Makings of Scotsman Hotel

Brenda McArthur always wanted to own a bed and breakfast. The Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, resident believed the picture-postcard town — a quieter vacation-destination alternative to nearby Niagara Falls — “could use a beautiful B&B, something much more luxurious than what’s here,” as she told her investment-company-owner husband Blair.

Desire and opportunity met when the Post House Inn went up for sale in early 2020. The 1835 red-brick Georgian colonial was within walking distance of the Shaw Festival Theatre, Queen Street shops and Lake Ontario.

“I knew right away that it was prime location,” McArthur says. “And the look of it was quite charming.”

McArthur envisioned a B&B that reminded her of the Prestonfield House in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Scottish baronial structure, built in 1687 as a private residence, looks more like a country house with interiors curated by generations of an aristocratic family than a five-star boutique hotel. 

“I wanted plaid carpets, lots of archways, lots of wallpaper, lots of dark texture, a warm, velvety kind of feel,” she says. “Scottish elegance — that’s what I wanted. And lots of fireplaces. It was really important to have fireplaces in every room.”

Lori Morris of Toronto-based Lori Morris Design, known for her exuberant, extravagantly detailed interiors, was the perfect person to make McArthur’s vision a reality in the newly christened Scotsman Hotel. She describes her designs as “no rules, pure elegance, layers and layers and layers.”

“When there’s not enough layers, add some more layers,” she says with a smile in her voice, then becomes more serious. “All of my designs have a reflection in the Renaissance value of European design.”

McArthur describes a project that began with replacing mechanical systems, insulating a main floor, refurbishing existing windows and rebuilding a back exterior wall. The first floor was reconfigured into a lobby, sitting room, guests-only lounge, breakfast room and half bath, the second floor into five guest suites with private baths. 

“It was a historical building,” Morris notes. “So it certainly had some restrictions. … There were certain walls, finishes and structures that had to be kept intact.” McArthur gives the exposed brick wall in what would become the lounge as an example.

Morris endowed the rooms with McArthur’s desired archways, along with intricate plaster ceilings, hardwood floors and fireplace surrounds and mantles, some of which might be mistaken for originals salvaged from once-grand homes. She interpreted McArthur’s description of “Scottish elegance” in a series of color palettes that ranged from deep greens to soft pinks, each filled with myriad textures and tied together with metallic gold accents, fluted-brass coffee tables, faux-marble occasional tables and animal-print lamps and rugs. 

“It’s all about a different experience [in every room],” Morris says. “It all seamlessly goes together.”

 It begins in the lobby  — McArthur calls it the champagne room — where guests are offered glasses of bubby when they arrive. Morris framed the walls in panels painted a high-gloss black; finished them in a deep-green croc-embossed wallcovering; and arranged custom black-velvet sofas and chairs piped in gold on a leopard-print rug. A built-in cabinet displays an antique tea service and figurines behind brass-grille doors. McArthur singles out the double-sided fireplace surrounded by a lavishly carved marble mantle. 

 “I wanted a double-sided fireplace between the champagne room and the breakfast room,” she says.

Morris reinforced the gentleman’s-club ambiance with framed landscapes and animal-print and plaid pillows. A neighboring sitting room, papered in a dark tartan plaid and dominated by a black-velvet sofa with a channeled faux-fur back, has a similar feel. 

The lounge, in contrast, stuns with gold wallcoverings and an array of lighting fixtures.

“Lighting gives you the opportunity to do a piece of art that happens to hang from the ceiling,” Morris says.

From a central plaster-ceiling oval, Morris suspended a golden chandelier resembling a stylized tree. Tiered black-metal lotus-shaped fixtures with brass interiors hang from antiqued-brass chains over a baby grand piano and multiple conversation areas. The latter consists of wooden tables surrounded by gold faux-leather bench seating and chairs upholstered in a mix of black velvet, tiger-print velvet and a black-and-gold check. 

The bar is defined by stands of teardrop crystals cascading from the golden branches of two waterfall chandeliers. Morris backed it with a mirrored arch flanked by brass-grill counterparts and separated it from the lounge with an arch that spans the width of the room. Her firm designed the Scotsman Hotel coat of arms applied in gold leaf over a fireplace in a black back-painted glass wall.      

The breakfast room is decorated in a style reminiscent of an enchanting European bake shop. Morris covered the brass-framed walls in a gold wallcovering and concealed refrigeration under the counter of a pink-marble built-in that displays decorative serving pieces on overhead shelves. The centerpiece: a custom pink-marble table with curving, high-gloss, pink-painted legs where buffets are laid out under an enormous crystal chandelier featuring Morris’s trademark gold-leaf-trimmed shade. 

Upstairs, guest suites were finished in colors ranging from black and gold to intense electric blue. Color-coordinated bathrooms are as luxurious as the bedrooms — Morris’s signature lacquered vanities, distinguished by white medallions intricately framed in gold, serve as a common focal point. McArthur’s favorite is the Prestonfield Room, a feminine pink-snake-print papered space with a four-post bed, pink-marble fireplace and clawfoot soaking tub, along with a shower, in the bath. 

The Scotsman opened on Valentine’s Day 2024. McArthur concedes that the renovation took much longer than the 18 months she and her husband estimated because of pandemic shutdowns and supply-chain interruptions. But guests’ reaction to Morris’s opulent interiors and McArthur’s finishing touches — floral arrangements, Volare and Tiffany mugs, crystal glasses, diffusers scenting the first floor with Dr. Vranjes Firenze Oud Nobile — has made the wait worthwhile. 

“They’re still blown away by its beauty and the attention to detail,” McArthur says. “It’s over the top.”  

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