Defining Style and the 60/30/10 Design Rule
This is my first house design and build. I refer to it as our “Mexican casa” since the build is in the high desert of Mexico. I am a Certified Colour Consultant in Interior Design but building a house is completely new territory. The key takeaways have been to start with a design style and follow the 60/30/10 colour rule in interior design.
When we started looking at properties in our town here in Mexico, San Miguel de Allende, we tended toward houses that needed renovations. In fact we told the realtor that we were “renovators” and not builders. That would all change the moment I stepped on this piece of land that wasn’t yet on the market. It was in a dream location outside of town, set against a mesa with striking views of the valley below
San Miguel de Allende is located in Mexico’s high desert. The Unesco-designated heritage town sits above six thousand feet and is in the interior of Mexico, approximately four hours north of Mexico City. The architecture is stunning with tall stone walls featuring swaths of bougainvillea vines, magical garden-filled courtyards and buildings painted in classic burnt oranges, browns and yellows.
While the key design elements defining San Miguel’s architecture are appealing, our home design ended up being quite different. We had 500 meters square of land to work with and incredible views in all directions. We decided that our primary views would be of the sweeping landscapes of the valley below and felt that an L-shaped house design with lots of windows would best capture this vista. Typically the best views in town are from a rooftop because buildings are constructed in rows in the town of San Miguel. We didn’t have to worry about a neighbor building higher than us because our property was on a slope. This also allowed us to build only one story with minimal stairs. We still have a pergola on the roof but the views can be enjoyed from anywhere in the casa.
A simplistic design was also important to us. We wanted the house to be livable within a year and not be an ongoing project like our 5-year renovation in Canada. I had held images of a raw, industrial style design in my imagination for quite some time and this was what lead the design of our Mexican casa. I feel that an overall “design style” is important as it helps determine your color scheme.
I began to gather reference photos that would help me to create a house design in the 3D modelling program, Sketchup. This process of gathering photos and detailing the design elements for the builder really forced me to stick to the 60/30/10 rule of color. This rule states that 60% of your color should be your main color, 30% is dedicated to a secondary color and 10% to an accent color. I find it easier to think of this rule as the “use three to five colors in a space” rule. It’s not that hard nor is it restrictive, especially with a design style in mind. For every color, you can incorporate shades of that color to add more variety. For example, in our Mexican house we have four colors used throughout the interiors and exteriors: Grey, orange, black and, brown. The shades of orange show up in our clay brick Boveda ceiling, bright orange roof tiles and in a rust-colored sofa (and hopefully terra cotta planters on the porch).
Thanks for reading Part 1 of our Mexican House Build!
Up Next: Reference photos that influenced our Mexican house build and design