Ocean view
Garden View Room
Jungle Room
Jungle View Room
This house is a vacation home and needed to be able to accommodate a lot of people for the times when everyone got together over the holidays. The house already had amazing views and some fabulous common areas. The not so great parts of the house were the bedrooms which needed some updates. As is common with all my projects, the budget was tight. That translates to not getting to do everything we wanted but still getting to make a huge impact and improve functionality and make the spaces more beautiful.
The pool bedroom was originally much smaller. This house has water canals running through it. We got rid of a useless water feature that really just looked like a huge tub that you couldn’t actually access. We also took out a canal coming from that water feature. We got rid of both as they weren’t adding anything to the aesthetics and taking them out, we could add square footage to the bedroom and bathroom. We ended up moving the access point from the bedroom to the bathroom to make it more functional and also so the first thing you saw as you opened the door into the bathroom wasn’t the toilet. This bedroom was originally not very big and it needed to be bigger so that it could accommodate another large bed. All the walls were repainted and we decided on colors that are often seen here in Mexico. The house already had many bold Mexican colors so we needed to keep that theme going. The fabric on the queen sized daybed is Mexican with a traditional print. The house has a distinct Mexican architecture and we wanted to stay true to its roots. We took out the tile flooring in both the bedroom and bathroom as there was no way to match it and quite frankly it wasn’t that wonderful to begin with. The tile in the shower also had to be ripped out as it was quite worn. As much as possible, we repurposed what we could and really tried not to just replace to replace. Budget and environmental concerns were at the forefront of these decisions. All in all, it turned into a really lovely space that everyone loves to hang out in.
Jungle Room
I call this the jungle room as it looks out onto lots of trees and has a jungle feel. This room was more of a slight update than a complete remodel. This room was repainted and as it is a bit dark, we went with a nice bright and bold hue for the accent wall. We didn’t change out any of the wall hangings as there was nothing wrong with them. We did change out the sofa that was in the room as we needed to add more sleeping space. We decided to design two daybeds to create an L-shaped sofa. We chose a bright fuscia to complement the yellow/orange walls. The color palette originated with the bedspread. Again, we wanted to keep the theme of bright and bold Mexican colors. We kept the floor tiles as they were in good shape and of course budget didn’t allow.
Garden Room
This room has a view of the garden and also the ocean. The biggest issue in this area was the bathroom which needed a complete overhaul. There was a huge bathtub that was hard to get into and a small vanity. None of these were going to work in the long term as the tub was quite dangerous to get into and out of. So, everything got ripped out. Here in Mexico, the walls are made of concrete so there was no moving walls. The tub was turned into a walk-in shower and the new vanity was put against a long wall instead of shoved into a corner. The flow of the bathroom made a lot more sense. Everything was kept light and bright. Because the flooring was ripped out in the bathroom it just made more sense to continue the same flooring into the bedroom. The bedroom was repainted and a painting (which was originally in the pool room) was moved into the bedroom. It’s now a much more relaxing and inviting room.
Apartment
This apartment was originally conceived as the maid’s quarters. But, there was going to be no live-in maid and this apartment needed to work for when guests came for the holidays. This area was by far in the worst condition. It needed a lot of work. The old decrepit kitchen was torn out as well as the bathroom that needed a complete gut. The area was turned into two bedrooms with a bathroom. The old living and kitchen area was turned into a bedroom with two double beds. The bedroom was updated with a new bed and built in wardrobe. The bathroom was turned into a more functional area. We repurposed linens and cut up blankets to make decorative pillows. We repainted everything and now it’s a nice cozy apartment.
