by Jessa Cast
photographs by Daniel Nadelbach
a returning New Mexican remodels a Pueblo-style Corrales home, then fills it with nostalgia
Native New Mexican Chip Burciaga left for college, then lived in a series of other states for work, including California, Colorado, New York and Texas. But over the decades, he maintained a nagging desire to return to his Land of Enchantment. Finally, when he decided to invest in real estate, he knew he’d do so in New Mexico and made the move.
“I always wanted to come back here, so I started looking for a home. I wanted to be in Corrales,” he says. As vice president of relationship management for Voya Financial, he can work remotely, which made the decision even easier. Burciaga bought a 2,100-square-foot, Pueblo-style home on a quiet acre deep in Corrales.
He loved the structure’s charm and location but eventually elected to make some changes. Bereft of any floor plans to work from, luck struck when a neighbor recalled the name of the original home designer: Eric Spurlock Custom Home Design. Spurlock had designed the home in 1993, so it was fitting he agreed to rejuvenate it.
To execute the build and interior design, Burciaga enlisted Miriam and Greg Joseph, married proprietors of Joseph Custom Homes. Hailing from upstate New York, the couple launched their careers in Anchorage, Alaska, before settling their custom home-building business in Albuquerque some 27 years ago. Miriam is the company’s president and a professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers, and Greg is the qualifying builder.
Initially, Burciaga’s wish list was small: an 800-square-foot addition and a pool. After considering the potential visual discordance between the new and old sections, he succumbed to the ultimate scope creep. “We remodeled the whole home,” says Miriam Joseph, “to be consistent with the new addition.”
In the new design, a small bedroom transformed into a formal dining room, the kitchen doubled in size, a new hallway created access to the added owner’s suite, and he still got that pool. To modernize the home, Joseph Custom Homes replaced all the exterior doors and windows and extended the radiant heat into the new addition. Miriam Joseph’s interior design plan called for yellowed tongue-and-groove ceilings and vigas to receive a refreshing whitewash, and for outdated Saltillo tiles to be replaced with warm hickory wood floors. The changes, though dramatic, respect the Pueblo stylings. Thick, rounded walls and lintel-topped doorways remain, and the crew carefully replicated backyard portal details, from posts to corbels. “You really cannot tell new versus old,” Miriam Joseph says. “The materials and finishes were integrated really well.”
Miriam Joseph completed the hardscape concrete tile design and other exterior features while landscape architect Sara Zahm designed the softscapes. In the front courtyard, colorful foliage lends movement in contrast to contemporary concrete pads outlined with black stones. Out back, matching portals in varying heights frame the swimming pool and provide pleasant cover for social areas. “We took a house that really didn’t have an interesting backyard and created a home that focuses on that indoor-outdoor relationship,” says Miriam Joseph.
The features of the now 3,000-square-foot, 3-bedroom home, while attractive in their own right, really find resonance through Burciaga’s impeccable taste and calming, nostalgic flair. “He’s a collector of furniture, and it complemented what we did very nicely,” says Miriam Joseph. “He just has an eye for lovely things.”
Because the homeowner’s favorite color is blue, she specified Sherwin Williams Indigo Batik—a farmhouse blue—to blanket most of the kitchen cabinetry. Only those over the range, the hood and the floating shelves on the opposing wall are a rich brown alder wood. The sedate quartz backsplash behind the stove lets the gleaming white subway tile covering the windowed wall draw all the attention. Brass accents on the GE Monogram range accentuate matte brass door handles and light fixtures, and a microwave drawer opens just beneath an appliance garage used as a coffee station. An adjacent multi-use space, outfitted with alder cabinets and blue tile backsplash, serves triple duty as a backup kitchen, pantry and laundry room.
“You really cannot tell new versus old. The materials and finishes were integrated really well.”
– Miriam Joseph
The handsome blue in the kitchen is complemented by a host of hues including azure, cornflower, sapphire and cobalt throughout the homeowner’s furnishings. Though it doesn’t demand attention, tastefully placed, and in many shades, the blue theme evokes a tranquil presence. It’s everywhere but never loud. Also interwoven into every space, among the fine furniture and collectible art, are meaningful mementos of Burciaga’s beloved family. There is sentimental value to so many of his furnishings and decor, an aspect that’s palpable.
Showcased in the great room, with soaring 14’ viga-laden ceilings, are a coffee table and hurricane candle holder, both by his late uncle Gene Jacoby who designed lamps and decorative items for Chapman Manufacturing.
Burciaga’s spacious bedroom boasts lofty ceilings and a formidable kiva fireplace. Pawnee Warrior, an arresting Walt Wooten painting, stands guard over the room, symmetrically flanked by aluminum side tables. A pair of recently refinished, inherited chairs remind Burciaga of family. In the adjoining spa-like bathroom, the faucet emerges from a long, lighted inset next to the tub. Striking star-patterned tile in blue and white covers the bathroom floor and the back wall of the roomy shower. While the room evokes a relaxed atmosphere, eye-catching glass pendant lights lean a bit formal.
It’s all very inviting. Surely overnight guests would be hard-pressed ever to depart. At every turn, the home is an inspiration to the eye, beautifully revived and carefully curated with a lifetime of love and reminiscences. “Almost everything has a connection to it,” Burciaga says happily of his soul-fulfilling space. “I’m very comfortable in every single room.”
resources
Architecture
Eric Spurlock Custom Home Design
ericspurlock.com
Builder/Contractor
Joseph Custom Homes
josephcustomhomes.com
Interior Designer
Miriam Joseph, ASID
Landscape Architect
Sara Zahm
Appliances
Builders Source Appliance Gallery
builderssource.com
Bathroom/Kitchen Fixtures
Doc Savage Supply
Beams/Vigas
Wholesale Timber & Viga LLC
Cabinetry
Daniel R. Gutierrez Custom Cabinetry
Countertops
Stone Systems of New Mexico
Fireplaces
Mountain West Sales
mountainwestsales.net
Flooring/Wood
Enchantment Carpet Co., Inc.
Front Door
Adobe Door Inc.
Interior Doors
Albuquerque Window, Door & Trim
Landscaping
5th Element Design & Construction
Lighting
Turn On Lighting
Pool Design/Build
Lee-Sure Pools, Inc.
leesurepools.com
Tile
The Tile Shop
Wall Finish (Exterior)
ParexUSA
Wall Finish (Interior)
Perfection Drywall
Windows/Patio Doors
Sierra Pacific Windows
