April 17, 2017

Meet Nicole Munn of The Twelve Oaks in Historic Covington

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Munn.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I grew up in this area and this was my favorite historic home. In 2011, it had gone through the foreclosure process and was vacant and in need of a whole lot of TLC. It was boarded up and had over 30 busted window panes. There was a serious leak on the third floor when the house was vacant that damaged the two floors beneath it and another leak in the kitchen area. The garden was overgrown and there was even a tree root growing into the pool. I saw the potential and called my banker about it. He told me to send him a business plan and I prayed about it and did. I was a single parent at the time, but had restored two other homes in the area and the bank decided to give me the loan. I served as the general contractor on the restoration. It was a massive project and quite literally took blood, sweat and tears at times. The mansion has twelve bedrooms, twelve fireplaces, the six all had to be remodeled or restored and we added six and half more baths. Code requirements were added. We opened in October of 2012 with just four bedrooms and then added four more over the following year. Since opening, we’ve won numerous awards including being named last year as one of the Top 10 Inns in the United States by Bedandbreakfast.com. We also were hand selected by the editors of Southern Living magazine to be part of the Southern Living Hotel Collection. Last year we were very fortunate for Georgia Public Broadcasting to find out about us and they called us and asked us if they could include us in a special they were filming on Georgia’s Most Romantic Places. Of course, we said yes and that has been amazing; every time the show airs, our phone line rings like mad and we get lots of new reservations. We now have a lot of repeat guests. Some even make it their goal to stay in every room. I am now married; I was dating John back when I started all this and he left his job to help me with the renovations. We tied the knot last June here at The Twelve Oaks.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. The house was built in 1836 and is older than the city of Atlanta. I know there would be challenges, but there were so many more than I expected. It seemed that every time we opened a wall, we found more issues that we weren’t aware of. I had budgeted 20% for unanticipated costs and it wasn’t enough. When we got to the point where we were about to open, I had no money left for advertising so I had no idea how to get people here and I still had more rooms to finish. I thought at that point, that we had done all we could, but it wasn’t going to get off the ground without advertising. I remember sitting on the front steps and I was telling John the bad news and that I thought we would end up bankrupt. That is when he pulled out a ring and proposed. He told me he wanted me to know that even when times were at their very worst, he wanted me to know that he’d still be here. Soon after that, I had an idea. John is a talented writer so I asked him to write a press release and send it to everyone he could think of. It was amazing. We ended up in several papers and Fox 5 called us and wanted to come and video a segment on us. That was enough to get us business initially and keep us going. When we first opened, as many small business owners do, we worked seven days a week. We are so thankful to have an amazing staff; now we only work six days a week. We are working on getting that down to five soon. 🙂

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a luxury boutique bed & breakfast inn located in historic Covington, GA. The mansion was built in 1836 and has lots of history. Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind, had a photo of this house and wrote notes on it saying “Twelve Oaks” and “I like this for Ashley’s house” and sent it to the producer of the film, David Selznick” (from the book David O. Selznick’s Gone with the Wind). The house gives you a feeling of stepping back in time with amazing architecture and grand antiques and paintings, but it has been updated with luxurious details. Each suite is unique. We use Egyptian cotton sheets, Turkish towels and robes, L’Occitane amenities, and fireplaces in every room (that now work via remote control). The baths have elaborate features such as deep soaking tubs and rain showers. One room has a spa tub that features air jets, chromotherapy and aromatherapy along with a two person Carrara marble shower with two large shower rain heads. One room, the Katherine’s Mirror Image Grand Suite, even features a rare rib cage shower from around the year 1900. These showers were installed in places such as Buckingham Palace and the Biltmore. You get in and water shoots out at you from every direction much like a human car wash. Our guests absolutely love it. As far as I know, it is one of the only ones still in existence that you can actually take a shower in.

Our rates include a full home-cooked breakfast, our Southern Sippin’ and Nibblin’ hour in the afternoons with wines and cheeses, turndown service in the evenings with chocolate truffles, and parking and high speed WIFI are included as well. Our guests rave about our breakfasts and we were told by Southern Living that our Peaches & Cream Stuffed French toast is what made them ask us to be part of the Southern Living Hotel Collection. We are blessed to have lots of local orchards and farms around us and we use fresh local ingredients such as berries, peaches, sausage, etc. We’ve created some unique dishes. Today we served our Strawberry Shortcake pancakes with Bourbon Whipped Cream, Scrambled Eggs with Havarti, and Applewood Bacon.

