Cabo Dos Vistas

The outdoor space at Cabo Dos Vistas is comprised of a central courtyard, the architecture of the home enveloping it in a U shape from three sides, and a cascading staircase in which you enter the home on the fourth side. Walking through the center of the home where the communal living spaces are (divided by steel and glass doors that open the expanse of the room), you’re greeted with the endless horizon of the Pacific Ocean, a sundeck, and a pool. “It’s an indoor-outdoor living concept through every single space,” Shea explains. There are multiple other opportunities to take in the Baja sunshine throughout, like a side courtyard, bedroom balconies, and a firepit and lounge area. These spaces, and the entire project, were designed in collaboration with Brandon Architects and Cabo Development Group.

In the evening, the courtyard is illuminated overhead by woven pendants strung from tree branches, “It’s so romantic,” explains Shea. On opposite ends, Shea and the design team created potting areas where the client can collect new pots and plants that represent the history, culture, and flora of the region. These aged Mexican clay pots sit on rough-hewn wood benches, giving way to the sleek infinity-edge pool, demonstrating how the Organic Modern design aesthetic plays out in these outdoor spaces.

The living room in Cabo Dos Vistas is part of one large, open space that houses the dining room and kitchen as well. Stone from the exterior of the home was brought into the fireplace wall, further defining the indoor/outdoor living concept, and used to frame two delicate arches, one to create a built-in shelving unit and the other that leads to a wing of the home where the bedrooms are. “The stone wall becomes a beautiful focal point,” says Shea. These stone arches are a nice juxtaposition to the steel and glass sliding doors that open to create one cohesive space with the outdoors. This is perhaps the best example of Organic Modern in Cabo Dos Vistas’ living room.

The client wanted to be able to host a lot of people so for the furniture orientation “We did two sectionals facing each other and then a massive coffee table,” explains Shea. The styling of the space sticks to coastal tones without leaning too heavily into a beachy aesthetic. Earth tones dominate the palette.

As you “reach the top of the stairs, off to one side there’s a door that leads to a rooftop deck, [and to the other side] is a beautiful hallway that leads to the primary suite,” Shea notes as she orients us to the second floor of the home where the Robin’s Egg Primary Suite is situated. “When you walk in, you enter a really great vestibule,” says Shea, “the views are absolutely stunning.”

In the main bedroom space, “our client really wanted a serene primary suite with pale blue plaster walls.” This treatment is used on every wall of the home and there are just a few that got a change in color, the primary suite being one of them. The sandy, natural tones are tied together throughout with a hand-knotted vintage rug and a mix of new and vintage pillows. “We’re not going pattern-heavy on the pillows because we did a settee [at the foot of the bed] in a pattern,” Shea says of the design decisions made in the room.

Some of the more special styling elements of the primary suite are the nightstands flanking the bed. They were custom-made by a local artisan to incorporate beautiful, hand-chiseled cutwork out of Rosa Morada wood. Along the other wall, an art piece by Nashville-based artist Charlotte Terrell hangs above a console table. Terell is known for her landscape paintings that employ the century-old technique of layered and polished plaster. “It incorporates all of the colors of the bedroom,” says Shea, “and the greens and blues that you’re seeing throughout the rest of the home.” And lastly, at the foot of the bed, the fireplace is constructed of the same white slurry stone seen on the exterior of the home.

“Brandon Architects designed an awesome corner door system,” Shea notes of the steel and glass doors. “The entire corner of their bedroom opens up to a balcony.” There’s a glass railing to ensure there’s no obstruction to the view of the Pacific Ocean.

The primary bathroom is perhaps one of the best examples in Cabo Dos Vistas of Organic Modern as a whole. Through a louvered, arched door, a stone wall is encased in steel and glass windows with the vanity sitting in front. “It feels contemporary and straight-lined,” Shea explains. The vanity’s oak cabinetry features grasscloth drawerfronts. One solid piece of hand-carved crema marfil marble serves as a showstopping bathtub. The primary bathroom’s walk-in shower showcases a textural mix of limestone floors and Zellige tile laid in a herringbone pattern.

“When you walk in, you immediately see that we have swivel chairs in a terracotta fabric and you know you have arrived at your destination,” says Shea of the guest bedroom’s color theme. A low-slung, vintage, wood coffee table sits alongside them. The bed features a woven leather headboard that plays off of the terracotta tone while introducing a new texture. When the clients announced that they didn’t love nightstand lamps, Shea and the design team utilized hanging pendants and wall-mounted sconces throughout the home instead. These have a white glaze on a terracotta material, reminiscent of traditional Oaxacan pottery.

The first thing you’ll notice in the Terracotta Bedroom’s ensuite bathroom is the herringbone pattern flooring in the room’s namesake color. A glazed tile in a bricklay pattern “wraps all of the walls, behind the vanity and up to the ceiling,” Shea explains. A handwoven rope mirror speaks to the coastal style and provides contrast between the lighter elements of the space.

“The view from this bed is magnificent,” says Shea, referring to the wall of retractable steel and glass doors at the foot of the bed in the junior primary suite. “This is a very lucky guest,” she adds. “In the Pistachio Room, we went with a green built-in with perforated details, and instead of it being a paint-grade material we used real wood so the wood grain shows through,” Shea explains. The exposed shelves are styled in collected odds and ends that take the coastal theme in a sophisticated direction. A patterned area rug and throw pillows, all vintage, have shades of blue and green that compliment the built-ins (painted in Farrow & Ball’s French Gray) and the room’s color theme.

The bedroom’s ensuite bathroom features Rosa Morada wood cabinetry, a species of wood commonly used in Mexico with a soft texture and feathery graining. A white quartz countertop with subtle veining and tumbled porcelain floors add texture to the space.