Decorating Southwest Stylel

www.gagehotel.com

It must have been my first visit to the Gage Hotel in Marathon, Texas that was my muse for decorating Southwest Style.  I fell instantly in love with the sparse yet elegant furnishings, all with a touch of southwestern heritage.

Since that time, I have tried to decorate our home in El Paso, Texas to have the same wow factor as the Gage.  I'm still chasing that ideal, but here are some of the furnishings in our house that have special memories for me.

This table and chair are in our guest rooms that we call the "Texas Room."  They originally belonged to Libbie Calk, my mother-in-law.  The boots on the floor were hers.  The old hat box came from my side of the  family, and the hat and lamp were gifts from friends .  This is my favorite spot for reading the newspaper on cold winter mornings.  The room used to be my son's bedroom before he left for college, so it holds lots of good memories for me.

This is a photo from a room we call the estancia. (Less pretentious owners might call it a sun room.)  At any rate, it is an enclosed area that was once a back patio.  The trastero (cupboard) in the cupboard was a find of my husband's. I didn't inquire too deeply into its origins but quickly slapped several coats of  turquoise paint on it.  The object in the middle of the table is an antique bread warmer from the 1880's.

Still in the estancia, I love this flower pot decorated using a mosaic technique and given to us by friends one Christmas.  The coyote howling on the floor was made by my husband Wayne.

Moving on to the living room, this antique piece of furniture called a tinajero has been recently re-purposed to display Wayne's collection of Native American realia.

The bathrooms have been a special challenge to convert to Southwest Style.  Here is one of the earliest basins that we had changed out in the downstairs powder room.  It is showing a little wear and tear, but I have no plans to replace it any time soon.

And finally, there are the santos that I have collected for years.  They decorate one wall of our kitchen. Unfortunately, I have lost touch with the artist who made the santos.   I used to buy them at Kermezaar in El Paso or at craft fairs in New Mexico.

Thanks for taking this tour with me.  My decorating efforts remind me of HGTV where they feature a very expensive room and then try to convince you that you can get the same look for a lot less money.  I'm afraid our home isn't the Gage Hotel, but I have a great excuse to keep trying to decorate in Southwest Style.