Modern-Mexican house: kaya ba talaga?

When I was just starting out with house plans and design, I was hopping between two extremes:  modern-minimalist (“less is more”) and warm-lived in (“more is more” aka Mexican).  I like clean, simple lines, but also the coziness and freeing energy of color.

For the exterior, I knew I had no choice but to follow the modern theme of Nuvali, but inside the house was a different story.

I said out loud last year that I would make modern and Mexican go together, and here I am, one month away from house completion and the question I’m asking is: kaya ba talaga?  

My brother echoed a concern last night that, admittedly, I’m also beginning to feel: what if the house ends up looking chop suey?

Here’s a moodboard of the facade, actual photo on the upper left.

The house will have the roof on the upper right (as per Avida DOR requirement).  Decided to go with white and gray for the walls and stoneworks, with wooden accents.  Will have the steps, grass and striped carport.  Have yet to finalize fencing for the sides, but I’m liking the wood (or wooden finish).

Looking at it now, I’m getting a rigid (matigas) vibe, but don’t know if the roof will soften it enough.  Plan for the front door is to have a curved etching, shaped like an 8 (for the lemniscate).  Wild idea: what if I cut a wave across the front lawn instead of using linear steps?  Also playing around with the idea of using boulders on the lawn to soften up the facade.

INDOORS

First step inside the house will be greeted by these:

We did color testing for the walls, decided on yellow (I’ve always wanted a yellow house!):

Will do tone on tone colors (going for multiple shades of the same color in a room, to create a crisp but rich texture) for the rest of the space, an idea I picked up from doing pinboards on pinterest.  Did a quick review of boards I’ve already collected for inspiration, and was happy to see the power of visioning at work: I didn’t realize I already singled out yellow and green  for my wall moodboards a month ago!

For now, we’re thinking of using the green upstairs.

Kitchen will have wooden cabinets and black counter top.  Island next to the cabinet will be extra wide and will serve as the dining table, with salvaged wood top finish similar to the living room accent wall below.

Accent wall in the living room will be made from layered salvaged wood similar to this:

The room in limbo now is the bathroom/powder room on the Ground Floor.

I’m still deciding whether going for a neutral bathroom is the way to work up a small space.

I went around different building depots to look for tiles, and apart from getting overwhelmed, most of the tiles I saw, considering price, were uninspiring, and at best, “okay”.

Here’s my ideal bathroom flooring, going for about P400/tile:

The practical equivalent is at P63.50 for one 45×45 tile:

…or this darker shade at P63.75/tile:

I asked Architect Rommel for alternatives, and he suggested  Araal Slates (Philippine Teppei Stone) for flooring and walls.   Loved the idea, brought me back to Moon Garden, Tagaytay where I first encountered a stone-floored bathroom:

Very pretty, certainly achieves the indoor-outdoor look I want, but mom raised a valid concern: stones are not a joy to step on, especially when barefoot.

Went back to my bathroom pinboard, and remembered these pegs for the powder room:

The powder room is small and has the same Asian-style shower (i.e. the whole bathroom gets wet when one uses the shower), so I can’t do a “dry” design, and not even a combination of wet-dry.

I really like the simplicity of this bathroom.

I’ve seen araal shaped as tiles similar to the flooring  above, hope actual cost won’t be prohibitive.  Can also picture this bathroom with the red sink I already bought in Binondo:

LANAI

The living room sliding doors open to extended lanais on both sides.

Plan was to leave wider edges of the floor concrete-free for plants, but decided to go with container gardening instead and experiment with vertical wall gardens later on.

A friend suggested that I pave the whole area completely, instead of leaving strips for grass.  He said the upkeep will take its toll and he’s seen one too many surfaces like this eventually covered up for practical reasons.

A workaround we thought of, in case the grass does prove tiresome to maintain, is to use pebbles in between the concrete.  That way we get to maintain the soft, permeable feel of the lanai.

So there it is, first floor review.  I think with plants and furniture, I’ll get to tie it all together.  Chop suey worry begone!