When you stay at a four-star inn known for its legendary hospitality, you expect every aspect of your stay to be superb. The spa at our inn lives up to that reputation, and one huge reason is Judy Cody, one of our nail technicians.

 Judy’s been giving manicures and pedicures for years, and she’s been a nail technician at the spa for three years.  She’s an expert at what she does, and she couples that expertise with a true desire to be of service.

“I know that many of our guests are only here one time, so I try extra hard to give them the best experience they’ve ever had,” she said. “I love helping people, making them feel special and pretty.”

Judy says when guests arrive she makes sure they are comfortable, offering hot and cold drinks—guests can even sip a glass of wine delivered from the bar.

She encourages her clients to pick a nail polish if they want before she begins either a manicure or pedicure. Judy notes the spa only uses vegan polish; it’s all organic and natural.

For a pedicure she begins by asking about her guests’ feet to discover anything she should know about before the pampering begins. Judy cuts toenails, removes calluses and applies lotion to massage not just the feet but everything from the knee down. After the massage both feet are placed in warm booties. Guests can also take advantage of hot stone massage and/or paraffin on the feet.

“I want each guest to relax and feel pampered, so I take my time,” she says. “And all our manicures and pedicures are a full 50 minutes.”

Guests who receive a manicure get a similar treatment, including using a scrub that she massages into the hand, helping remove dead skin. After this she wraps steam towels from the elbow down. An arm and hand massage with lotion follows, then cleans the nails with acetone and adds polish as requested.

While the majority of her clients are women, 20 to 30 percent are men. She even provides service to children under 16 with parental permission. She fondly remembers doing a manicure for a 4-year old girl, noting the child really wanted to be girly!

She knows that many men feel hesitant to receive manicures or pedicures so she goes the extra mile to make them feel comfortable. One man who loved pedicures wouldn’t get them in his hometown because he didn’t want to “get caught,” but he thoroughly enjoyed getting one at the spa. Another man came in for a pedicure because his wife made the appointment—he told Judy his wife said his toenails were poking her in bed and needed to be cut!

An Asheville native, Judy knows the area intimately. She always asks guests about their visit, recommends places both on and off the estate, and makes sure they know about the inn’s concierge, who is a wealth of information. It’s all part of her desire to provide the best customer service all the time.

“I love what I do, and I think God gave me a big heart so I could love people,” she reflected.

Kelly Brown loves cleaning. She says people may think that’s crazy, but it’s her thing. As one of 26 room attendants at the Inn, she makes sure her 12 rooms (549-565) are cleaned from top to bottom daily, and that’s not a figure of speech! From dusting in those hard-to-reach high places to working on her hands and knees cleaning the bathroom floor, she gets the job done exactly as you would expect.

“When I walk out of a room, it’s a room I would stay in,” she says. “I make sure of it.”

A self-inspect attendant, Kelly checks her own work. Kelly earned this designation after several months of earning a score of 90 or above on inspect sheets the Inn uses to assure quality. Kelly must maintain that rating to keep her self-inspect designation, but she says so far, so good. She is exactly where she wants to be.

“I love working where I am. All the employees are great; it really feels like family,” she says. “But it’s also a hard job physically, in my opinion it’s the hardest job at the Inn.”

Kelly squats dozens of times each day making beds, cleaning bathrooms and picking up – she jokes her best friend is her heating pad. And sometimes there’s a time crunch to get it all done, depending on when guests leave their room. Each attendant has 12 rooms to clean between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

“We never want to disturb our guests, so sometimes it’s 10 a.m. or so before we can get into a room. When that happens it can be challenging to finish in time,” she explains.

And yes, Kelly does make beds every day. She keeps bedding tucked in using the hospital-corners technique and makes sure each bed is finished with the sheet folded over the duvet at the top.

Kelly makes it her business to know the names of guests staying in her rooms and she speaks to them by name. She always asks about their stay and if they need anything, continuing Biltmore’s signature hospitality.

“Hospitality is the culture and legacy of Biltmore, and I’m proud to continue that tradition. It’s wonderful to work in a place where I can see Biltmore House from some of my rooms, and know I am part of this.”

About the photo

Kelly Brown inspects her work while putting the finishing touches on a guest bed at the Inn.

For Your Home, From Our Gardens

The Biltmore Floral Team created a pair of stunning floral arrangements to brighten up our For Your Home  booth at a recent wedding show. The talented team members crafted the arrangements to feature greenery from Biltmore’s historic gardens as well as gorgeous flowers.

The results were so beautiful that we asked Biltmore Floral Design Manager Cathy Barnhardt to share her expert “how-to” tips and suggestions for bringing the outdoors indoors with a similar arrangement for your own home.

Bring the outdoors in

“First of all,” Cathy said, “these arrangements showcase a great mix of ‘florist flowers’ as well as greens cut straight from our gardens.”

To highlight the feeling and the fragrance of spring, Cathy and her team chose blue delphinium, deliciously-scented white stock, some lovely cream ‘Virginia’ roses, and a handful of tulips. The greenery was all gathered from the gardens at Biltmore.

“If you have access to a garden or wooded area, this is a great way to bring the outdoors into your arrangements and your home, and it makes it even more personal that you provided the greenery yourself rather than choosing it from a flower shop.”

“To really highlight the outdoor feeling,” said Cathy, “we used long tendrils of ivy, snips of rosemary from the herb garden, a few fern fronds, and even some pieces of red twig dogwood. This mix of textures helps us create an arrangement that is both elegant and richly textured, much like the feel of a cottage garden.”

