Sawatzky Guest Blog: A Hazelnut Inn Update

Coastal Enterprises, manufacturers of Precision Board HDU, is proud to announce a series of guest blogs written by Dan Sawatzky of Imagination Corporation, which will be posted on the Precision Board Blog each month. This month Dan Sawatzky gives us an update on his passion project – The Hazelnut Inn, and points out all the different places that PBLT-30 Precision Board HDU is used to make this themed bed & breakfast look so fantastical!

In Dan’s own words…

Many of our projects are very large and it is not unusual for them to be in our shop for a year or more before they are installed and complete. The Hazelnut Inn is a personal project and has to fit around our customer’s projects. It is also very large and the most detailed we have ever taken, so it will take a long time to complete. We’ve been at it four years so far and it will be at least another year before the first suite is open to guests. But we are making great progress and it is looking spectacular!

While much of the project is fabricated using hand sculpted fibreglass reinforced concrete, we are also using a lot of Precision Board HDU where it is applicable.

From the road things are looking pretty colourful. The building certainly catches everyone’s eye as they drive by!

We used precision Board on many of the details including the roof caps, finales and the primary sign in this picture.

The stature of our heroine is also sculpted from 30 lb Precision Board.

hazelnut inn

The North Star suite is the most complete thus far. It is the unit closest and most visible from the road. We are currently doing the sculpting of the lower section where guests will enter the garden. The North Star sign was fabricated almost four years ago (one of the first projects while we were waiting for our building permit).  We finally installed it on the rudder of the ship in the last couple of weeks.

Adjacent to the North Star entry is the maintenance room for the Inn. This area is where the cleaning supplies, storage and laundry will be for the staff. It is probably the fanciest entry to a staff area in the whole world!

The faux shutters are fabricated from PBLT-30 Precision Board HDU to match the adjacent wood doors.

hazelnut inn

Adjacent to the service area is the Under Hill suite. We are now beginning the theme work on this area. It will have a private 600 square foot garden in front of the unit. The hand crafted gate is soon to be installed.

Today we did the faux brick work around the pocket in the wall which allowed us to install the Under Hill sign at last!

hazelnut inn

While we were at it we installed the Copper Crown sign on the castle suite. It won’t be until later this summer that we do the theme work on this portion of the building.

Inside the building, the North star suite is further along. Inside the ship the sleeping area is almost complete. The headboard, figureheads and clamshell light fixtures are all 30 lb Precision Board.

hazelnut inn

There are many other prefabricated pieces already finished, tucked away for safekeeping for now. As we get into more finishing we will be using more 30 lb Precision Board for fabrication as it is easy to work and holds detail extremely well.

I’ll provide another update on The Hazelnut Inn as we get a little further along. Stay tuned…

Sawatzky’s Imagination Corporation is a small family company that specializes in the design and creation of dimensional signs and environments. They tackle projects of any size from small signs to entire theme parks. Their work has garnered numerous national and international awards.

Dan Sawatzky is best described as a creative force and visual storyteller extraordinaire. His art career spans almost fifty years of magic. Dan’s passion is to design and create imaginative places that take people from the normal world to a setting of delight and wonder.

Coastal Enterprises manufactures Precision Board HDU, a versatile, cost-effective and eco-friendly urethane sign material that is particularly effective for making professional-looking indoor and outdoor dimensional signs.  It is a closed-cell rigid substrate that does not rot, warp or crack.  You can request free samplesget a quote or sign up for periodic newsletters packed with helpful information.