The Courtyard Behind It All

Summer Thornton builds Casa Rosada in Sayulita, a beachfront Mexican home where a zellige-tiled courtyard, chukum walls, and dramatic arches merge luxury villa with resort experience.

A dinner at Hacienda San Angel in Puerto Vallarta — a hotel gifted by Richard Burton to his wife in the 1970s, rumoured host to caftan-wearing Hollywood parties through the following decade — planted a very specific image in Summer Thornton's mind. Standing in the courtyard that evening, imagining guests mingling among candlelight, she began sketching. For years, on sketchpad after sketchpad, she drew the same thing: a beach house in Mexico with a courtyard at its heart. Every iteration was different. Every iteration had the courtyard.

Casa Rosada, the home she and her husband Josh eventually built on a beachfront property in Sayulita — a surf town about an hour from Puerto Vallarta, discovered during years of visits and gradually accumulated local connections — is the realisation of that long-held vision. Designed with local architect Enrique Garcia and furnished through Summer Thornton Design, the house opens its front door to reveal not a room but an open-air courtyard: a traditional fountain in white volcanic rock at the centre, four native palms anchoring the corners, handmade Moroccan zellige tiles from Zia Tile covering the floor in a playful pattern, and the ocean straight ahead. Staff meet arriving guests with cocktails. The view goes all the way to the water.

"The foyer is an open-air courtyard with a traditional fountain, huge palm trees and a Moorish tile patterned floor. It's a wow moment — a sense of arriving somewhere magical." — Summer Thornton

The walls throughout Casa Rosada are finished in chukum — an ancient Mayan plaster made from tree sap and limestone powder, water-resistant and ageing beautifully, tinted to a soft peachy pink that gives the house its name and its warmth. The choice reflects the project's central material logic: selecting things that would survive and improve under the salt spray of the Pacific Ocean. Copper outdoor showers patina magnificently over time. The open-air living room channels the Sayulita breeze through to the courtyard. A custom tub carved from a single block of red travertine overlooks the ocean in Thornton's own bathroom. Handpainted murals commissioned from local artists run through the house. Dramatic arches between rooms create intimacy while maintaining the cross-breeze and the views.

The floor plan resists the entirely open plan that Thornton dislikes — "like a long, run-on sentence" — using architectural punctuation instead: the arches, a sunken living room with a 1970s-inspired feel, the courtyard as artery connecting public spaces without dissolving them into each other. Every bedroom was designed to feel like the best bedroom: all king beds, ocean views, and bathtubs, each with its own defining feature, so that no guest ever loses the informal negotiation over which room to take.

"The idea of merging the privacy and exclusivity of a luxury home with the services of a resort," Thornton says, "really offered a special experience." Many guests have already booked return visits. A bride stayed for her wedding. Her sister has booked for hers.

Key takeaways

• Casa Rosada is organised around a central open-air courtyard — inspired by a dinner at Richard Burton's Hacienda San Angel and years of sketchpad iterations — that functions as both tropical foyer and social artery, connecting the living and dining rooms to the pool area while framing an uninterrupted view straight through to the ocean from the moment the front door opens.
• Material selection was driven by the demands of coastal Pacific living: chukum, an ancient Mayan plaster of tree sap and limestone tinted to a peachy pink, replaced conventional paint that would chip and peel; copper outdoor showers were chosen specifically to patina over time; and a single block of red travertine was carved into a freestanding bathtub — all choices prioritising materials that age beautifully under salt spray rather than fighting the environment.
• Thornton resisted the conventional open floor plan by using dramatic arches as architectural punctuation between rooms, sinking the living room for an intimate 1970s-inspired feel, and designing every bedroom with equal distinction — king beds, ocean views, bathtubs, and a unique defining feature each — so that no guest feels they lost the informal competition over which room to claim.