Las Cruces has experienced high growth in the last 20 years, much of it occurring in the area where I live (east of I-25 and south of US-70) . Some of this area was BLM land as recently as 15 years ago. Most of the new construction in this area is southwestern or Tuscan in style with stucco exteriors. Here is a montage of some the houses surrounding the Sonoma Ranch Golf Course.
- Sonoma Ranch Houses
The color palette for exteriors mimics the desert that this area once was. You can find almost any color of beige here and never do adjoining houses use exactly the same tint. Still there is a sameness because clumps of houses tend to have similar tints. Here’s a very small sample of color swatches captured by little point&shoot camera while I was playing golf or walking the dogs. I’ve included two swatches from the dirt in this area. The top swatch comes from the golf course and bottom swatch from a desert park abutting the 8th hole on the golf course.
Sonoma Ranch Palette
Note the daring colors choices in the lower-left of the palette. I like the terracotta (row 4, column 6) and it really draws attention to the house which is 2 stories high and perched on a hill. Somebody was trying to make a statement with this choice. Similarly the green sticks out. I wonder if the inspiration for the green comes from local desert scrub of which cresote and mesquite trees dominate.
Variations in color (row 1, columns 2 and 3) come from textured surface on those houses. Most stucco in this area is smooth but textured stucco is also used. I prefer the look of the textured stucco because it hides all of the dips and bulges in the application. My house has it. The only drawback is that it is really scratchy if you happen to rub up against it.
Life in New Mexico 