Inn of the Month
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“We like to think John Dougherty was a sea captain,” says designer Megan Butcher of the inspiration behind her firm’s latest project: JD House, an eight-room retreat in the quaint coastal village of Mendocino. Named for its 19th-century former owner, the recently restored bed-and-breakfast—which includes a historic water tower and a cabin with Dutch doors—got a makeover that stripped away the doilies and updated the interiors with white shiplap walls, patinated wood floors, and furnishings fit for city-slicker visitors. Midcentury-style beds with caramel-leather headboards and clear acrylic coffee tables are juxtaposed with antique writing desks and Persian rugs. Sparse yet cozy amenities (soaking tubs, wood-burning fireplaces) do little to dominate your attention—and that’s precisely the point. “When you look out the windows, all you see is ocean,” says Butcher of the upstairs guest rooms. And when a picnic basket of pint-size Fido jars filled with breakfast arrives on your doorstep, there’s nowhere you’d rather be on a fog-socked Northern California morning. From $139; bluedoorgroup.com. —Alison Van Houten