Hacienda style ...

This, despite the upsurge in ranch style housing across the home counties, is one of the most difficult garden design styles to pull off successfully in the UK - simply because of our lighting. The hacienda style demands a certain level of saturated light - an absolute drenching of strong sunlight to make deep shadow and to throw dramatic design features into relief. Because the style is based on a distinct contrast between the shady, welcoming interiors and the bright but somewhat glaring exteriors, we often find our own more hazy sunshine doesn’t give the right kind of contrast and the style can seem dull and lukewarm. There are some clever little tricks you can use to fake the hacienda glow though. Where the traditional Mexican style uses white, used a pale yellow on upper walls and ceilings and a deeper ochre or gold colour on low walls and furnishings. This warms the light and gives an effect of sunshine even when the day is overcast, where pure white adds to the snowy chill of a dull day. Make sure your water feature is a deeper shade than turquoise - while that pure clear light blue works well in California and Mexico, it has a chill effect here - deep green, aqua or deep blue are warmer and again suggest a greater contrast between the sun and the shade, causing the eye to believe there is more sunlight around than is really the case. Where you have an area of permanent shade, work with it - paint it pale mauve, lavender or a very soft pale blue which are all the colours of shadows thrown on white walls by the midday sun - in other words, you trick the eye again to think that the colour it sees is related to heat and sun. Typical patio floors may be as simple as large squares of terra-cotta or tiled with intricate mosaics placed in a Mexican design. Again, something reminiscent of Colonial Spain or Aztec is ideal, but go for warm colours, ox-blood not blue, yellow stone rather than grey, a soft sage green rather than the cooler British racing green. Next time, the plants to finish off the optical illusion and make your hacienda into a true paradise.

Posted by The Allotment Blogger on Friday, August 10, 2007 

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