Behind the Design

Achieve Authentic Southwest Style

July 13, 2017

Turn your home into a Southwest Retreat that speaks of the beauty and color of the Southwest landscape and culture. Southwestern style is unlike anything else and places an emphasis on an inviting, warm atmosphere while melding influences from Native American and Mexican cultures.

Your foundation color should find inspiration in a neutral adobe or terracotta tone. Select accent colors that occur naturally in a tawny Southwestern landscape, including green, both vibrant and muted blues, and the warm-toned yellows and oranges of mountain ranges and mesas bathed in sunlight.

Southwestern style rooms require hard floors, like wood or terracotta tiling that flows with the room's more natural, shaped-by-the-land vibe. Toss on a couple of beautiful, hand-crafted Navajo rugs with simple, geometric patterns like stripes or diamonds for authentic Southwestern flavor.

The type of fixtures you decorate your room with depends on your preference. Lamps with pottery bases in earthen colors are an appropriate choice, but so are sconces with hammered tin shades, floor lamps with wooden frames and Tiffany-style lamps with darker, geometric patterns that recall Navajo rug designs.

Less polished than furniture found in a traditional room, Southwestern furniture pieces should be more solid looking and rustic. Nevertheless, beauty can be found in the grain of the wood, and the craftsmanship of its characteristic straight lines, molding, slats and iron decoration. Mission furniture is a handy style to use in a pinch, as the designs are the soul of practicality and function.

This style is minimalist in approach. Accent your living space with some lovely pottery and indigenous paintings and sculpture to achieve a more authentic look in your Southwestern styled home.

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