Bohemian Inn & Restaurant -- the Greenleaf Pierce

Since posting about the quilt shop, I've neglected blogging but am still working on minis as time permits. In the past year we've established a second home in New Orleans and will split our time between there and Missouri. In New Orleans, I'm working on a Greenleaf Beacon Hill, which will become home to Sophia and her husband, a respected physician of color in the 1880s. Sophia can be seen arriving at the Creole Cottage to visit Marie Laveau. A goodly chunk of time has been taken up with genealogy and gardening, two other activities I like to indulge in. And we managed a trip to France this spring, where we met some of my husband's relatives.

Now we're in Missouri. The garden is winding down toward autumn, and I finally found time to dig out the Pierce kit. This kit has cried out to become a Bohemian Inn & Restaurant/Tavern from the get-go. It reminds me of the historic inns of the Czech Republic, where my family originated. I've been collecting furnishings for it for a couple of years, at least.

I envision it as having a small entry/reception area, a restaurant, bar, private dining/meeting room, kitchen, and restroom on the ground floor. The upper two floors will be guest rooms and baths. I'll post inspiration photos as I work on the details.

There is a need for some bashing. For one thing, it will need a 3-story addition to include the kitchen on the ground floor with bedrooms above.

These are photos from the Greenleaf website

The blank wall on the right will have doors cut into it. That's where the kitchen/bedrooms addition will go. Note the freestanding stairway on the ground floor. It is a wonderful design but takes up a lot of floor space. The entry/foyer is blocked from view. I want to move it against a wall; it will have to be modified.

The next photo shows my initial idea for ground floor layout. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you'll be able to read the labels.

The problem with this idea is the corner bar placement. It would mean bashing the tower to make a corner for the bar. The next photo shows a better idea: switching the bar and restaurant areas.

The right side of the stairway would become a solid wall. The reception desk would stay under the stairs. A wall with a door will have to close the space between the reception desk and the back left wall so guests wouldn't be able to access the bar/restaurant area in off hours. This floorplan is more practical than the first one. The challenge here will be to construct the wall so as to not block the view of the entry. Maybe some way to use Plexiglas?

The table/benches may move into the restaurant area. I wanted to see what it would look like scale-wise.

Speaking of scale, I was surprised to see how small the rooms are in this build. The footprint is about 24" x 36" (and will be closer to 36" x 36" when the kitchen addition is included), but porches along two sides eat up part of the real estate. I think in the long run the small rooms will add to the authenticity. Most of the inns we experienced in the Czech Republic had very small rooms, with bathrooms shoe-horned into some interesting nooks and crannies.

A trip to the lumber yard for a piece of 1/2" plywood for the base is the next step. It will be 36" x 36". The step after that will be to figure out where this project will reside.