Summer Thornton Designed Her Family’s Dream Vacation Home in Mexico. Now You Can Stay There.
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“Decorators often decide on a ‘house white,’” says Chicago-based interior designer Summer Thornton. It’s typically the color of the trim, doors, and ceiling, she notes—a neutral equalizer. But in the case of Casa Rosada, the vacation home she and her husband, Josh, built in Sayulita, Mexico, the house white is pink.
“It automatically puts you in this fantasy realm,” says Summer. And she is exactly the type of artist and out-of-the-box adventurer the vibrant town of Sayulita attracts. Surrounded by mountains and jungle on one side and the blue-green Pacific on the other, “it’s a place that invites you to lose yourself and follow your dreams,” she adds.
Her dream: to design and build an oceanfront tropical home for her family’s vacations, yes, but also to offer as an innovative, luxury rental property with the staff and services of a top-tier hotel. “I wanted guests to feel as if it was personal and private, like a friend had invited them to their amazing house in Mexico,” she says.
Still, such an endeavor would have humble beginnings. Summer and Josh purchased a late 20th-century house with a side garden/courtyard that was not in great shape. In fact, a pair of wooden arched doors was the only part of the house worth saving.
Today that salvaged front door has been rightsized with a surrounding concrete arch that suits the new home’s grand scale, says local architect Enrique García, who collaborated with Summer on the project. Just beyond it “the courtyard greets you as if it is the hostess of the house,” he says. “It’s how we structure spaces to create circulation and flow like a foyer.”
Summer adds, “The idea was to make it look as if we found the courtyard ‘as is’ and built a modern structure around it.” Underfoot in the central patio, she arranged colorful handmade Moroccan tiles in a pattern that, to García, “is like a painting” anchoring the home. Concrete walls were plastered with chukum, a traditional Mayan mixture made from a combination of limestone powder and the sap from a tree grown only in the Yucatán Peninsula.
“Chukum withstands salt spray and leaves a beautiful patina over time,” she notes. Rather than adding a bright, “beachy” color to it, Summer wanted a hue that would feel playful and fun during the day and moody at night. “Mexico feels like pink to me, so I chose a melon-ish, terra-cotta-type shade. It has this warmth that holds you.”
Conversational seating awaits in the large sunken living room, where “you can hear the ocean and feel the sea breeze.” Anchoring both arrangements is a custom coffee table crafted from a local wood that easily withstands salt and humidity and dubbed Tortuga for the turtles that nest and hatch on the beach directly in front of the house. Shades of ochre, dusty green, deep jade, and the all-over easygoing pink reference hues that repeat throughout the region and tropical landscape.
Summer thinks of the look as inspired by Mexican architect Luis Barragán at the beach. “Casa Rosada is loose and open, reflecting a sense of adventure and whimsy and the idea of ‘why not?’” And like the butterflies that flutter in through the open-air layout, this lightness of spirit finds its way into each of the home’s bedrooms. Through romantic arched corridors, beds stand as works of art, adorned with tassels and shell carvings and red coral in color-coded sanctuaries ranging from deep jade to dusty plum.
In one suite an outdoor chukum tub is shrouded in bougainvillea; another bedroom steps out to a private sunbathing area. “I didn’t want it to feel like there was one glorious bedroom and the rest are little afterthoughts, so each of them has a little something special,” Summer says.
As the sun sets and she and guests gather around the dining room’s 16-foot-long table, two gold leaf chandeliers dangle like wondrous low-hanging palm branches. These are already turning a beautiful copper green from the salt air. This, too, is a slice of Summer’s fantasy. “Vacation homes are different from everyday life—they’re built around play and a strong sense of place,” she says.
Casa Rosada is indeed a home with a soul, adds García. “In the evenings, when you’re sitting in the dining room having dinner and you look out toward the patio with the water falling in the fountain and the lights in the palm trees, you feel like the spirit of the house lives right there.”
Exterior
Summer with her husband, Josh, outside the newly built home.
Courtyard
In the entry courtyard, a slender fountain crafted of volcanic stone rises from an emerald arrangement of zellige tiles (Zia Tile). Pots of small blue agave climb the steps above an antique bench Thornton found in San Miguel de Allende.
Living Room
A sunken living room with twin conversational seating areas catches Pacific breezes off the vein-cut travertine pool deck. Stool cushion fabric, Jasper.
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Exquisite Mexican craft in the form of a carved parota wood coffee table anchors each of the sunken living room’s seating areas.
Sitting Room
Exotic birds flutter across a vintage tapestry in an oceanfront sitting room.
Dining Room
A pair of exuberant palm leaf chandeliers (Casamidy) casts a golden shimmer over dinner parties. Rattan chairs, Sika-Design
Kitchen
A custom palm mural by Mexican artist Priscila González Urrea envelops the kitchen in tropical splendor. The wicker pendant is by Mestiz; gas range, Wolf Kitchen. Echoing the mural’s tropical leaves, an embossed tin mirror (Casamidy) hangs above a red travertine skirted sink (fabric, Perennials). Rustic copper sink fixtures, Sonoma Forge
Art Studio
A soaring wall of windows ushers light and fresh air into the art studio. Bunk cushion fabric, CW Stockwell.
Pool
The vein-cut travertine pool terrace is a breezy perch for catching salt air and sunsets. Copper lanterns, Casamidy.
Tormillo wood chaises (A&D Interiors) are dressed in a matchstick-stripe (fabric, CW Stockwell) mimicking Casa Rosada’s pink façade and leafy pillows (fabric, Élitis) echoing the surrounding palm leaves. Gold beach towels, Business & Pleasure
Outdoor Dining
Playful settings animate the outdoor dining table, with erizos de mar (or sea urchins) dancing across ceramic plates by Mestiz.
Primary Bedroom
In Summer’s bedroom, a painted red coral bed is upholstered in Penny Morrison’s Inca Vertical Stripe. Bed, Casamidy. Fringe chandelier, Daniela Bustos Maya.
Primary Bathroom
On the balcony of Summer’s room, a custom limestone soaking tub cocooned in soft peach linen draperies (fabric, Mokum) overlooks the Pacific.
Garden Room Bedroom and Bath
Within the jade Garden Room, a jute tassel tieback (Samuel & Sons) adorns a silver wrought-iron headboard with an antique finish. A parotta wood bench (Muebla) is topped with a Pierre Frey chevron stripe. Drapery fabric, Perennials.
The Garden Room bath’s Elle Green marble countertop and backsplash echoes the home’s surrounding verdure. White plaster shell sconces flank sleek Casamidy mirrors
Outdoor Shower and Bath
Off the Garden Room, a private outdoor shower within the pink chukum walls. The rustic copper exposed shower is by Sonoma Forge, and the woven lounge chair with rosy powder-coated legs is by Mexa.
A soaking tub and teak armless lounge chair (Montauk Sofa) outfitted in plush emerald Perennials-covered cushions are enveloped by a leafy wall of philodendron. Striped pillow fabric, Dedar. Patterned pillow fabric, Élitis
Sunset Bedroom
Crowning the Sunset guest suite is a custom Baroque headboard resplendent in silver leaf detailing (Casamidy).
Guest Bedroom
Tasseled pom-pom trim dangles playfully from carved oak canopy beds.
Architectural Details
How to Rent Casa Rosada
This house tour reveal concludes our Designing the Dream series with Summer Thornton. The good news? This fully staffed private home is available to rent for your next vacation. You can book Casa Rosada through the property's website, Airbnb, and VRBO
Interior design by Summer Thornton; architecture by Enrique García; landscape design by Jorge del Real; photography by Annie Schlechter; styling by Mieke ten Have
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