Photography  by Werner Segarra This new Arizona residence reflects many of the enduring qualities of Spanish Colonial Revival homes built in California in the 1930s, notes its architect, Ken Brown. As then, details rooted in the houses and missions built by New World Spanish settlers reappear in the Mexican tile roof and shuttered windows, and in the hand-forged wrought-iron balconies and light fixtures.

A Santa Barbara-inspired house finds a home under the blue skies of Arizona

Recently, representatives of a major travel service showed up at this stunning Spanish Colonial Revival-style house and surprised its owners by asking if it was a resort.

Set on 2.5 acres, the sprawling Paradise Valley, Arizona, residence indeed has the amenities of a fine vacation getaway. But this is a family home—with the emphasis, quite delightfully, on family.

Here, the homeowners’ adult children and 17 grandchildren have open reservations, and baby cribs and a child-size dining table are as integral to the design scheme as the luxurious accoutrements and impeccable attention to detail. A couple of those details: The dining room’s coffered ceiling is inset with intricate handcrafted plaster designs; and the breakfast room ceiling is painted with a trompe l’oeil sky—an apt embellishment for a dwelling the homeowners named Cielo Azul—Spanish for Blue Sky.

Why the name? “When I think about Arizona, I always picture its blue skies,” explains the lady of the house. A Utah native, who relocated to Arizona after getting married, she has long admired the red-tile-roofed Santa Barbara-style houses located in the older areas of Phoenix; she notes that they reflect the state’s Spanish heritage very well. In building their wrought iron- and cantera-embellished white stucco home, she and her husband were emulating what she calls  “that purity of style.” 

Catering to the needs of adults and little ones alike, the year-old house and its guest casita were designed by architect Ken Brown and constructed by American Tradition Builders Inc. Landscaping and special outdoor amenities are by Berghoff Design Group.
Interiors were planned and executed by designers Chris Benac and Teresa Nelson of Nelson Barnum Interiors. Nelson attributes much of the home’s beauty to “some of the most talented craftspeople in the country,” such as an Amish woodworker in Ohio who created the cabinetry, and an Arizona artist who made new living room and master bedroom beams look as if they are 100 years old.

Palladian windows in the airy entry are inset with doors that open to the backyard. Centered under the groin-vaulted ceiling is a round wooden table from France. The Oriental carpet was obtained by the home-owners in Jerusalem.

The couple’s lifestyle and the importance of creating a family-friendly setting guided the design of the interiors, Nelson reflects. “I have been acquainted with the homeowners personally and professionally for the last 15 years and know that family, friends and entertaining are very important to them. In designing this home, we kept that in mind. Furniture was laid out to accommodate maximum seating and traffic flow. Fabrics that were both beautiful and ‘bullet-proof’ were selected for high-traffic rooms. Special play areas for the grandchildren are tucked away throughout the residence.” One such area is the Western-themed game room. Running along soffits under the crimson ceiling is a row of painted cattle-style brands that the homeowner designs for each grandchild.

Another kid-pleasing nook is reached by climbing up the cherry-paneled library’s winding stairway to a loft. On its adjacent patio, a shrunken-down doorway opens to the grandchildren’s “secret” room.

“They were already here,” laughs their grandmother, spying telltale remnants of chalk. The crew of children had moved on to some other spot in this thoroughly engaging home.