Hacienda Home Style .com

Quite often older homes have a certain flair and old world feel regardless of the style of home. If your house is a mid-century Spanish style home, you may want to have an old world style kitchen to bring back the charm of years gone by. Here are some ideas of how you can create old world style kitchens even in modern homes.

Old world kitchens typically have large cooking hearths and distressed walls. Cabinets had raised panel doors but they may have seemed mismatched. You might also find cabinets that have cracked. The cabinets will have dish and cup racks. This style of kitchen may be traced back to the years prior to seventeenth century Europe.

Pewter or copper accents and mosaic tiles are also common in old world style kitchens. Expect to find deep, rich colors and panels that hide appliances. Stone walls and floors are also indicative of this style of kitchen.

Think about the details when you’re renovating a kitchen in the old world style. You obviously won’t want a small kitchen with modern, stainless steel appliances as the focal point. This doesn’t mean you can’t have the modern conveniences; you just don’t want them to be visible.

Natural surfaces are what you’re looking for. Wood and stone will be evident all over the kitchen. Wooden cabinets, elaborate wood trim, and even wooden paneled ceilings would help capture the old world style you’re looking for.

Don’t forget about stone surfaces to complete the look. Stone tiles and slabs can be used for the counter tops, walls, or floors. Granite and marble can be used for cabinet tops or the floor. You can either have polished surfaces or distressed for a time-worn appearance.

Metallic fixtures would be a great lighting choice in an old world style kitchen to finish off the look. Try to find wrought iron chandeliers or rustic tin wall sconces. These can be painted or left plain, but with a matte finish, so they appear to be antiques.

Remember that you’re trying to give the impression that your kitchen was moved over from the old world and put into your home. If you have actual antiques that you can place in your kitchen that would make the room seem more authentic.

If you have a hacienda or other Spanish influenced house, an old world style kitchen might be the perfect choice for your home. You may want to consider this style of kitchen if you are planning to remodel.

Check out this article on: Creating a Distressed Look on a Kitchen Island

Here is a great resource on Mexican Kitchen Decor:

Mexicocina: The Spirit and Style of the Mexican Kitchen

photo credit: NancyHugoCKD.com

Are you tired of your home? Do you wish you could move to a different country and start all over again? If you redecorate your home with Traditional Mexican Style Interiors you can make it look like you’ve moved even though you haven’t.

Which room in your house would you most like to create a private get-away in? Would you like to wake up to a Mexican new décor? You can create a new atmosphere for your home without having to move across the world.

Look in decorating magazines or books for ideas. You can also do a search on your favorite search engine online to find other images of Mexican style decorating.

Keep a notebook to hold pictures of rooms, furniture, or accessories that you would like to incorporate into your home. You may also collect paint chips, fabric swatches, and pictures of window treatments that you like.

If you’d like to transform your bedroom you can expect to buy bright colored paints, new bedding, and new curtains. You may also want to find items like sombreros, ponchos, or terra cotta items to draw the room’s look together. Be prepared to purchase new lighting such as wrought iron or punched tin wall sconces depending upon your vision for your room.

You shouldn’t have to spend a large amount of money to change the look of your room. New bedding and new paint color, along with accessories, should do the trick but these don’t have to be expensive. Try to find reversible bed covers that have a Mexican them on one side and a bright, solid color on the other. Mexican artwork isn’t expensive and can create the image you desire.

In lieu of merely painting your bedroom, spread sheet rock putty on your wall to give it texture. Then paint your room, or maybe just the wall your bed is on, bright blue, red, or yellow. If this is too bold for you, use glaze over the paint to tone it down.

Simple is better when it comes to window treatments. You may not even need curtains. In fact, a simple valance or shutters could be all you need. If you prefer more privacy than these would afford, use blinds that you can lower to give you the privacy you desire.

Achieving Mexican style decorating is possible. It may take you a little bit of time and effort, but a new bedroom can be all you need to be whisked away to Mexico without ever leaving your own home.

Traditional Mexican Style Interiors (Schiffer Design Book)

Mexican Interiors: Style and Personality (Mexican Interiors)

photo credit: GETA.80

Most people know that Mexican style houses include haciendas and some Southwestern designs. You may have visions of Spanish villas. You can even find Mexican style ranch houses. These houses have many style elements in common.

Mexican style houses are influenced by Native American and Spanish cultures. The entry doors are often large wooden doors with wrought iron decorations. Some of these door decorations resemble the early Spanish wrought iron bosses created in the thirteenth century.

Quite often Mexican style houses can be picked out of a neighborhood by looking for adobe exteriors, arched doorways, and open-air porches. You may see flowing fountains in Spanish style courtyards or gardens.

When you enter a Mexican style house you will notice the continued use of stucco or adobe on the interior. The surface of the walls, however, is rough rather than smooth as it is in most other house styles. It would also be quite common to find talavera ceramic tiles in the kitchen and bathroom.

Expect to find bright colors used throughout the house. Magenta, orange, blue, yellow, and red are common colors used in Mexican homes. While you may find some of these colors on the walls in various rooms of the house, quite often the explosive colors are used as accent colors on accessories.

Decorating a Mexican style home would require solid, sturdy wooden furniture that has been painted in the bright colors, particularly in the kitchen. It is not uncommon for tables and chairs to be carved. You may also find leather or unbleached canvas seats.

Accessories you might find in a Mexican style home would be hollowed and painted gourds, terra cotta urns, rustic tin wall sconces and boxes, and religious art. Baskets and earthenware pots are also popular accessories.

When searching for the best window treatments for this type of house, look for solid wooden shutters
for the exterior. Vivid stripes will be best for inside the house. You may also look for accent fabrics with patterns that have a Moorish motif. You may also want to look at fabrics with Aztec designs.

Mexican style houses can be found all over the United States. You might expect to find them in the Southwest, so you may be surprised to find them almost everywhere. Of course, now that you know what to look for, you’ll recognize a Mexican style house right off.

photo credit: laurenatclemson

photo credit: puroticorico

photo credit: tim eschaton

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