Photos by Werner Segarra Above and below right: Along with providing glimpses of the expanded entry courtyard at the Solem residence, old doors and window grates set the stage for a home filled with collected “finds.”

Touches of Southern California, Mexico and France come together in a pretty Arizona Pueblo

Marianne Solem has coined a term for the style of decor in her 1981 Pueblo Revival style of decor in the 1981 Pueblo Revival home she shares with husband Kurt. And it’s only fitting that she should—after all, she did the decorating herself. She calls her style Chez Rancho, which she describes as a mixture of Southern California and Mexican Colonial with a punch of France.

Whatever the name may be, the result is an enchanting home: It whispers of the past with smartly placed antiques, and it smiles on all who enter with colorful collectible crafts from Mexico and the Southwest. “You have to know who you are and what you like,” Solem says of decorating on her own. “I also drew information from the subcontractors and others working on my home.” The residence will be showcased this month on Phoenix Home & Garden’s Palette of Homes Tour 2005.

Solem and her family had lived in their house­­ for five­ years before completing a 16-month renovation that began in 2003. The main focus of the remodel was to update, enlarge and add light to the kitchen. But by the time the project was complete, they had rebuilt the entire east half of the home and added 800 square feet to the existing 3,800-square-foot structure.

Today, Solem couldn’t be more pleased with the result. She gives most of the credit to her architect, James Rogers, who was the original architect on the home. Solem didn’t set out looking for him; finding Rogers was a happy accident that happened soon after she moved into the house. While driving around the neighborhood one day, she was impressed by a building under construction and took down the name and number of the architect involved. It was Rogers. Five years later, she called him and nearly fell over when she found out he was the one who had designed her home. It was kismet.

At first, Rogers says he was toying with the idea of giving the home more of a Territorial look; but its original Santa Fe bones won out. Now that the project is complete, the architect says he is especially captivated by a little addition he made to a doorway, and most people who enter the home are, too. Rogers embedded a mesquite branch that had been trimmed from a tree in his yard into an arched doorway off the family room.

This special touch is just one of many in the Solem home. The spacious front courtyard has Saltillo tile flooring, a stone fountain and large fireplace. Rustic benches and colorful pots with flowers add character and charm to the space. Off to one side is a small potting shed that looks like something out of a Midwest farmhouse.

Inside, beamed ceilings, reverse Saltillo tiles and hand-plastered walls create a warm palette on which Solem based her design decisions. Colorful glazed Mexican tiles add punch throughout the residence. They make an unlikely but colorful statement in Solem’s blue-and-white French Country kitchen. “I was really worried about mixing the Mexican glazed tiles with the granite countertops, but I think it turned out real nice,” she says. Joe Fortuna, owner of Mexican Tile and Stone Co., agrees, saying Mexican tiles “really do blend and coordinate well with most any surface. Though considered rustic, the tiles are extremely popular with everything right now,” he adds.

For Solem, this splash of Mexico in the kitchen adds a little something new to a color scheme she has used for a long time. “I love blue and white together. I’ve had blue and white in the kitchen for 24 years,” she says. “And I’ve been collecting blue-and-white items for just as long.”

urniture-style cabinetry features old French grates incorporated into some cupboard fronts. Old wood corbels were cut and plastered for use as decorative supports under the range hood.

A collector by nature, Solem spends a good deal of time visiting estate sales, antiques stores and local furniture shops. Her favorite part of doing the decorating herself has been “finding something that is a screaming deal,” she admits. “I think having a big budget would take away my creativity.” And she says the best thing about not spending a fortune on her home’s decor is that she doesn’t feel badly when she wants to get rid of everything and start all over.

In the breakfast room, equipale chairs wear slipcovers that underscore the adjacent kitchen’s blue and white theme. Painting by Phil Epp.

A simple circular chandelier embellished by the homeowner with santos draws attention to the living room’s beamed ceiling. Furnishings were collected from Arizona and beyond.

To maintain the home’s informal “cottage” feel, glazed Mexican tiles serve as colorful wainscoting in the powder room. Further enhancing the mood, a rustic dowry chest from India now functions as a vanity.