I am probably most proud of our company for being chosen last year as one of the Top 10 Bed & Breakfasts in the United States. That was really amazing to win that in our third year in business. Out of all the struggles and blood, sweat and tears, something like that just makes it worth it. Another proud moment for me was when Southern Living asked us to be part of the Southern Living Hotel Collection. These are properties hand selected by the editors of the magazine as the best places to stay in the South. There are only about 20 or so properties in the collection and they were hesitant about asking a Bed & Breakfast to be part of it, but said they were impressed by our photos and wanted to come for a visit. I was so nervous! Even though they visited in the afternoon, I wanted them to try our breakfast so I made our Peaches & Cream Stuffed French toast and served it with sausage from a local farm. They told me later when they extended the official invitation that they look for properties with what they call “the wow factor” and said that they were blown away at every turn by the wow factor here. And they said they couldn’t stop talking about our stuffed French toast. That was truly an amazing moment for us as a small company.

Another interesting tidbit is that historic Covington is beautiful and is known as the Hollywood of the South for the over 100 movies and TV shows that have been filmed here. The Twelve Oaks has been in numerous films as well such as The Vampire Diaries, Vacation (2016), In the Heat of the Night, Bessie, Halloween II, Tyler Perry’s The Family that Preys, Southern Fried Homicide, and more. We actually just recently filmed a movie called Life of the Party with Melissa McCarthy and Christina Aguilera that will be released by Warner Brothers in 2018. In addition, the inn will be in an episode of Survivor’s Remorse on Starz. We also provide accommodations for many of the productions that film in town so we’ve had some famous guests. You may just end up having breakfast with someone you recognize. There are fabulous restaurants and shops within a short walk of the inn including the Mystic Grill which was chosen last year as one of the Top 10 Restaurants in Georgia by Explore Georgia.

We have been getting requests for years from people that want to come and tour the property. We are excited to announce that we will be offering guided tours later this year and possibly as soon as this summer. We have acquired some meticulous recreations of some of the gowns from Gone with the Wind that were done in conjunction with Warner Brothers and those will be on display. We may even offer an option to get your photo taken in one of the gowns.

Here is review that I received this morning on bedandbreakfast.com:

Perfection

Saturday, February 11, 2017

My wife and I lived in Savannah for ten years before moving back to the Atlanta area and have stayed at numerous B&B’s with historic value. Twelve Oaks is hands down THE best B&B we have stayed at. Every room has a unique charm and its own perk. The details are amazing, we checked in early and enjoyed exploring the house. The staff is very courteous and knowledgeable. Travis was the caretaker during our visit, we enjoyed his hospitality and conversations. The food has the quality of fine dining (not to mention the wine and cheese platter in the evenings). We enjoyed taking the short walk to the square but were always in a hurry to get back to the house and our room. We will definitely be back. Trust me, there is no need to drive to Savannah to enjoy an historic B&B, the best one is just an hour from Atlanta. -Tim and Melani

Between 36-45 years old, Stays at B&Bs once a year

What were you like growing up?
I was a normal kid I guess, but I’ve always had big ideas that I sometimes was able to actually pull off. I once organized some Olympic games for the kids in our neighborhood and also orchestrated a neighborhood beauty pageant. I’ve always loved houses and architecture and remember having my mom stop at open houses just so I could see the houses inside. I used to get awards for selling so many girl scout cookies so I guess sales is in my background too. I didn’t used to think I was an artist because I’m not good at drawing and so never did all that well in art classes. But I’m very creative and realized designing bathrooms and rooms for the renovation here how much I love it and that people actually consider me to be quite artistic. I still can’t even draw a stick figure well though.

Pricing:

Our overnight accommodations start at $225 per night and include a full home-cooked breakfast, our Southern Sippin’ and Nibblin’ hour, turn down service with chocolate truffles, and parking and Wifi.
We also plan to offer tours of the mansion as early as summer of 2017. Ticket prices have not yet been established, but will likely be around $20.

Contact Info: