Mission Room – The Old Spanish Padres our first Arizona b and b theme room.
Metal art of flowers and wheat are located over the headboard of the bed. The headboard is made of a wood screen.
To go with our mission theme, this painting was done by my grandfather and is of the Tumacocori Mission south of Tucson.
Our Arizona B and B theme rooms were inspired by the history that took place in our part of Southeastern Arizona. We had been at different b and bs with theme rooms when we were thinking about starting a b and b. Many b and b with themes were simple such as the blue room, the red room, the green room. All the decorations and furnishings were in those colors. Some inns were more elaborate such as naming their rooms for the people that had lived in the old house when it was a residence. The rooms were then decorated with that person’s taste in mind. Since we were starting fresh, we took the time to think of the room names we could use in the theme. We wanted to have our Arizona b and b theme rooms to actually be the basis to determine the décor.
The handmade Mexican tile was used with the talavera sink to add to the mission theme.
With this in mind we named our 4 rooms after a defining time frame that occurred here in Southeastern Arizona. The first room we named was the Mission Room. This room reflects the life of the old Spanish Padres who built missions here in this part of Arizona. Father Kino was instrumental in establishing the Spanish presence here in the Greater Tucson region. The padres lead a more Spartan life and didn’t have a lot of creature comforts. We didn’t go that far with the mission room amenities. We do have indoor plumbing and a nice bed, however it is our smallest room.
The old priest’s biretta was found in an antique fair in Tucson. It was still in a hat box dated 1898.
The mission room decorations were gathered mostly from different parts or Arizona. Some pieces did come from other parts of the world. We shopped mainly in antique stores for items that we could use. We found altar pieces in Mesa, deacons chairs in Glendale and an old priest’s biretta still in a hat box with a date of 1898. Some vestments that we found were in a Tucson antique fair and were imported from France. We even found a Santo from South America in a yard sale. Pictures and paintings had been collected over time and include mission pictures, portraits of pastors and a photo of Jerusalem.
Smaller decorations include milagros, crosses, rosaries, miniature mission buildings and day of the dead items. Each item in the mission room was selected to fit the focus we had of our Arizona b and b theme rooms. This is one of our rooms and we will present our thought process when we describe the other three rooms. Click on our room page to find out more about the mission room or use this link for a video.
Dia de los Muertos is a Hispanic tradition that is found in the Southwestern US and Mexico. This is held on All Souls Day.