Casa Si Si
For this Cabo project, the answer was always yes. Cacti in plaster relief? Yes. A Cobalt-blue tiled kitchen? Yes. A 15-foot sofa? Absolutely. Hand-painted murals, technicolor stripes, and a little more fantasy at every turn. Yes, Yes, Yes! Perched above the coast in Maravilla, “Casa Si Si” (The house of Yes) as we named it, is a 14,000-square-foot celebration of personality, artistry, and the freedom of saying yes to a little more fun. Rather than implement the developer standards, the client hired our firm to make this a one-of-a-kind escape with reimagined interior finishes, architecture, and of course plenty of maximalist furnishings.
“Some designers would argue that a home with a megawatt ocean view requires decorative restraint. Summer Thornton certainly does not fall into that camp. Her design for an escape in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, leans heavily toward the kaleidoscopic.”
GALERIE“The resulting home feels less like a pristine show pony and more like a conch shell bewitchingly arisen from the sand. Rooms are adorned with handcrafted surfaces, stripes, murals, embroidery, tile, raffia, plaster, and art—and yet somehow the sea remains the undisputed star.”
GALERIE“For inspiration, she looked to the blanket-like serape, celebrating the Mexican shawl’s strong colors, patterns, and textures in the home’s interiors.”
GALERIEThe vibrant interiors amplify the landscape and nod to the artisanal hand of the region.
Featured in Galerie, Fall 2026.
“The spirit of the Mexican serape translates most vividly in the kitchen, where an arched opening embellished with hand-painted climbing vines frames a workspace sheathed in cobalt, turquoise, and cream tiles—the textile’s graphic energy manifested in ceramic.”
GALERIE“This is truly my fantasy of a Mexican kitchen,” Thornton says.
GALERIEThe home’s more subdued moments retain that sense of playfulness. The client, tired of cookie-cutter retreats, had asked for a bedroom with a lively energy. Thornton rooted the design of the space in a serene array of warm neutrals and navy—and then pushed it further by swathing the walls in fabric embroidered in a pattern of luxuriant palms.
GALERIE“It’s like you’re camping in this beautiful tropical jungle,” Thornton says.
GALERIEIn the hallway of the guest wing, Willem Racké Studio—which also devised the kitchen’s mural—hand-painted stripes in shades of burgundy, ocher, and blue, a combination that once again references Mexican serapes. “We went through something like 12,000 color samples to get this,” Thornton says. “We wanted it to feel warm, not garish.”
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CABO SAN LUCAS“Sometimes a view looks
even better through a
kaleidoscope”
“Elsewhere, color schemes emerged organically from materials sourced in Mexico and other parts of Latin America. The designer visited stone yards on the Baja California peninsula, where Cabo San Lucas is situated, choosing slabs of fantastically veined onyx for several of the home’s many baths.”
GALERIE“I love nothing more than a Mexican stone yard. That’s my happy place,” Thornton says. “We just went wild.”
GALERIE“I’m a ‘more is more’ gal”
SUMMER THORNTON
“The effect is immersive: “You feel like you’re sitting in the ocean,” Thornton says.”
GALERIE“Influenced by the colors of the sea in Cabo San Lucas, Thornton gravitated toward strong shades of blue. In the office, for instance, the plaster walls and curtains are in cobalt, complementing the view from the room’s glass doors.”
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That ebullience extends beyond the interiors and into the smallest details that bring a house to life. Thornton even gave the residence a custom sun logo, designed with Javas Lehn Studio, and had it emblazoned on gear for guests. It’s all available in the boutique-like mudroom—pickleball paddles, golf hats, golf shirts, visors, and more.
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