Image 1 of 1
04_OS_big_mill_bandb_BC8U0459b.JPG
The Mardi Gras room.
On a rural road in Williamston, Big Mill Bed & Breakfast sits picture-perfect wrapped in white Christmas lights at the edge of a large pond. Chloe Tuttle, the innkeeper, provides a warm welcome and makes her guests feel right at home—and it’s no wonder. Tuttle’s parents bought the farm in 1922, and Tuttle was born and raised in the same house that her guests now stay in. After leaving for college and sailing the world, she returned to Big Mill to transform her home into one she could share with others.
Tuttle began converting the farm into a B&B 20 years ago. She rents five large rooms—two in the main house and three in the renovated barn—and two Airstream trailers. The rooms in the barn each have their own story. The Mule Room Suite once housed the family’s four mules, Mary, Red, Rock, and Kit; the Corn Crib Room stored the mules’ feed; and the Packhouse Suite held tractors. You wouldn’t know their past by looking at the bright and airy rooms now furnished with comfortable beds and couches and outfitted with Mexican tiles, full kitchens, and tech-forward features “for the millennials,” Tuttle says.
Still, the rooms are full of farmhouse charm. They’ve retained their original hardwood floors and ceiling beams, and the breezeway in the barn is stocked with old-fashioned farming equipment. An 8-by-8 wooden barn quilt, part of the Tar River Quilt Trail, hangs on the back of the barn representing a quilt Tuttle’s mother sewed for the Bicentennial. Working tobacco, cotton, and soybean fields and the placid pond provide scenic views, and a romantic grapevine arbor outfitted with hammocks and fairy lights is a perfect spot to while away the evenings.
“People come here to get away from big cities and be somewhere quaint; they don’t want to hear any horns blowing,” Tuttle says. “And what’s amazing is that people love the heritage, even when it’s not their own heritage.”
Each evening, Tuttle makes breakfast for
On a rural road in Williamston, Big Mill Bed & Breakfast sits picture-perfect wrapped in white Christmas lights at the edge of a large pond. Chloe Tuttle, the innkeeper, provides a warm welcome and makes her guests feel right at home—and it’s no wonder. Tuttle’s parents bought the farm in 1922, and Tuttle was born and raised in the same house that her guests now stay in. After leaving for college and sailing the world, she returned to Big Mill to transform her home into one she could share with others.
Tuttle began converting the farm into a B&B 20 years ago. She rents five large rooms—two in the main house and three in the renovated barn—and two Airstream trailers. The rooms in the barn each have their own story. The Mule Room Suite once housed the family’s four mules, Mary, Red, Rock, and Kit; the Corn Crib Room stored the mules’ feed; and the Packhouse Suite held tractors. You wouldn’t know their past by looking at the bright and airy rooms now furnished with comfortable beds and couches and outfitted with Mexican tiles, full kitchens, and tech-forward features “for the millennials,” Tuttle says.
Still, the rooms are full of farmhouse charm. They’ve retained their original hardwood floors and ceiling beams, and the breezeway in the barn is stocked with old-fashioned farming equipment. An 8-by-8 wooden barn quilt, part of the Tar River Quilt Trail, hangs on the back of the barn representing a quilt Tuttle’s mother sewed for the Bicentennial. Working tobacco, cotton, and soybean fields and the placid pond provide scenic views, and a romantic grapevine arbor outfitted with hammocks and fairy lights is a perfect spot to while away the evenings.
“People come here to get away from big cities and be somewhere quaint; they don’t want to hear any horns blowing,” Tuttle says. “And what’s amazing is that people love the heritage, even when it’s not their own heritage.”
Each evening, Tuttle makes breakfast for

