House & Garden Tour
By Jennifer Hamilton May 9, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

House & Garden Tour
Sun, May11, noon
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
US$15 or 150 pesos
Breakfast at Café Santa Ana starting at 9am

God’s Land and People of Mexico, triangles, cantera lions


1. Up several flights of flower-filled steps, this gracious home offers wide-open views across San Miguel, the surrounding hillsides and the nearby lake. The living and dining room leads into the warm kitchen with its blue and white tiles with a small outdoor patio. A serene guest bedroom is filled with light and has its own patio and a captivating bath. The master bedroom is filled with even more light, offering an unobstructed view of todo el mundo! Owner and guests enjoy spending quiet evenings on the plant-filled patio, especially on weekends when all the church spires in town are brightly lit. An art studio is in what was originally the garage. The walls are filled with paintings—the owner was recently asked to present a 10-year retrospective at the Diego Rivera Museum in Guanajuato, aptly titled “God’s Land and People of Mexico.” 


2. Behind this inconspicuous door in an older neighborhood is a sleek, spare, modern home. Designed with great aplomb, angled interior walls mirror the triangular-shaped lot. An open room painted in soft earth tones contains a square dining room table with a beautiful modern chrome chandelier above it. Two sofas frame the cantera fireplace. Above the fireplace is a beautiful wood piece found in Thailand embedded with gold Buddhas and surrounded by two alabaster sconces. Travertine marble was used inside and out, where a weeping fountain, surrounded by plants and bamboo, flows gently down the wall. Most rooms look out to this interior courtyard. An outdoor shower is surrounded by calla lilies. The interior staircase leads to a guest bedroom and media room, then to a large outside terrace. A large fire pit keeps guests warm during chilly evenings. Up one more story is another large terrace with 360° views. This home is something unique for the House & Garden Tour. We love the clean-cut lines of this ultramoder
n home!


3. When purchased in 2001, this property was a pile of rubble and a shack. Now one enters through an archway’s iron gate into a beautiful plant-filled patio with a fountain. Spectacular carved cantera stone forms all the fireplaces and some of the sinks in the bedrooms. The dining table is a splendid door found in Mexico City, with legs and glass top added. The intimate library’s fireplace is “guarded” by two cantera lions. A curved stairway with castle-like windows leads up to the living room with its brick floors and charming bar. French doors open to the patio and Jacuzzi area. An ancient Indian door hides a utility area. A rill (water channel) runs through the center of stairs leading to one of the guest rooms. Up yet more curved stairs are two other guest rooms with individual patios facing west so guests can enjoy sunsets. The master bedroom on the third level has a four-posted iron bed and an L-shaped patio on two sides with views of the Parroquia, the Las Monjas dome and the mountains to the west.