Unassuming Entrances and Opulent Interiors

Father Guido and Angora Holly Polo, recently engaged, are starting their new lives together by creating a non-profit musician’s hostel called Donnybrook Manor: a sanctuary for road-weary musicians and a palace for starving artists. Here they will share with you their research, dreams, and doodles of what they hope Donnybrook Manor will be.
Donnybrook Manor’s projected exterior

We want to make sure that the musicians staying at our hostel aren’t going to play “Sweet Home Alabama” over and over again in the middle of the night, or nearly as unsavory, OD. Yucky! That would be a total bummer. We don’t want just anyone showing up on our doorstep. We want to keep out the riff raff.

For that reason, even if you donated a gazillion dollars to Donnybrook Manor tomorrow, we’d keep an unassuming exterior. No gardens at Versailles, no gold-plated doors….No, we don’t want people to want to come inside. We would want it to seem like a warehouse on the outside and a palace on the inside.

Donnybrook Manor’s projected interior

We’d also like to utilize a secret password (I’m not telling you what it is here, but I will hint that it is the name of the person who recommended Irving J. Silvertoad’s chosen prophylactic of sewn-together orphan foreskins), and a maze of graffiti fleurs-de-lis around town leading those ambitious enough to our secret, unassuming doorstep. We’re also toying with the idea of an underground maze, the jury’s still out on that one.

Without further ado, here’s an article from WIRED’s January issue on the poshest places with unassuming exteriors.

Also….why weren’t we invited to these clubs?