One of My All-Time Favorite Looks

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I've always loved The Parent Trap--the original movie with Hayley Mills.  A big reason is the AMAZING house that the dad lives in in California.  I love the "Spanish hacienda from the twenties meets midcentury modern" design aesthetic.  In fact, it might be my favorite.  I always gravitate towards Spanish architecture from that time period.  When we were briefly looking at houses in Phoenix to buy (yes, thank God we didn't), the Spanish hacienda-type bungalows from the 1920s and 1930s were always the ones that I ooohed and ahhhhed over.  I think part of it is the bright white, thick adobe walls topped with an earthy tile roof; the Mexican tiled courtyards and patios; and the way that my favorite plants--cacti and succulents--look perfect as landscaping.

I guess I'm not the only fan of Mitch's California ranch house in The Parent Trap.  According to this site, Disney built the shell house on some land it owned south of Carmel on Placerita Canyon Road.  And this site has a ton of photos of the house in all its glory.

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A recent house tour on Apartment Therapy made me yearn for my own Spanish hacienda all over again.  Although some of this gentleman's interior design choices are a little too New York (his description, not mine) for my taste, what he did with this Los Angeles building makes me want to head down to Southern California to find my own building to rehab.  Maybe someday.