"East Coast" Furniture in a Southwestern Home? (homes, furnishings)

[azcanadienne]

I absolutely looooooooooathe southwestern/western/spanish/heavy/tuscan style furniture, fixtures and finishings!!! HATE it!!!

That being said, the people who owned my house before me, tried using some more southern/coastal/beachy fixtures and finishings...and that didn't work either

My own personal taste runs towards the international/eclectic/modernish/transitional blend - and I actually get a ton of compliments, because it doesn't look like what a ton of other people have

But the bottom line is....if you love it, who cares what anybody else thinks?

[observer53]

Originally Posted by azcanadienne

But the bottom line is....if you love it, who cares what anybody else thinks?

Precisely.

[Montanama]

Originally Posted by PhxMan500

Most of what you might see in Phoenix Home and Garden are mansions in wealthy areas or updated homes in historic districts. In reality, the majority of homes and condos are the same repetitive patterns you might see anywhere in the US, just more likely to have stucco and pink tile roofs than you might see on the east coast.

I am sure your interior style and design will be appreciated by the friends you meet here who might see it, but you may not be on the cover of any local magazines, and I do think that you should not care.

We found this to be true during our home search last spring. We searched pretty much across the valley, in a price range hovering around $250k but up to $300k. I actually really wanted a home with some regional flavor, like an adobe style or something with a little Spanish colonial flair. While I would never have gone whole-hog "southwestern" with it (I am always afraid if I start with the Mexican pine furniture, by the time I'm done it'll be a full-on Tex-Mex restaurant look!), I would have liked to have Saltillo tiles and some rustic wood beams....I was dreaming. Even going significantly beyond the $300k cutoff, I didn't see a whole lot with distinctively regional style.

Very few of the houses we saw had a particularly southwestern style inside or out. As noted above, there's the stucco and the tile roof, and most of the "regular" homes would be as appropriate to Florida as Arizona.

Most houses we viewed had the same sorts of furniture we would see anywhere else in the country, and I saw plenty of Queen Anne style furniture.

[yukon]

It's your home - make it work for YOU. Who cares what anyone else thinks? I live in Albuquerque and I brought much of my Florida palm tree/Key West parrot decor with me. It works fine here. Of course, I did luck out and find some watercolor prints at the FLW museum of the AZ desert and they just happened to have some palm looking shrubs…and I found a parrot themed Native American print (NM artist even) called Parrot Spirits in my colors. It all works surprisingly well. I think the only time your furniture might not work is if you get an original adobe type house with the exposed interior vigas. But those aren't the norm in Phoenix so you'll be fine.

One tip - you will need to polish/oil/treat etc your wood as it dries out faster here in the low humidity.

[stevek64]

I think the only thing that might be out of place here are snow-scape pictures/paintings on the wall. They may even be banned/frowned up on in some communities!

Then again they might have a cooling effect for some in the summer months out here.

[azcanadienne]

Originally Posted by stevek64

I think the only thing that might be out of place here are snow-scape pictures/paintings on the wall. They may even be banned/frowned up on in some communities!

Then again they might have a cooling effect for some in the summer months out here.

lol - this Canookian transplant LOVES her urban snow pics, and fixates on them (through the sweat pouring down her face) from April through the end of October!!!

[stevek64]

Originally Posted by azcanadienne

lol - this Canookian transplant LOVES her urban snow pics, and fixates on them (through the sweat pouring down her face) from April through the end of October!!!

Funny!

We have good friends who are from Alberta and spend time here and I think they do the same.

[MidAtlantic to AZ]

Thanks to all for the info and affirmation!

Mid-A to AZ

[Jukesgrrl]

If you're not a millionaire, please take some time to weigh how attached you are to these pieces to how expensive it's going to be to move them. Moving is done by weight. When I moved my mother to Arizona, she absolutely insisted that she would not come unless she could bring ALL her furniture. I actually had to get a floorplan of the house and show her she could not FIT all her furniture in the new place to get her to detach from any of it. (She still brought so much that several pieces are moldering in my garage because she can't even sell them here.)

