with the mentality that the grass is greener on the other side, but I don’t want to live my life that way. I would much rather make the side I’m on the greenest it can possibly be through vision and creativity. 

I have such a vivid picture of the potential that this house holds. My passion may be driven a little by nostalgia, since I have watched my family grow up in this house for the past 25 years. I was married in the entryway, we hosted many holiday parties with music filling the house and Christmas trees in practically every room, but most importantly, we raised our two lovely daughters in this house. As they have grown up and embarked upon their own endeavors I decided it was time that I embark upon my own.

Along with the nostalgia that drives and inspires me, I have always had this ambition to make spaces feel welcoming and aesthetically pleasing. When I say always, I am really not exaggerating. When I was four years old my mother caught me rearranging my furniture in my bedroom, so I guess that is when this fixation with creating spaces began.

My goal is to create a space that people can appreciate as well as feel welcome and at home. A balance between the historical aspects of the property mixed with up-to-date styling that doesn’t make you feel as though you have walked into your grandmother's house. A space with high-quality fabrics, furniture, and details that fill the space, but still allows the architecture to speak for itself. My goal is to marry the past and the present; to design a place that guests can not only enjoy, but truly experience; in the same way my family has, and so many others before it, in this grand, beautiful, historic, and timeless Pinner estate.