Southwestern Painted Wall Color Is An Easy Decor Change

You don't have to live in Arizona or New Mexico to enjoy Southwestern style interior design. Every house can adapt to this casually-elegant style that draws its inspiration from nature and the Spanish and Pioneer settlers that populated the American Southwest in the 18th and 19th centuries. Southwestern style, as we know it today, evolved over time. It takes the colors and textures from the desert with the Mexican and Spanish additions of ironwork, textiles, and wooden carvings.

Southwestern style interior design follows the soft lines of traditional adobe houses and reflects the easy, relaxed Southwestern lifestyle. It's a simple -- and affordable -- style to achieve, if you pay attention to the details.

The colors of Southwestern design are the colors found in the American desert. Rich, rust terra cotta, soothing sand colors, sage and cactus greens, reddish rust, sienna and deep mahogany brown combine to form a relaxed, natural palette. Sometimes, the bright colors common to the Native American and Mexican cultures, such as bright red and deep azure blue are used as accent colors.

The textures of Southwestern style interior design also mirror those elements found in nature in the American Southwest. Natural clay tile, pine wooden structural beams and furniture, and woven grasses are all key elements in this design style.

You can find all of these colors at your paint store. Try to stay away from Navajo White as a background color. It's much better to use light browns and terracotta for large wall surfaces. Our adobe home here in Rio Rancho has most of the walls painted a deep adobe brown. It is really fantastic and blends very well with the natural wood accents and southwestern accents.

Many people will add a single accent wall in a room with a deep rich color of the southwest. Maybe colors like deep rust, plum, sage or cactus green or maybe deep rich yellow for a striking color. Whatever color you decide, be sure to test a 4'x4' area of a wall to see how that particular tint looks when dry.

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