A Texas home is designed to authentically represent hacienda style

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A Texas home is designed to authentically
represent hacienda style
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Ever wonder what it would be like to design
a hacienda-style home? We asked Mexican style experts Karen Witynski
Carr and Joe P. Carr for insight into what inspired them to build the hacienda of their dreams. The couple’s firsthand account of the experience follows.
An ongoing desire to embrace Mexico’s cultural richness has
led us on a fascinating journey that has spawned eight books and
numerous design projects in Mexico and the U.S., including our
own hacienda-style home in the Texas hill country. Located outside of Austin, Hacienda Granada (Granada means pomegranate in
Spanish and is a reoccurring motif in Spanish Colonial design symbolizing, among other things, good luck) was the natural conclusion
of many years of work visiting, researching and photographing
Mexico’s unique colonial estates.
For decades, we’ve been intrigued by the handcrafted details
particular to Mexican hacienda architecture: grand scale, nail-studded entrance doors, turned-spindle window guards, carved-stone
pavers, columns, canales (rain spouts), old beams, clay roof tiles and
arcaded portales punctuated with wall-embedded wooden hammock hooks.
During our hacienda pilgrimages we became most enamored
with the secluded estates that were designed around gracefully
arcaded courtyards. We knew we wanted to bring this soothing
aesthetic to our own home, so we focused our plans on a defined
open-air space that would allow us to feel connected to the outdoors at all times.
Equally important was design authenticity; so we sought traditional Mexican materials and antique architectural elements, including old doors that we had restored in our workshop. Our desire to
create the look and feel of an old hacienda prompted us to integrate
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key elements into the design, including a zaguán entrance (covered
passageway leading to a central courtyard), alacenas (built-in wall
cabinets), nichos and decorative old stone. The warmth of Mexico’s
traditional red and yellow-ocher paint colors also was key in replicating the Old World charm of our favorite 18th-century estates. The
rich hues worked well with our collection of colonial furniture.
We chose to build using an insulated concrete form (ICF) system, as it produces a monolithic reinforced concrete wall that is
structurally sound, energy-efficient and fire-retardant. In addition,
the wall mass created by using ICF instills a feeling of solidity found
in well-made adobe structures or old rubblestone haciendas. The
series of arches for our arcaded portal was hand-sculpted from ICF
blocks that, once in place, were filled with concrete to complete the
sturdy building system.
Our courtyard has become our favorite “room” in the house, as
there is an indescribable feeling of peace, tranquility and protection
that one gets from being enveloped in a private yet open-air living
space. We have enjoyed many courtyard experiences in Mexico;
however, we never imagined how much a serene courtyard environment could enrich our daily lives. We savor the flash of tangerine butterflies or the changing afternoon shadows on the colorful walls. A
staple element of any courtyard, the hammock has become our loyal
friend, beckoning us to rest for a spell with every gentle breeze.
Karen Witynski Carr and Joe P. Carr have co-authored eight books on
Mexican design and architecture, including Hacienda Courtyards and
the forthcoming Hacienda Style (Gibbs Smith, Publisher). Based in
Austin, Texas, they own Joe P. Carr Design, LLC, a store specializing in
Mexican architectural elements, antique furniture and decorative accents.
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“Our desire to
create the look
and feel of an old
hacienda prompted
us to integrate
key elements into
the design”
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