Hacienda Home Style .com

Mexican vacations are a luxury that not everyone is able to afford, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the atmosphere of our southern neighbors any time of the year.  Mexican interior designs warm your home and bring Mexico to you.

If you’ve ever been to Mexico or the Southwest, you’ll recognize the influence of Native American culture as well those of the Spanish missions.  You may expect to see Aztec elements such as pyramids and carved stone steles within Mexican interior design, but you’ll also see brightly painted furniture as well as stucco and exposed beams.

Use items such as Native American or Mexican blankets to drape over a solid colored couch or chair.  Place hand-made pottery pieces, either painted or in plain terra cotta, around the room to hold small cactus or succulent gardens.  You could also find a great Mexican art piece to hang on your wall and then place rustic tin wall sconces on either side to highlight the artwork.

Texture is just as important as color in Mexican interior design.  Consider creating the look of stucco by smearing drywall putty on the wall.  Create a recessed area to place a small piece of artwork or flowers in.  Rather than smoothing the putty out leave the trowel marks from where you applied it.  Paint the stucco a pale yellow, beige, or reddish tint.

If your house doesn’t already have exposed beams, you can create them with 2×4 boards nailed together to form a “U.”  To create the look of an exposed, hand-hewn solid log, distress the wood by using saws, hammers, or heavy chains.  After the wood is distressed, stain it match the other exposed wood in your home.

To bring Mexican interior design into your kitchen, try to find handcrafted Mexican tiles that you can use for a backsplash.  These tiles are brightly colored and have simple patterns painted on them.  You can tell they are handmade because they are not perfect like factory-made tiles.

Find hand-hammered copper pots or black wrought iron items to off-set the bright colors of the Mexican tiles.  White trimmed windows would be in keeping with Mexican interior design.  Use something unexpected like a serape or poncho to cover the windows.

Mexican interior design is simple yet rustic.  Bright colors are placed next to rusted tin signs.  Hard stucco is softened by using a handmade wall hanging or leather furniture with a hand-woven rug in front of it.  Finish the living room off with wrought iron lamps.

It doesn’t matter what the exterior of your home looks like, you can still enjoy the simplicity and beauty of Mexican interior design.  With the right ambiance, the right music, and your Mexican surroundings you may think you’re in Mexico instead of your home.

Ever since man first learned that clay and water could be mixed and fired to create tiles, they have been used for flooring.  They can be found all over the world in some of the most easily recognizable structures.  Hacienda floor tiles can be found today in homes that have a Spanish influence.

Haciendas are rustic houses found in the Southwest.  Hand crafted tiles can be used in entryways, hallways, kitchens, bathrooms, and even out on the patio.  Inside or outside, hacienda floor tiles are a great choice.

You don’t have to worry about finding hacienda floor tiles to match your need.  They can be made in nearly any shape and various shapes can be used to create a one-of-a-kind look for your home.  Square, rectangle, or octagon, these floor tiles are hand made so each one is unique.  Color and texture may vary in these tiles but that will add to the floor’s charm.

The Spanish were responsible for bringing the hacienda to Mexico around 1570.  They were the basis of an economic system that included farming and manufacturing.  They were also similar to the plantations of the United States’ south.  Ultimately haciendas became a symbol of wealth.  The floors matched the dark, rich leather furniture that has been used well-used.

These floor tiles are both useful and architectural; they are also long lasting both as a kitchen floor and as the chosen flooring for a porch.  They are beautiful and practical.  Maintaining hacienda floor tiles is easy.

If you’re remodeling and choose hacienda floor tiles, be careful to keep the tiles close together by leaving no more than 1/8 inch space for grout.  While you can have a larger grout line, older haciendas have very little grout.  Keeping the grout lines thinner would make your floor appear older.  Choosing the right grout color will also help you achieve the effect you’d like.

After your new hacienda style tiles are installed and the grout has dried for 24 hours, you need to use a mild cleanser and water to keep your tiles looking great.  Abrasive cleaners will damage your floor so they are not recommended for any tiles.

Because they come in a variety of colors, styles, and textures, you can choose a tile that matches your décor.  Hacienda floor tiles can completely change the look of your kitchen, bathroom, or entryway.  If old world style is in your house’s future, these tiles can make all the difference in the world.

Spanish ironwork produced in Castile and Andalucia developed in an entirely different way due to the influence of the Moorish artists in the area. Besides being influenced by their designs, the Spanish blacksmiths were also influenced by their work in other metals. The Arab influences, it seemed, played the most important role in the design of Spanish ironwork of this area.

The Saracens, Muslims who lived on the edges of the Roman Empire, didn’t bring with them structural architecture because they lived in the deserts. When they left Syria and Arabia and arrived in Spain they did bring with them the intricacies of their ornamentation.

So, while they didn’t help establish architectural structures themselves, their ornamentation was said to be structural. In fact, their ornamentation was so different from the usual ideas presented by the Arabs. Instead of being made up of graceful, natural forms it had geometric patterns that were combined logically.

This geometric form of Moorish influence on Spanish ironwork remained evident until after the Reconquest. Its staying power is due in part to the fact that Spaniards and Moors worked side-by-side when designing and building Christian buildings. It was inevitable that the two peoples would teach one another; the Moors, it seemed, had much more to teach the Spaniards.

Later, the Moorish and Gothic art forms blended together to form Mudéjar. This art form has geometric forms as their basis, and was considered to be harmonious. Mudéjar was not a new architectural style; it was merely a blending of these types of art forms together with whatever structure that was being built at the time.

Spain was not the only European country to be influenced by these Asiatic art styles. In some ways Italy, France, and England were affected. These influences were not direct, as they were in Spain, but more because of a concerted effort by their princes to modify the civilization by cultivating Eastern ideas.

Saracenic art and architecture then followed the trade routes into Western Europe where it landed in Venice. From there its influence reached into the rest of Italy and the other countries. You may see early Italian ironwork examples in Venice and those examples followed the pierced marble screens seen in Saracenic art.

Arabs didn’t use iron very often when building or ornamenting the structures. When they did, however, instead of using the methods of the blacksmith, they treated the iron like it was a precious metal. They used file, saw, drill, and vice.

Use of iron became more popular as a decorative architectural feature when it was used as door hardware, knockers, and escutcheons. The art form was also used as a window screen by placing an iron grille or reja over the windows. Before long balconies became an architectural feature that was common in Spain. Candelabras were made of Spanish ironwork as well as railings surrounding tombs. It wasn’t long before entire pulpits were made out of wrought ironwork. These are some of the types of ironwork that were completed using Mudéjar.