Texas limestone accents are the only exterior signs that Casa de Sol y Luna might be in Central Texas or even on a sunflower-filled plain in southern Spain, rather than a Mexican settlement. The house exudes the richness of a Spanish colonial structure hundreds of years old, but in reality it’s only a couple of years old...except, that is, in the imagination of Carolyn Claiborne.
“I have traveled Mexico for 35 to 40 years, meeting quality craftsmen and artists and making ‘finds’ in all kinds of places,” says Claiborne, an experienced designer who built Casa de Sol as her home. “I have had this house in my mind for probably 25 years, planning, designing and redesigning it until I knew exactly what I wanted.” When the time came to build it, she sought out San Antonio architect Michael G. Imber to create a framework for the vision held in her head. 
 “In my travels throughout Mexico, I found the things I wanted, sometimes in a salvage yard or a building about to be destroyed. I also knew the artists and craftsmen I wanted [to use] to help create this house,” she explains. “I had measurements for the exact pieces I would place in exact spots. I told Michael he just had to help me create the envelope. I had the contents already planned.”
The heavy wooden doors at the entrance lead into the central courtyard around which the house is built. A tranquil tiled pool fountain features lion-head spouts circulating cool waters. It is reminiscent of fountains found in the Alhambra, the spectacular palace-fortress complex in Granada, Spain. During a visit to Spain, Claiborne took time to study the artistic design influences of the Alhambra and added many touches throughout her home, bringing to mind this former residence of Nasrid sultans.
The handmade Saltillo bricks laid out in a herringbone pattern were lovingly commissioned by Claiborne after she watched various craftsmen making them in Mexico. When she saw the best quality ones being produced under a shade tree, she visited the shop where they were sold and purchased 13 pallets.
The cantera stone gracing the home inside and out was chosen for its ability to withstand heat, dryness, moisture and cold without expanding or contracting. “In this part of the country, it might usually be dry and hot, but we can have a deluge and it can get cold,” Claiborne remarks. Many of the rooms, upstairs and down, have doors that open to the courtyard. Archways and pots of flowing native flowers enhance the space, as do subtle lighting accents. Another set of arched wooden doors fits into a hand-carved stone archway and leads into the house.
Inside, many of the furnishings and embellishments are antiques from Spain, Mexico, Portugal and Morocco. Walls are of stucco plaster in specially mixed deep and rich colors reflecting the Spanish and Mexican colonial influence. Claiborne commissioned a number of the metal pieces and some of the furniture to fit the home.
Occasionally, the designer finds something she knows will come in handy later, even if it seems useless right now. For instance, the beautiful stone mantel over her fireplace was once a castoff piece she noticed in the corner of a craftsmen’s workroom in Mexico.
 “I asked him what he wanted for it, and he said, ‘For that? You can have it, but you will have to show me what you end up doing with it,’” she remembers. “He came to the house to do some work, and when he saw it, he was surprised at how wonderfully it fits.”
During one trip to Mexico, she found a 350-year-old squatter’s house and bought it. The huge wooden beams from that small abode have been reworked to adorn Casa de Sol y Luna. Its wooden doors are now part of the charming gate, framed by a rock wall located just off the terrace behind the home.
Recessed niches were built specifically to fit unique pieces Claiborne had collected. Hand-laid stone arches in the living area—art in themselves—were envisioned by the designer, yet she still needed to give the stone mason directions on how to create them. 
 “I just about lived here the one-and-a-half years this home was being built,” she says. “At times, I had to explain and teach the craftsmen what I wanted.” Once in awhile, she allowed them some artistic freedom.
For example, one of the artist-craftsmen was creating an alcove niche and asked her what she wanted there. “I told him it was his [and to] just make it,” she recalls. He created a space using pieces of broken ceramic tile, and even added sun and moon images to carry the Sol y Luna theme into the area.
Claiborne notes that because she is a designer, she has contacts who know her and find what she wants, or point her to craftsmen or artists who can make what she has in mind.
Several recessed niches provide space for her extensive collection of art and artifacts. She is a collector of famed El Paso artist Patricia Nix, and even owns Nix’s circus collection that, until recently, she allowed to be shown in a traveling exhibit. Jesus Guerrero, a consular officer and painstaking artist, created several of the hand-painted ceramic art pieces in her home. A collection of 17th- and 18th-century Virgin Mary “Madonna” statues grace niches throughout the dwelling, including the “chapel” marking the entrance to her bedroom. Some of the Madonnas came from churches in Spain being torn down. Saint Francis, Saint Michael the Archangel and other saints watch over the residents and visitors alike from various spaces in the house.
Claiborne and her husband began walking the land they built on while it was still part of a 550-acre ranch in the Hill Country just waiting to be developed. They hiked and looked and hiked and looked, and were able to have first pick of sites for the dream home she envisioned. They were even able to expand the stake lines here and there as they realized the need.
The back outdoor living area of the house is perhaps the most inviting place of all, with stone terraces, wooden arbors, arched stone gateways with wooden arched doors, beautiful plants, a fountain, and an incredible view of Pecan Creek sitting at a drop-off 50 feet below (complete with rushing water and a set of bubbling falls). Stairs lead to a fire pit along the creek bank. From the terrace above, the view to the east shows a golf course in the near distance. 
This is the seventh house Claiborne has conceived for herself and her husband. It is her dream home, but will it be her last? Claiborne has the mind of an artist and a designer, so you can never be sure.
 “I love it here,” she says. “But, I do have some other ideas kind of distilling in my mind.…”