Vintage Afterthoughts: The Benjamin Wales House

In my last post I talked about the amazing B&B that I stayed at over Thanksgiving in Hallowell, Maine. In that post, I focused on the first floor of that gorgeous 1820 mansion. In this post, I am going to focus on the actual bedrooms of the B&B.

The B&B has four suites, each with a different theme.

First, to get to those rooms you have to go up this gorgeous winding staircase.

On the curved wall hugging the staircase are the silhouettes of Charles Dickens characters, double framed with white wood molding that curves with the walls. Its so genius!

The first suite is the room that I stayed in, "Boothbay", themed after Boothbay Harbor, Maine.

The room has a high platform king sized bed with four large white posters. The walls are a soft seafoam green. There is a separate shower from the bathroom.

Above the bed is an antique white iron mirror and two milk glass mounted lamps.

There is a small wicker seating area near a fireplace decorated with toy boats, seagull decoys, actual drift wood, ball jars full of seashells and sea glass, and two japanese water balls hanging from their nets. So cute! You can see the bathroom door on the left, and the shower area on the right.

This beautiful armoir was, I believe, made by the owner. On each sides are wreaths made of dried Maine blueberries! I want one SO badly!!!! On top is an light green glass jug, a fisherman's basket, and seagull decoys.

This small settee is at the foot of the king size bed. This settee has so much detail, from the gorgeous scrolls in the wood and upholstery to the curve of the cushion and the wood. It was so nice to sit on this as you put your shoes on in the morning (or pulled off your cold wet shoes after walking through a foot of snow).


And here is the view of the winter wonderland from the Boothbay window. So pretty!!!

Across from Boothbay is the "Kennebec," themed after the Kennebec River that meanders through Maine, and hugs the shores of Hallowell.

The Kennebec has a queen bed with four large mahogany posters. It has a large dark walnut armoir and a white wood mantled fireplace.

The room has some of the most interesting architecture. Behind this curved wall is.....

.....this amazing clawfoot tub shower. The curved walls have details that look like the details in a tin ceiling. The floor is swirled marble.

The room has quite a bit of antique furniture, which I wasn't able to get pictures of. While this blurry picture isn't of the quality that will win any awards any time soon, you can see all of the small drawers and cubby holes that make it a unique piece.

The next suite is the "Sugarloaf", and it makes you FEEL like you are staying in a cozy cabin in Sugarloaf while the snow is coming down outside around you.

It has a queen size bed with a sturdy oak bed frame and a comfy warm quilt.

The sturdy oak armoir matches the bed frame, and has a cute antique wood sleigh on top. And between you and me and the blogosphere, it DID cross my mind to try out that sleigh down the snowy roads of Hallowell, but something tells me the awesome owners of this B&B wouldn't have loved that idea as much as I did.

Antique snow shoes! A duck decoy and a painted paddle!!! You feel like you are in a cabin in the middle of a snowy pine forest!

These old strap-on ice skates were hiding on the wall behind the door. Such a cute idea!

This tub was gorgeous - you can't tell from this lame-o pictures, but it is a COPPER tub! COPPER! With the price of copper souring, how much do you think I'd get if I took it and melted it down? :) Just kidding. Sorta.

And the final suite is the "Acadia," named after the amazing Acadia national park (which, if you haven't been to it, should definitely go on your bucket list). This room is surely a "suite."

You first walk down a small hallway which opens up into this sitting room. The walls in this room are a dark blue. I am always afraid of painting with dark blue because I am afraid it will look like a cave, but not this room. The light toile curtained windows and the light upholstered furniture really brightened this sitting room.

You can't really tell in this picture, but the frame immediately surrounding the ship painting is made of rope. ROPE! And then it is outlined in a double frame of white wood molding.

Do you see these antiques? This is what my heaven looks like. You also get a better angle of the really neat rope and molding framing of the painting.

This picture really captured the beauty of the color on the wall.

Once you walk through the blue sitting room, there are two beautiful french glass doors which lead to the light yellow bedroom.


These two separate beds can be pushed together to make one king size bed.

This room is so comfortable and beautiful. Can I live here please?

As I put together this post, I keep thinking of all the little beautiful details that I wasn't able to get pictures of, or no matter how hard I try I will never find the words to explain how perfectly everything fit together to make this particular B&B so comfortable that you sometimes forget that you are not home.

If you ever find yourself in the Augusta, Maine, area I very very highly suggest that you stay at the The Benjamin Wales House. Its affordable, its beautiful, and I guarantee that it will be an enjoyable experience. Check out their web page to see more pictures and how amazing the house is in all seasons of the year.

Also - the B&B is currently up for sale. So, if you are interested .... check it out on their website! And then give me a discounted rate when I stay there :-D

And for those of you who stayed around long enough to get to the bottom of this post ... your reward is a picture of me making a fool of myself in a Pilgrim hat. I used an app on my Iphone to give it an old, vintage look. Ya know, cause Pilgrims had cameras back then. ;-)

For Thanksgiving I spent the week in Hallowell, Maine, a quaint little town along the Kennebec river and right outside of Augusta. We stayed in the Benjamin Wales House, which is a beautiful historic home restored as a B&B.

The Benjamin Wales House, which was built in 1820, has some of the most amazing details and charm that I have ever seen in a B&B: 11' tall ceilings, original wide planked hardwood floors, fireplaces in virtually every room, four huge bedrooms with private baths, a parlor for breakfast, a billiards and piano room, and even a small library.

And this doesn't even include the furniture and all of the handpicked intricate touches! Almost everything was found at auctions, and there has been no small detail left out. I hope the pictures will speak for themselves.

The second day we were here we woke up to 10" of snow outside and we couldn't even open the door to get out of the B&B! It created such a beautiful winter wonderland!!!!

This first post will focus on just the downstairs........

The Benjamin Wales House during the snowstorm of 11-23-11

When you first walk into the house you are greeted by a grand spiral staircase.

I will talk more about these stairs, and the ingenious artwork going up the walls, in my next post. Promise :)

On either side of the hallway with the spiral stairs there are two twin foyers; one designated as the breakfast room with little breakfast tables along the wall, and the other as the billiards/ piano room. Here is the breakfast foyer.

Every morning was an amazing breakfast of fresh fruit, a hot-off-the-oven homemade muffin unlike any muffin you've had before (fresh blueberry, fresh raspberry, fresh banana walnut), and crispy bacon and eggs, pancakes, or french toast. It was amazing.

The breakfast foyer has the CUTEST collection of salt and pepper shakers!!!!! Here are just a few:

The room also has a gorgeous chandelier that is kept on at night for those who come home late, and vintage paintings that would have fit oh-so-perfectly in my suitcase.

Across from the breakfast foyer was the billiards and piano room. The walls are a gorgeous red which was difficult to get a consistent picture of.

Often you would hear classical music coming from this room and meandering through the heat vents of the house into all the other rooms.

Beyond the twin foyers and under the spiral staircase is a small reading room/library, with rich purple walls, gold tin ceilings, built in book cases filled with books, and a gorgeous chess set.

We were the first of the group to arrive and had the B&B all to ourselves. Once the rest of the group arrived and we literally took over all the rooms of the B&B, the owner opened up a dining room so we could all eat together.