Some places are built, while others are dreamed into existence. When we first began sculpting the Hazelnut Inn, my pointing trowel met more than concrete — it met the edges of stories.

We were designing boundaries: lines between a deep interior magic and the modern world scratching at the windowpanes. If you look closely at the North Star Suite’s celestial ceiling and secret-keeping corners, you will feel the distinct influence of the many fantasy worlds I’ve explored through the years.

I’ve always loved reading and I’m particularly fond of Naomi Novik’s work — her fierce, deeply empathetic characters have stayed with me long after the final page. If you are packing your bags for a stay under our stars, here are two of her books that I recommend for your nightstand.

The Perfect Match: A Deadly Education

Our North Star Suite is a sanctuary — a safe harbour with a private garden and a soothing soaker tub. The room’s midnight velvet tones and celestial motifs perfectly mirror the dark weight of Novik’s narrative. But real magic requires contrast; it needs a hint of peril to make the comfort feel earned.

That vital contrast comes alive in the pages of A Deadly Education. The novel introduces the Scholomance: a living, shifting school whose darkness is actively trying to eat its students. Reading it here creates a delicious friction. You can explore those dangerous, monster-filled corridors while safely tucked inside a suite built to shield you from the world. It’s the ultimate luxury: experiencing literary chaos inside a fairytale haven.

The Alternate Path: His Majesty’s Dragon

If dark academia isn’t the escape you're looking for, slide Novik’s His Majesty’s Dragon into your satchel instead.

This story trades claustrophobic danger for historical grandeur and the thrill of the open skies. The suite’s deep ocean hues and sweeping celestial ceiling mirror the endless horizons of Captain Laurence and Temeraire’s journeys. Reading it here feels like charting a course across the stars from the comfort of your own private captain’s quarters.

Each of our suites is a personal invitation to step out of the ordinary and into a story of your own. We built the architecture; we welcome you to bring the ink.

There is a fleeting moment, just as the sun brushes the horizon, when the air turns to honey and shadows stretch into long, violet ribbons. Photographers call it the “golden hour,” and for us, it was the spark for a years-long obsession. On our honeymoon, Hailey and I found ourselves watching the sunset from the tower of a restored Roman villa — it was a moment that bound us together in shared wonder.

We spent the next twelve years translating that single evening into the Hazelnut Inn. Our gates are finally open, offering three distinct worlds where that same gilded wonder never fades.

Where the Compass Points to Warmth

In the North Star Suite, the nostalgia of a grand voyage meets the stillness of the shore. As the sun dips low, your private garden transforms into a secret harbour—a quiet port designed for two souls to rediscover one another amidst the glow of a departing day.

The Earth’s Softest Glow

For those who prefer a romance rooted in the landscape, the Under Hill captures the steady pulse of the earth. Here, the golden hour is translated into the hand-crafted warmth of a cottage dream, offering you a cozy retreat from the modern world.

A New Dawn for Royalty

If you believe love should feel legendary, the Copper Crown stands as a radiant monument to your happily ever after. It is a suite of theatrical grandeur, designed to catch the light in a way that makes every moment feel like a scene from a fairy tale.

Your Gilded Getaway Awaits

The Hazelnut Inn was built for the magic you thought you’d outgrown. Whether you are celebrating a milestone or seeking a quiet clearing in a busy life, your love story deserves a backdrop this luminous. Step inside, and find your own eternal golden hour.

I am watching the late afternoon sun filter through a crab apple tree. In front of me, a cluster of globe thistles catches the light, their fierce, spiky heads, an impossible purple-blue against the earthy greens of the tree.

To anyone else, these thistles are landscaping. But to me, they are a living promise. When I look at them — as I do nearly every day — the last twelve years vanish, and I am standing once again at the beginning.

Twelve years ago tomorrow, Hailey and I were married. Wanting our celebration to feel entirely like us, we had tucked tiny seeds into the soil of our first garden — watering them, watching them break through the dirt, and grinning like fools when they finally bloomed. They became my favourite wedding flower: a literal piece of the home we were building together, carried in her hands and tucked into my lapel.

When the time came to sell that house, leaving was bittersweet. We were moving on to a daunting, beautiful dream: building the Hazelnut Inn from the ground up.

It was a massive undertaking — a chaotic season of blueprints, dust, and heavy work. But when we packed up our old life, we didn’t leave everything behind. We carefully dug into the garden soil, uprooted our faithful thistle, and brought it with us.

Gardening, like marriage, requires a quiet kind of stubbornness. It’s about anchoring yourselves through shifting seasons, surviving the frost, and trusting that what you have nurtured in the dark will eventually reach for the light. As we declared twelve years ago:

“I love what I know about you and I trust what I do not yet know.”

Today, that same thistle is growing strong. Its roots have claimed new ground, just as Hailey and I have grown into this life we’ve built together — twelve years of shared mischief and of holding fast to each other through every unexpected turn.

Happy anniversary, Hailey. Twelve years later, our love — just like our thistle — is deeply rooted, wonderfully vibrant, and growing stronger every single day!