Ready to try it at home?

“The most helpful trick in this kind of arrangement is to remember how things grow naturally in the garden,” Cathy explained. “Place your flowers in groups or clusters rather than scattering them throughout the arrangement. That will give it style, but it will still feel organic and natural.”

Behind the scenes

“One of the most fun ‘perks’ my team enjoys,” Cathy told us, “is having cutting privileges in the historic gardens and natural areas around Biltmore. Any time of year, we can find something interesting to include in our arrangements that comes directly from the estate and reflects both the current season and elements of the original landscape design.”

For Darren Poupore, Chief Curator, trying to select just one thing as his favorite “is like picking your favorite child.”

His job involves researching and interpreting the history of Biltmore, including taking stock of the history of the home’s interiors, the collections, family history, and the history of the estate and land. He is also involved in planning and managing room restorations and development of new tours in Biltmore House.

That level of familiarity only makes it more difficult to identify one item as his personal favorite, but after much thought, he chose the architectural model of Biltmore House.

The model, located on the Fourth Floor in the appropriately-named Architectural Model Room, was commissioned by architect Richard Morris Hunt in 1889. Hunt wanted to show client George Vanderbilt how his home in the North Carolina mountains would appear—a structure inspired by French Renaissance châteaux in the Loire Valley that the two had previously visited.

The detailed model illustrates the steeply pitched roof, dramatic stair tower, and richly ornamented windows and doors that mark Biltmore’s distinctive design.

New York newspapers had speculated about what George Vanderbilt’s home might look like, so it’s not surprising the first public viewing of the model at Hunt’s offices was a media event. “The crowd feasted their eyes on its towers and turrets, its suggestion of magnificent distances and imposing proportions,” according to newspapers of the time.

For years, the model was displayed in Biltmore House’s Basement. In 2005, a large oak cabinet was discovered in storage that perfectly fit the model’s dimensions, indicating that Vanderbilt intended for it to be part of his furnishings. The model and its original base were reunited and moved to its present location, which you can see on the Behind-the-Scenes Rooftop Tour.

So is this an exact model of Biltmore House? For most of us, yes. But not for Darren.

“If you look closely, you can see subtle differences between it and the finished house,” he said. “I’ll leave it at that.”

Family heirlooms are wonderful, even for a Vanderbilt. For Lori Garst, Curatorial Assistant in Museum Services, her favorite thing in Biltmore House originally came from George Vanderbilt’s father.

During her 20 years at Biltmore, Lori has handled and cataloged more than 75 percent of the items in the collection. While she’s discovered many wonderful things over the years, one item holds particular allure.

In the Third Floor Living Hall is a carved library table that George Vanderbilt inherited from his father, William H. Vanderbilt. “I love the richness of the table with its subtle but elaborate carvings, and the fact that it came from William Vanderbilt’s Fifth Avenue home,” she said.

She is equally impressed with its history; the table and several elaborately carved display cabinets in the room were made by Herter Brothers. In the late 1800s, the New York company was one of the country’s leading cabinetmaking and decorating firms. The table and cabinets originally graced the palatial Fifth Avenue mansion William Vanderbilt constructed that spanned the entire block between 51^st and 52^nd streets in New York City. 

In addition to his furnishings, George’s father passed on his love of art and his philanthropic interests to his youngest son. Before William Vanderbilt’s death in 1885, his collection of some 200 works by Old Masters was termed the finest private collection of paintings and sculpture in the world. He provided extensive funding to the YMCA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vanderbilt University, and Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Check back next week for another inside look at our favorite things!

Today we share another “insider’s” favorite object that you may have never even noticed. Why not make time for a visit this winter to look at the details in America’s largest home, and check back for the next installment of our favorite things!

After 30 years caring for Biltmore House, there are few details that have escaped Pat Ray’s notice. Pat, Biltmore’s Housekeeping Manager, started in Museum Services before moving to Housekeeping many years ago. One of the major tasks for her department happens every winter: cleaning the magnificent woodwork in the house.

It’s painstaking work when you consider the rich paneling of the Billiard Room and Oak Sitting Room, fanciful carvings and moldings in Mrs. Vanderbilt’s Bedroom, and heavily carved walnut overmantel in the Library just for starters! But it gives Pat time to appreciate the details in every room—particularly one unusual item in the Salon.

“I’ve just always loved this one table in the Salon; it can be used as a table or as a decorative accent because the top tilts for display. It’s made of papier-mâché with an inlay of mother-of-pearl and it’s so beautiful,” she said.

According to our curators, this table is English and dates to the late 19^th century. While papier-mâché had been around for more than a thousand years, the material was mass produced in the late 1800s. Papier-mâché pieces gained popularity when it was found that the lightweight material could easily be ebonized or “japanned” to resemble the lacquer finishes popular in Asian furniture and decorative accessories of the time.

While you may think of papier-mâché being a product made of layers of paper, the material used in this table and similar pieces was a mixture of wood pulp (mashed paper) and a thickener such as sand and glue; the mixture was then pressed into molds rather than carved.  

These pieces were often adorned with gilding and inlayed with mother-of-pearl, just as the Salon table is. We don’t know what the scene inlaid on the top of the table depicts, but it appears to be some type of ruins surrounded by a variety of different flowers, all created with mother-of-pearl.