Everything old is new again

I wouldn't have thought that worm holes on 400-year old pine wood would be one of my favorite local decorations, but they really are.

I have found and heard a lot of conflicting information about "old wood" or "troje" wood, but I'm going to believe the government on this one, and guess that pre-Hispanic Purepecha people built homes entirely out of wood and these wooden cabins were/are called trojes.

Starting about a decade or so ago, it became fashionable to take the wood from abandoned trojes and use it to make furniture and put it in modern construction. You can spot troje wood by its tell-tale worm holes. There is also a lot of beautiful work done with old wood doors.

Our friends Meg and Fred Snyder of Copper Instincts do beautiful work using copper and troje wood to make high-end furniture. We hired a local guy, Nacho,to build our lovely kitchen table and cabinets.

A quick google search also found Patzcuaro Fine Mexican Furniture.

Tiles, Tiles, Talevera Tiles

I like to think of myself as the un-gringo gringo, but I'm as big of a sucker as the next guy for crazy (cheesey) talevera tiles.

There's a wonderful local artisan in Capula who makes beautiful tiles, and can custom make you whatever you want. They run a few pesos a tile, and at the time we purchased tiles from her, the price was the same whether she had them in stock or had to make new ones.

To design our kitchen and bathrooms, we consulted with a few really great books, including our favorite, Mexicocina

Then we went to the website Tierra y Fuego and literally cut and paste the tiles we wanted into our interior designer's sketches.

It was that easy.

Don't believe the hype that tiles are super expensive or hard to come by. Just order early and don't be afraid to be cheesey.