Icon - Arrow LeftAn icon we use to indicate a rightwards action. Icon - Arrow RightAn icon we use to indicate a leftwards action. Icon - External LinkAn icon we use to indicate a button link is external. Icon - MessageThe icon we use to represent an email action. Icon - Down ChevronUsed to indicate a dropdown. Icon - CloseUsed to indicate a close action. Icon - Dropdown ArrowUsed to indicate a dropdown. Icon - Location PinUsed to showcase a location on a map. Icon - Zoom OutUsed to indicate a zoom out action on a map. Icon - Zoom InUsed to indicate a zoom in action on a map. Icon - SearchUsed to indicate a search action. Icon - EmailUsed to indicate an emai action. Icon - FacebookFacebooks brand mark for use in social sharing icons. flipboard Icon - InstagramInstagrams brand mark for use in social sharing icons. Icon - PinterestPinterests brand mark for use in social sharing icons. Icon - TwitterTwitters brand mark for use in social sharing icons. Icon - Check MarkA check mark for checkbox buttons.
You are reading

Home on the Range with Casamidy in Mexico

Search

Home on the Range with Casamidy in Mexico

March 15, 2017

At their ranch in stark Sonora, Mexico, designers Jorge Almada and Marie-Anne Midy have perfected their own brand of rough-hewn but impeccably detailed luxury. The couple are the brains behind Casamidy, a furniture company in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, that helped launch saddle leather and heavy canvas seating into the vanguard. Almada and Midy themselves and their two young sons are based in Brussels, but Mexico is their home away from home–they have a place in San Miguel, and Almada spent memorable stretches of his childhood at a ranch his father once owned in Sonora. On a visit back to the area, an aunt of Almada’s invited the family to reestablish roots in Sonora by building a casita on her ranch.

Designed by Almada and Midy and constructed in 10 months, the Casamidy compound is as polyglot as they are, a combination hacienda and Belgian country house. It’s located about an hour due south of Bisbee, Arizona, in the Sierra Madre mountain range, one of the few places in Mexico where it snows on occasion. Come cross the border and take a look.

Photography by Jorge Almada.

casamidy in sonora mexico 13

Above: The front porch serves as an outdoor living room with furniture upholstered in Casamidy’s signature waxed canvas.

The ranch setting is remote, and it’s a study in contrasts: “Both blistering hot and very cold; bone dry and monsoonal,” says Almada. So the trick was come up with a practical design that works year-round. “We used the materials on hand, brick and concrete, as well as the local talent–masons who are also cowboys.”

casamidy in sonora mexico 20

Above: A fine place to hang your hats, the double-height main room, with its painted brick and exposed beams, was inspired by the “clean, angular, pointy-roofed look” of classic Flemish architecture. Its palette of white and green with accents of brown leather and black stripes carries through in every room. Casamidy designs, including the Sayulita Table, folding Grenadier Side Chairs, and Sonora Mirror, are mingled with San Miguel antiques and family pieces. The floor is poured cement with cracking and the occasional footprint. The windows are sculpted iron, and, like much of the fine work, were executed by Casamidy’s highly skilled San Miguel crew.

The house is off the grid and heated by wood-burning stoves, including a giant one in the living room. “We have a generator that runs from sunset to bedtime, and our water comes from a perforated well and is very, very clean,” says Almada.

casamidy in sonora mexico 9

Above: The “Sonora green” of the rafters is applied to the rustic door frames. The woven leather chair is a Casamidy classic.

casamidy in sonora mexico 5

Above: The house has a camp kitchen with bodega chairs and table and Metro-style shelving (from Costco) for enamelware. In lieu of a fridge, food is stored in a cooler.

Home on the Range with Casamidy in Mexico portrait 7

Above: The painted headboard in the master bedroom is festooned with Mexican carved wood flowers. The beds in the casita all have plaid sheets modeled after the “grime-hiding” bedding Almada remembers admiring as a boy on a visit to a historic submarine.

casamidy in sonora mexico 19

Above: The master bath doubles as a lounge. The Portofino Chaise (in a Toiles du Soleil black and white stripe) stands on a custom rug bearing the family cattle brand. The Sonora green armoire has Casamidy’s round Montelargo Pulls of iron and stitched leather.

Home on the Range with Casamidy in Mexico portrait 9

Above: The highlight of the room is a hammered Copper Tub from Counter Cultures, “a wink to the nearby copper mines of Cananea and Bisbee,” says Almada. The leather-hung mirror is Casamidy’s Pila Seca design.

casamidy sonora mirrors 0

Above L: A Casamidy filigreed sofa faces the living room fireplace that the family dubbed the Locomotive. Above R: The Hiver mirror of sculpted wrought iron.

casamidy in sonora mexico 10

Above: Accessed by ladder from the main room, the boys’ bunk is in a loft. (“It feels like a treehouse, but it’s hell for us to go up with laundry,” says Almada, “so we plan to install a pulley system.”) The camp beds are Casamidy’s Altamura design of wrought iron cloaked in waxed canvas. (See more of the line in our post Indoor/Outdoor Furniture Made from Salvaged Canvas.) The list of words on the wall are Almada and Midy’s behavior reminders for their sons.

casamidy in sonora mexico 17

Above: Enamelware designs crop up throughout the casita. Almada says the chests of drawers “have been in my family forever.”

casamidy in sonora mexico 15

Above: Days at the ranch are spent riding, picnicking, and kicking back on the veranda.

We’re longtime Casamidy fans. See our posts:

And take a look at The Artisanal Home, Casamidy’s first book.

(Visited 706 times, 1 visits today)
You need to login or register to view and manage your bookmarks.

Product summary  Item 6 158Item 7 159

Have a Question or Comment About This Post?

Join the conversation

v5.0