She wasn't in Arizona for a year when she said to me one day, "You know how you tried to talk me out of bringing all this furniture here? Well, you were right. I shouldn't have. This stuff just doesn't look right in this house." Her home in Pennsylvania was a Cape Cod. The houses in our development here are all California contemporary. Most of the people here don't necessarily have Southwest but their furnishings are simpler and lighter. They aren't "modern" but certainly are more casual and contemporary than the "colonial" maple dining set, the Queen Anne matching bedroom pieces, tapestry wing chairs, Hitchcock furniture, and other things she paid MUCH more than they are worth to transport thousands of miles. And because she spent so much money moving it, she feels stuck with it.

I have a friend who works at a SUPER-expensive community in Green Valley, AZ, that is a multiple-tier assisted living place. They actually run a resale shop in the community because so many people move there from back East, bring their very pricey furniture with them and then hate it in their sunny, more casual new homes. The resale shop is full of floral sofas, braided rugs, gigantic hutches, antique-y accessories, and bedroom suites that look just like my Mom's. So even if you decide you just can't adopt another style and miss your old one, I guarantee you can replace it here for less than it will cost you to pay a moving company to transport your traditional pieces a long way.

[Montanama]

Originally Posted by Jukesgrrl

If you're not a millionaire, please take some time to weigh how attached you are to these pieces to how expensive it's going to be to move them. Moving is done by weight. When I moved my mother to Arizona, she absolutely insisted that she would not come unless she could bring ALL her furniture. I actually had to get a floorplan of the house and show her she could not FIT all her furniture in the new place to get her to detach from any of it. (She still brought so much that several pieces are moldering in my garage because she can't even sell them here.)

She wasn't in Arizona for a year when she said to me one day, "You know how you tried to talk me out of bringing all this furniture here? Well, you were right. I shouldn't have. This stuff just doesn't look right in this house." Her home in Pennsylvania was a Cape Cod. The houses in our development here are all California contemporary. Most of the people here don't necessarily have Southwest but their furnishings are simpler and lighter. They aren't "modern" but certainly are more casual and contemporary than the "colonial" maple dining set, the Queen Anne matching bedroom pieces, tapestry wing chairs, Hitchcock furniture, and other things she paid MUCH more than they are worth to transport thousands of miles. And because she spent so much money moving it, she feels stuck with it.

I have a friend who works at a SUPER-expensive community in Green Valley, AZ, that is a multiple-tier assisted living place. They actually run a resale shop in the community because so many people move there from back East, bring their very pricey furniture with them and then hate it in their sunny, more casual new homes. The resale shop is full of floral sofas, braided rugs, gigantic hutches, antique-y accessories, and bedroom suites that look just like my Mom's. So even if you decide you just can't adopt another style and miss your old one, I guarantee you can replace it here for less than it will cost you to pay a moving company to transport your traditional pieces a long way.

I agree with this; it's something to think about. For furniture that will fit (physically) in your new home and that you are too attached to to part with, you can lighten up the look with, say, a lighter colored/more contemporary sofa, maybe casual (but fitted) slipcovers on some pieces. Even (gasp) a little paint over wood furniture!

You should furnish your house with what you like to have around you--pieces that make you happy. No matter where you are.

Our (part-time) home in Goodyear is a departure from what I have here in MT, with all light-colored slipcovered furniture, weathered wood, etc. I don't think it's "beachy"--I'm calling it "desert-spa", lol, but it's definitely not traditional. Certainly a little more trendy than what I would have dared to do in our full-time home, and it was really freeing for me to have a blank slate. I love every piece of furniture in that place, and none of it is particularly expensive nor irreplaceable. (Some of it is from IKEA! lol) So you might think about whether it's time for a change, and if this is your opportunity to start fresh. If that's the case, you will probably get more for your used furniture where you are than in Phoenix, where many older people end up selling their more traditional style furniture for one reason or another.

If not--if you love your furniture and want to keep it, just make it work here, and enjoy the sunshine!!