From the Inside Flap
Adobe is an old tradition with a new future. In their third book, authors/designers Karen Witynski and Joe P. Carr forage through the mountains of Mexico and the deserts of the American Southwest in celebration of the strength and wonder of adobe design style. From its humble beginnings to its present-day renaissance, Casa Adobe unearths the homes, haciendas, and holiday getaways that have blended handcrafted details, natural materials, and cross-cultural furnishings to express the elegant simplicity of adobe living.
From rugged thick-walled haciendas in Mexico to a west Texas fort-turned-luxury ranch and a Cuernavaca spa retreat, the seductions of adobe dwellings are many-sculptural walls with contoured corners and softly flowing lines; fireplaces that replace traditional corners with warmth and grace; carved nichos for displaying artworks; ceilings of hearty exposed vigas; earthen floors hand-troweled to a smooth finish; hand-carved Mexican doors; gleaming Saltillo tiles; stone-paved courtyards; stepped walls that hide reflecting pools; and breezy portales that welcome the outdoors. Adobe's capacity to incorporate nature almost seamlessly is a prominent feature of its design, as evidenced in a Santa Fe home through which an acequia, or irrigation stream, escorts visitors through its front gallery.
In vivid detail, Carr and Witynski's stunning photographs reveal the textures of both traditional and modern homes and the unique marriages between adobe's ancient simplicity and homeowners' eclectic global treasures. The interior design elements-painted Mexican-country furniture, hand-wrought iron chandeliers, punched tin and copper sconces, early American antiques, Navajo textiles, African folk art, contemporary paintings, New Mexican retablos and Pueblo pottery-are at happy communion inside the comfortable surrounds of adobe.
Celebrating adobe's rugged romantic design aesthetic, Casa Adobe traces the roots and reaches of earthen buildings in their many architectural forms, including rammed-earth homes. An extensive resource and travel guide completes the authors' visual journey and invites readers to discover home furnishing sources, haciendas, ranches, spas, and hotels that embrace the spirit, design, and details of the adobe lifestyle.
About the Author
Award-winning authors Karen Witynski and Joe P. Carr have been at the forefront of the Mexican design movement for over twenty-five years as interior designers and antiques dealers. Their Mexican design book series includes six titles: Mexican Country Style, The New Hacienda, Casa Adobe, Adobe Details, Casa Yucatán, and Mexican Details.
Based in Austin, Texas, Carr and Witynski are the owners of Texture Antiques, an interior design firm and gallery specializing in hacienda style, Mexican colonial furniture, and architectural elements. Their design work has been featured in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, and dozens of other magazines and newspapers. Individually, Witynski photographs homes and gardens for national publications and Carr is a hacienda consultant and furniture designer.
