Quality Inn & Suites

Location: 134 River Road, Sequim

Phone: 683-2800

After a decade decked out in forest green and brick red, the decor is changing at Sequim’s Quality Inn & Suites to reflect the azure skies of the “Blue Hole.”

“About every 10 years most hotels do a project improvement plan to keep them updated, raise the quality and keep customers happy,” said Nancy Merrigan, the hotel’s general manager, on board since October.

“We’re hoping to start in January to lay carpet in and paint all 60 rooms. We’ll also replace lamps and ergonomic chairs and we’ll add sheers,” Merrigan noted.

“We’ll do it floor by floor from the top down — the top always is the most popular so we’ll start there,” she said. “Our goal is to be done by the end of April, when we’ll have some kind of open house.”

The carpet, from McCrorie Carpet One in Sequim, will be in blues and browns and each room will receive a blue accent wall, done by Precision Painting, also of Sequim.

Merrigan said bedspreads will be in a cocoa brown with drapes in the same shade accented with blue.

Aside from the local purchases, the rest will come from corporate vendors.

Merrigan said she and former general manager Andrea Pythian chose the color scheme, focusing on blue because “blue is such a soothing, relaxing color and that’s what we want for our guests.”

During the hustle and bustle of the redecorating process, Quality Inn & Suites will offer special rates and work closely with its sister property, the Holiday Inn Express, to minimize guest disruption, Merrigan said. Both hotels are owned and operated by Wirta Hospitality Worldwide. Amenities include free high-speed Internet, several suites (one with a hot tub), microwaves/refrigerators, air conditioning, free cable TV, free Continental breakfasts and an indoor pool with a hot tub.

The hotel is pet-friendly and smoke-free.

“The most exciting thing will be to see the changes and to experience guests’ response after it’s all done,” Merrigan said.

But Merrigan said she is thinking past the renovation project: she’d like to come up with an activity to bring visitors to the Olympic Peninsula during the winter and early spring months.

“We have this wonderful property right next to us so we want to think of some kind of attraction to bring people to Sequim, for example a butterfly garden,” she said. “I’m looking for ideas.”

To watch the renovation in progress, visit www.facebook.com/QualityInnAndSuitesSequimWa.