When Audrey Gelman first opened her Brooklyn boutique, The Six Bells, in 2022, the word on the street was that the founder of The Wing was pivoting to cottagecore. However, with every step on her new pea-graveled career path, it’s becoming abundantly clear that the New York native is not so much embracing an aesthetic as she is creating an entirely new one.

This week, with the highly anticipated opening of The Six Bells Inn in New York’s Hudson Valley, the inntrepreneur’s approach to interiors feels less derivative than it does definitive, which is likely why it’s already earning buzz everywhere from The New York Times to Architectural Digest. Situated on (but of course) Main Street in the village of Rosendale, the three-story property is clearly a labor of love, with an attention to detail (hand-painted wardrobes, custom tin light fixtures) that infuses the space with a homey, acquired-over-time sensibility that makes it feels less like a stay at a hotel and more like a weekend sipping bourbon and eating Dutch chocolate cake with your fabulous antiques-loving aunt.

“I’ve always believed the best design doesn’t come from showrooms,” says Audrey. “It comes from church rummage sales, roadside barns, and country antiques fairs. The hotel is a love letter to those places.”

A Ripe & Rich Palette , Pastoral Pattern Drenching , Stenciled Motifs , Painted Furniture, Carved Box Beds , Tyrolean Touches

six bells green and cream bedroom with canopy bed

As with the Cobble Hill boutique, the inn—designed in tandem with New York interiors firm Greco Deco—draws much of its inspiration from “Barrow’s Green,” a fictional bucolic town of Audrey’s invention. “We wanted to create a space that feels like stepping into a storybook of American country life—deeply rooted, richly layered, and quietly transportive,” says Audrey. As an indicator that the newfound innkeeper has very much thought this all through, each of the inn’s 11 rooms, which feature names like Scrubbett’s Ledge and Gable’s Hollow, offers guests a chance to delve deeper into the town folklore. For example, should you opt to book Mildred’s Plum, you’ll find yourself as equally immersed in your deluxe canopy bed as you will some slightly scandalous Barrow’s Green gossip.

Here’s just a sampling of such storytelling from the inn’s website:

Mildred’s Plum is inspired by the award-winning black beauty plums grown by Mavis Spriggs, a lifelong resident of Barrow’s Green. The plum bounty has been the pride of the village for over two decades, with the exception of a single poison plum that nearly killed Amabella Fytche, who was serving as the harvest festival judge. Had the plum inadvertently come into contact with water hemlock, or was the judge targeted?

While our fingers are crossed that Audrey has a country-mystery book imprint in the works (rumor has it she will at least be hosting whodunnit dinner parties), for now the stories exist exclusively within the walls of the inn. And while much of the property’s lively narrative is pure fiction, there’s plenty of real history to mine in these parts, too. For example, the stately brick building that now houses the inn has hosted guests in various capacities since the 1850s.

six bells inn painted cupboard in wallpapered bedroom

And any antiques lover knows that every pick comes with a past. “Much of the hotel’s look came together piece by piece, over years of antiquing in small towns across the country,” says Audrey. I’d find a hand-painted armoire in Vermont, a faded sampler in Ohio, or a box of Victorian tiles in Pennsylvania—and slowly a story started to form.”

It’s no doubt that story will continue to evolve. Because the inn is highly shoppable—think pillows, quilts, lamps, dinnerware—many items will continue to rotate in and out. There’s also the fact that, despite her appreciation for both the past and the precious (there’s a dollhouse version of the inn), Audrey is keenly focused on a bold-fashioned future. As she told The New York Times, “I’m kind of a hard-driving person, in terms of building things and wanting to be generative."

How to Bring the Quaint Maximalist Look Home

One of things that makes The Six Bells Inn so aesthetically distinct is the interplay of styles, including American primitive country, British vernacular architecture, and the artisanal craftsmanship of Swiss and Bavarian traditions. Here are six ways to channel the nostalgic, richly layered look:

A Ripe & Rich Palette

Six Bells Inn living room

The inn’s color scheme feels a little like what you’d encounter at a Hudson Valley farmstand in late summer or early fall—think figs, plums, eggplant, and apples. It’s a color palette that would best be described as cosy—but to be clear, that would be cosy with an s, not a z. (For whatever reason, this distinction feels important.)

Pastoral Pattern Drenching

Bedroom The Six Bells Inn

Think of pattern drenching as the wallpaper and fabric equivalent of a big bear hug. In the Innkeeper’s Suite, the ceiling, walls, windows, and canopy all feature the same petite floral print which makes for a truly all-encompassing experience. (For similar motifs with pastoral provenance, look to brands such as Sister Parish, or the country-themed offerings at Schumacher.)

Stenciled Motifs

quilt bedroom

Don’t hold us to this assertion, but there are perhaps more stenciled treatments to be found in the inn—on the walls, the ceilings, the furniture—than the entire 1980s archive of Country Living magazine. (Shown: Scrubett’s Ledge, one of the inn’s two-bedroom family suites.) Local artist Wally Whitehurst hand-painted the interiors, including the ceiling of the inn’s entrance, which now features a picturesque landscape of the imaginary Barrow’s Green. To try your hand at the technique, check out the tutorials and stencil books of chalk paint purveyor Annie Sloan, or the robust compendium of historic designs at The Stencil Library.

Painted Furniture

quincy bed six bells inn

Although wood finishes (pine, mahogany...) have enjoyed the spotlight as of late, the painted furniture of The Six Bells Inn will no doubt inspire a broader revival of such treatments. (For a similar cannonball bed silhouette as the one seen in Mildred’s Plum, check out Ethan Allen’s Quincy Bed.)

Carved Box Beds

box bed six bells inn

In the Middle Ages, boxy, cupboard-like spaces were designed to offer private sleeping quarters to weary farmhands after long workdays. Built-in bed enclosures have recently been experiencing a resurgence, but thankfully today’s interpretations aren’t quite so primitive. Featuring painted millwork and plush bedding, the inn’s accommodations far more modern than medieval. Berry-colored curtains add to the cocoon-like feel.

Tyrolean Touches

Tavern at The Six Bells Inn

The designers of The Six Bells Inn have said they took inspiration from the richly carved detailing of alpine lodges, which you can see throughout the property, including the boxed bed embellishments and the carved Tyrolean chairs seen in The Feathers, the on-site tavern. Named after Tyrol, a region in the Austrian, Swiss, and Italian Alps known for its ski resorts and folk traditions, these whimsical chairs—also known as Swiss mountain chairs—were constructed by hand centuries ago using primitive tools. Given their quirky, curvy silhouette, they make for striking and versatile accent chairs.