Bringing Colonial Charm to Hacienda, Mexico

Forty minutes south of Tulum, where the Yucatán's jungle thins to a sliver of land between the Capechen Lagoon and the Caribbean Sea, Hacienda Palancar occupies eighty-six acres within the UNESCO-designated Sian Ka'an Nature Reserve — one of the more genuinely remote private estates in the Americas. The compound's Hispano-Arabesque architecture, its soaring domed ceilings, stone corridors, and hand-painted Azulejo tilework, draws from Spanish colonial tradition with a confidence that comes only from six years of meticulous planning and two years of painstaking construction. Interior designer June Scott was charged with furnishing this exceptional setting in a manner equal to its architecture — and the brief called for nothing less than a complete colonial interior.

The Raj Company rose to that commission in full, producing an extensive range of hand-carved colonial furniture: ornately carved four-poster beds whose scale suits the hacienda's generous proportions, hall tables, settees, bathroom vanities, and coffee tables — pieces that move between interior salons and open-air loggia with equal assurance. The carving throughout is resolved with the patience the style demands, each decorative passage consistent and considered rather than merely decorative. Taken as a whole, the collection amounts to a complete furnished world — one that feels as though it has always belonged to this particular corner of the jungle.