Your own king suite on the upper floor of a restored 1930s home, three blocks from The Barlow. You arrive through the courtyard and climb a wrought-iron spiral staircase to a private door — you never pass through anyone else’s space.
The courtyard is yours to use. Most guest suites give you a room. This one gives you a garden.
The walled flagstone courtyard below your stairs works as a second living room, and you’re welcome in it. A long table sits under Edison string lights. A carved stone lion-head fountain runs against the far wall. Copper lanterns glow from the branches after dark, and a gas fireplace takes the edge off a cool Sonoma evening.
At one end there’s a full outdoor kitchen: a restaurant-grade Mugnaini pizza oven — Italian-designed and built up the road in Healdsburg — and a stainless Argentine grill with a hand-crank grate you raise and lower over the flame. Both are gas-fired. Everything lights at the turn of a dial, so dinner is a decision you make at six o’clock, not a fire you start at four.
Bring a bottle back from a tasting room and cook outside. That’s the evening people remember.
The garden wraps the house on all four sides — a full 360 degrees of walkable, gated garden, mature and layered. Japanese maples, ferns, hydrangeas and purple salvia against a tall evergreen hedge. Apple, pear and citrus trees, with a majestic redwood presiding over all of it. Gravel paths and raised stone beds lead to an iron gate and a covered loggia. Landscape lighting carries it after dark — green, private, and quiet enough to hear the fountain.
The suite. A Restoration Hardware king bed with a Nectar mattress and Parachute linens. Plush robes. A full private bath with proper towels and quality bath essentials — the things a good hotel gets right and most rentals don’t. A 65-inch smart TV, and a coffee bar stocked with local Retrograde beans for the morning.
Thermostat-controlled heat sized for the West Sonoma microclimate. There is no air conditioning, and in this climate you won’t want it — the evening breeze does the work. All water in the house runs through a three-stage filtration system.
Where you are. Walk to artisan coffee, bakeries, tasting rooms, boutiques and the Barlow District. The Sunday farmers market is minutes away. Russian River vineyards, Armstrong Redwoods and the Sonoma Coast are a short scenic drive — the beaches and surf breaks at Bodega Bay about half an hour west.
Good to know
Private outdoor entrance via the spiral staircase from the courtyard.
Our family lives in the attached portion of the home. Your suite is fully private with its own entrance, but you may occasionally see or hear us — much like a small boutique hotel with the owners on site.