Interior designer Jessica Davis shares her favorite design shops, artisan sources, galleries and restaurants from a client sourcing trip to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

As an interior designer with a love of colorful, eclectic and globally inspired interiors, travel has always been an important part of my design process. I find inspiration everywhere—from architecture and art to local craft, textiles, food and even the colors of a city.

Recently, I had the privilege of accompanying a client to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, on a sourcing trip for her home. I knew San Miguel was a destination for art and design, but I was blown away by just how much creativity is packed into this relatively small city.

San Miguel is one of those places where there is something to look at everywhere. Ochre, pink and terra-cotta buildings line the cobblestone streets, punctuated by enormous old wooden doors, hidden courtyards, bougainvillea and layers of beautifully worn plaster. Against that historic backdrop is an incredible mix of Mexican craftsmanship, contemporary art, antiques and sophisticated international design.

For me, that combination of old and new, polished and imperfect, local and global is what makes an interior interesting—and it’s very much how we approach our work at Atelier Davis.

Interior Design Sourcing in San Miguel de Allende

We covered a lot of ground on our sourcing days.

Namuh was a must, with its enormous and wonderfully eclectic collection of furniture, objects, textiles, architectural pieces and antiques from Mexico and around the world. We also made the trip to Namuh’s warehouse just outside San Miguel, which was even more fun to dig through.

There is something very different about sourcing this way versus selecting everything from a catalog. I’m always looking for pieces that bring individuality and a sense of history to a room, and warehouses, markets and antique sources are often where you find that one unexpected thing that suddenly makes an interior feel collected rather than decorated.

We also visited Tao, EnKasa and Casa Kutu, just outside of town, as well as Casa Midy, which has an especially beautiful showroom located in the owners’ home. I loved being able to see the furniture in a real environment. It’s a reminder of how much context matters—how a piece interacts with art, architecture, color and all of the other layers around it.

We made a quick stop at Fisher Weisman Collection as well. I know Jeffry Weisman through the Design Leadership Network, so it was fun to see what he and Andrew Fisher have created in San Miguel and their work with local craftspeople.

Another favorite was Fábrica La Aurora, a former textile factory that has been transformed into a sprawling art and design center filled with galleries, artists’ studios, antiques, furniture and shops. It’s the kind of place where you can easily lose a few hours—and we did, with a necessary break for pizza and a spritz.

At the other end of the spectrum was San Miguel’s Mercado de Artesanías, or artisan market. I always love mixing more refined pieces with humble, handmade finds, and the market is full of ceramics, textiles, metalwork and other Mexican crafts. I found some great napkins to bring home—a small find, but exactly the kind of souvenir I love.

Handmade Tile in Dolores Hidalgo

One of my favorite sourcing excursions took us outside San Miguel to Dolores Hidalgo, where we visited a tile factory.

The colors and patterns were incredible, but even better was seeing the artisans at work. We were able to watch the process of making the tiles and hand-painting the individual designs.

As an interior designer, I specify tile all the time, but seeing how something is actually made gives you a different appreciation for it. The slight variations in color, texture and pattern aren’t flaws—they’re evidence of the human hand.

That sense of craftsmanship is something I love incorporating into luxury residential interiors. Luxury doesn’t have to mean that everything is pristine or precious. Often, it’s the hand-painted tile, vintage textile, piece of art or one-of-a-kind object that gives a room its soul.

Art and Creativity in San Miguel

We also made time for art.

We stopped at Bellas Artes to see the beautiful courtyard, galleries and murals and visited an exhibition at Instituto Allende featuring a Mexican artist now based in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Everywhere we went, people seemed to be making something. Between the galleries, studios, architecture, furniture makers, tile painters and artisans, San Miguel has an incredible creative energy.

It actually made me want to come back without a sourcing agenda at all. I would love to spend a week in San Miguel taking an art workshop—something where the entire purpose of the trip is simply to look, learn and make things.

Where We Ate in San Miguel de Allende

Design may have been the reason for the trip, but food was a close second.

At La Posadita, we had chiles en nogada, which are almost as beautiful as they are delicious. While we were eating, a tightrope walker was performing above neighboring Quince. It was one of those slightly surreal moments that somehow felt completely appropriate for San Miguel.

At La Manantial, we had tuna tostadas and octopus carpaccio with ginger and hibiscus margaritas. We did Thursday hamburger night at The Restaurant, grabbed a bagel at Sucré, had Vietnamese coffee at Néctar, and stopped for pizza and spritzes while exploring Fábrica La Aurora.

We also went to La Parada for ceviche and somehow managed to be the only customers there. Boom!

And I highly recommend cocktails at Luna Rooftop at the Rosewood San Miguel de Allende. The views across San Miguel are spectacular, particularly as the light changes around sunset. After a full day of sourcing and walking, sitting above those rooftops with a cocktail in hand is a pretty perfect way to end the day.

The Things You Don’t Plan

Some of my favorite memories from travel inevitably have nothing to do with the itinerary.

One day we took a long walk through and around San Miguel and one of the city’s many free-roaming dogs decided to join us. He proceeded to accompany us for the entire walk, happily trotting along as though he had been part of the plan all along. Eventually, he simply went on his way.

I love those moments when you travel. Walking the cobblestone streets, hearing church bells, discovering a courtyard behind an unassuming door, stumbling onto an artist’s work, watching someone paint a tile by hand—or acquiring a dog for an afternoon—are the things that ultimately give you a real sense of a place.

Bringing Global Inspiration Home

What I loved most about San Miguel was the layering of everything: old and new, rough and refined, high design and vernacular craft, saturated color against faded plaster, and contemporary art inside centuries-old buildings.

It’s also very much in keeping with my philosophy as a designer.

At Atelier Davis, our interiors tend to be colorful, eclectic and collected, with a mix of contemporary and vintage furniture, art, custom pieces and influences from different places and periods. Whether we’re designing a home in Atlanta, New York, California, Mexico or elsewhere, I don’t want a room to feel as though everything came from the same place—or was installed on the same day.

Travel is an important part of building that visual vocabulary.

I don’t necessarily return from Mexico wanting to recreate a Mexican interior. Instead, I might come home thinking about an unexpected color combination, a hand-painted tile, the proportion of an old doorway, a woven textile, the patina on a wall or the juxtaposition of something highly refined against something handmade.

Those ideas eventually find their way into projects in ways that aren’t always obvious.

We went to San Miguel to source for one particular home, and we certainly accomplished that. But I came home with a much bigger collection of ideas.

And next time, I may have to trade the sourcing list for a sketchbook and spend a week making art instead.