 For the upcoming issue of “Costa Vallarta Luxury Living,” one of the editorial assignments was decorating and furnishing a condominium in Punta Mita using only items from stores located in the Costa Vallarta area. Our objective was to see just how easy, or difficult, it could be buying only locally and not resorting to using an interior designer. Although it certainly would have been much easier to just use a designer (who most likely would do a better job!), we wanted to incorporate as much as possible from different stores so the end result would be a showcase of available products. But we also wanted to see what we’d be able to come up with ourselves. Some of us had some limited experience furnishing homes, but not to this extent and certainly not for something that would be published.
In the end, it was not difficult at all; as a matter of fact, it was a great experience since there is such a wide array of items available from some absolutely fabulous stores. We managed to find everything we were looking for; actually, we wished we had a few more rooms in the home so we could incorporate even more for the article! It is possible to fully furnish your home without going to Guadalajara or having items shipped down from the border.
If there’s a downside, it’s that it can take time. If you don’t have time to dedicate to such a project, we highly recommend using one of the local interior designers. Not only are they good, they have a wealth of knowledge about what’s available locally or from other parts of Mexico, and we were surprised by how much they work with each other. Most of our best leads for pieces came from designers, who seemed to be quite aware of what every other store had to offer.
We began by first becoming very familiar with the condominium, which has 320 square meters of living space including three bedrooms and a service/office room. The condo development is called Hacienda de Mita and it definitely has a hacienda feel to it, perhaps contemporary hacienda would best describe it. We wanted to retain this feel with our interior design. We used a floor plan to mark down what we thought was needed for each room. A list was then created from this.
Next, we visited every store in the area to see what they had to offer, photographing pieces we found interesting with our cellular phone. Store owners were quite helpful, not just pointing out what they have but, as mentioned, what other stores had that they felt may work for us. This first round allowed us to get enough of the basic components (sofas, dining table, beds and chairs), so they could be placed in the condo to give us a visual idea of what we had so far and what was still needed. From that we could move to the next stage, obtaining smaller pieces such as tables, credenzas and terrace furniture. Once these pieces were in place, we began with the knick-knacks, art pieces and plants.
There was plenty of lively discussion, sometimes bordering on argument, over what would look best and what did indeed seem to be best for the home in the end. Everyone had their own opinions (what exactly is contemporary hacienda?) and some opinions were stronger than others. But in the end, it all seemed to come together, or at least we think it did. You’ll have to check it out for yourself in the February issue of “Costa Vallarta” and let us know!
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