Bed-and-breakfast keepers in Williamsburg are in something ofa bind. Because all the historic buildings in town are owned by eitherthe Williamsburg Foundation or the College of William and Mary, they can’t offer travelers authentic Colonial accommodations. Some have Colonial-style decoration anyway, but others, like Sandi and Brad Hirz, owners of the Liberty Rose, have come up with different, imaginative solutions to the dilemma.
Sandi and Brad have a tremendously romantic story. They were just friends when Sandi decided to leave the West Coast to open a B&B in Williamsburg. Brad was helping Sandi house-hunt when they looked at a 1920s white clap-board and brick home a mile west of the restored district (on the road to James-town). Sandi bought it in five minutes. Then Brad started seriously courting her, but it was Sandi, and not the B&B, who inspired him. Now they run Williamsburg’s most beguiling B&B, deco-rated a la nouvelle Victorian with turn-of-the-century touches.
Sandi, a former interior designer, has a special talent for fabrics and is responsible for the handsome tieback curtains, many-layered bed coverings, and plush canopies. The patterns are 19th-century reproductions. Brad has held up his end of the business by managing remodeling details. The bathrooms are particularly attractive: One has a floor taken from a plantation in Gloucester, a claw-foot tub, and an amazing freestanding, glass-sided shower. The sumptuous Suite Williamsburg has an elaborate carved-ball and claw-foot four-poster bed and a fireplace. (The parlor, too, has a fireplace.) Magnolia’s Peach, upstairs, has a side room with a single twin featherbed all to its own. Each room has a TV with VCR and a collection of videos, and an amenities basket bulging with everything the traveler might need, from bandages to needle and thread. The fur-nishings are a fetching mix of 18th- and 19th-century reproductions and an-tiques. The latest romantic touch is two tree swings (one a two-seater) by the courtyard.
|
