Customer Reviews

Casa Yucatan

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4 star:		(1)
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We wish we had known about and read Casa Yucatán, before we had our wonderful three-week vacation in the Yucatán, in August/September, 2002. If you're planning to go to the Yucatán, be sure to take Casa Yucatán with you. We discovered (and stayed at)three of the marvellous hacienda hotels: the Temozón, Santa Rosa and San José. Each one has unique architecture, adapted from its original use with panache and refined good taste. When we saw them in the book, it was like re-visiting them. Our appetite was whetted to try to see more of the beautifully-photographed and knowledgeably-described homes on our next visit. At the back of the book, there's a 4-page Travel Guide, filled with useful information. Mexican design is beautiful and probably no non-Mexicans know more about it than Karen and Joe, having dedicated decades to studying it seriously and having visited and photographed many outstanding examples for inclusion in their books. One place we'll be sure not to miss is Hacienda Petac, the restoration of which was just completed in December 2002. Karen and Joe are partners in that enterprise, the design center of which offers a showcase for Mexican antiques, architectural elements and decorative accents. Hacienda Petac also offers accomodations to guests. We would hope that some of the architects whose projects are featured in Casa Yucatán and whose names addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses are shown, might be willing to arrange with the owners for interested readers to visit their beautiful homes.

This is another marvelous book on Mexican & Spanish Architecture, furnishings, & landscaping. The colors & textures used are exceptional. The lush landscaping is something we are trying to recreate in our our home.

This book & their others have inspired us to do some very creative things with our desert property.

I love architecture and interior design and am currently in the process of designing a home thirty miles south of Cancun. In working with an architect from France and the relevant language issues (French, Spanish and English) I needed a starting point to state my ideas of what I wanted to design. I have many other books such as Casa California but needed something with specific architecture in the Yucatan Peninsula.

After our original drawings I bought this book. My architect laughed at our next visit as he had the same book with much more wear on it. His other clients had been using it to describe thoughts and just referring to page numbers. In my case our ideas were established prior to discovering this book. But the book allowed me to visualize many of the ideas incorporated by our architect. The pictures are beautiful and the author does a great job providing a historical perspective on the styles. My architect said it is worth planning a trip to view many of the homes in the book and I hope to do so in the future. My compliments to the author for successfully capturing the culture of this unique area of Mexico.

In the next year I hope to buy authentic Mexican furniture. I have heard in Guadalajara there are places to buy this furniture prior to massive mark-ups through distribution. Please email me if you know of any ideas on where I should consider shopping and also if there are internet sites to view, [...].

Casa Yucatan is yet another example of the brilliance of this creative duo who inspire and educate. Makes one want to leave manaña por la manaña for the beautiful Yucatan Peninsula. I have all five books they have written and am anxiously awaiting the relase of their sixth entitled "Mexican Details".

"The distinctive landscape of the Yucatan Peninsula possesses a unique natural beauty where limestone plateau, tropical jungles and subterranean rivers and caves are the setting of two magnificent cultures."

If you are looking for a book to inspire you in the middle of winter, then this book will provide a summery escape to sun drenched lands where blue cushions line an outdoor seating area overlooking the ocean and burnt sienna paint splashes across inner walls. The gardens in this book are inspiring, with stone fountains, hammocks and dense foliage.

The tubs made from hand-carved stone are spectacular, like bathing rooms from a dream. Fascinating stone fountains mist a room and are situated in a large tile in the middle of the floor surrounded by modern statues.

Opening this book is like entering a magical land where you can visit art-filled escapes, old haciendas and colonial home gardens. The chapters include:

Design Textures
Architectural Elements
Water Spaces
Open-Air Living
Casas Yucatan
Haciendas
Costal Homes
The New Maya House

"Water Spaces" is a favorite chapter with gorgeous pools and ponds that extend for the entire length of many buildings. The Porches shimmer with glossy tile and are highlighted with sapphire blue accents in paint on rows of pillars facing gorgeous crimson edged windows with lemony painted walls. In the bedrooms, beds hang from the ceiling or are covered in netting.

One of the most exotic outdoor rooms is a Moorish design with arches, seating and a burnt sienna tiled floor. These are places you could live and be quite happy never to leave. I want to jump into the pictures of this book and run around barefoot in a summer dress.

~The Rebecca Review

This was the best...so far... a coffee table book full of information and gorgeous pictures showing the uniqueness and beauty of Yucatan.