Chef Rick Martínez's Colorful Dream Kitchen in Mexico

New York Times contributor, Food52 columnist, former Bon Appétit food editor and frequent guest on Magnolia Workshops (streaming on discovery+), Rick Martínez is also a James Beard Award-winning chef and best-selling cookbook author. His home in Mazatlán, Mexico — a resort town in the state of Sinaloa along the Pacific coast — is a labor of love he's been working on for five years.

"I wanted this house to feel like both sides of my personality. I lived in New York for 20 years, and I wanted that harder Manhattan and New York element to it: the chic sophistication of velvets, metals — there's a lot of stone work, a lot of brass in here. So, I wanted that to be tempered with Mexican beach life. The Mexican side is really about the art and the craftsmanship and the evidence of creativity and passion." It's a place to inspire his own creativity in the kitchen, says Rick, who shares the space with his dog, Choco.

Rick is known for food inspired by Mexico and featuring super-fresh ingredients that convey the vibrancy of the country. The design of his cookbooks, Mi Cocina and Salsa Daddy, highlights his favorite color — pink — and the Mexican home cooking that has made him a star. Growing up in South Texas with a Mexican-American mother, Rick was exposed early to the wonderful flavors of the region. In an effort to learn more about the cuisine and also connect with his Mexican roots, Rick traveled over 30,000 miles through all 32 states of Mexico on a fact-finding mission that showed him the full complexity of local cooking and made him fall in love with the diversity and spirit of the place. Or, as Rick says on his website of his mission, "To share the heart and soul of México — its people, its history, its flavors — with honesty, pride, and a little bit of chile-laced chaos."

Filled with eye-popping color, whimsy and a connection to the outdoors, the home was empty for 15 years. When Rick bought the home, he found a diamond in the rough in need of some serious rehab to make it both livable and the kind of space that felt like home. Rick's cocktail bar, along with the set of sangria-colored swing chairs, makes it clear this chef's home is a place where fun is in store. "Obviously, I love to cook and I love to feed people. But when you're having a party, people also want to drink. So, this bar gives me the space I need to make those amazing cocktails."

These fun swing chairs in a delicious aubergine color are one of Rick's favorite elements in his Mexican home. The chairs give an instant indication of the element of fun and lack of seriousness in Rick's playful home. "You get on 'em and you want to play. And that's the tone I wanted to set for the house." Handmade Mexican tile in vibrant colors can be seen throughout the living and dining area on the ground floor of the home. Blues and turquoises define the tile color scheme in the downstairs section of his home.

"So, when it comes to kitchens, I'm a bit of a size queen," says Rick, who blew out his home's existing kitchen to create a bigger, more chef-friendly space. He added an air conditioner, a necessity in the heat of Mexico and in the kitchen. The green-tinted stone of the countertop continues on the cabinet front and backsplash and echoes the green of the foliage visible outside Rick's home. The kitchen is filled with inspired design choices, including the rounded corners on the long kitchen island, which Rick chose to give the room a more organic feel and to connect the kitchen to the outside areas of the home.

The cuisine, but also the handicrafts of Mexico, are on full display in Rick's kitchen, where beautifully ornamented cutting boards and a grouping of handmade spoons and utensils are set against the green-tinged stone.

There's no better stage for a chef than a grand kitchen island like this one in stone handpicked by Rick to draw out the shades of green in the plants right outside the kitchen door.

Rick is a huge proponent of pendant lamps in his home that often incorporate organic materials like clay. He likens the effect to jewelry for the home. His dining room, which flows into the downstairs kitchen, features three pendant lamps Rick calls his "copper tacos." The stunning room is defined by a mural inspired by a gorgeous local garden where Rick and Choco like to walk. Like many of the artworks in the home, the artwork was commissioned for the home from an artist friend of Rick's.

Rick features color inside and outside his personality-infused Mexican home. The stairs lead to Rick's upstairs kitchen, which he often uses for TV shoots.

You know you are hanging with a real chef when he has both a downstairs and an upstairs kitchen. "This to me is my stage," said Rick of a kitchen he has filled with graphic tile handcrafted in Guadalajara and Mexican art with jolts of color that make for a visually compelling whole. The upstairs kitchen was conceived as a "set" Rick can use for TV and photo shoots while maintaining the downstairs kitchen for personal use. The wooden stools were designed in a style Rick describes as "Mexican brutalist." The curvy, amoeboid-shaped island is ideal for getting just the right camera shot from different angles, says Rick. And the handmade palm-woven tiles on the kitchen ceiling help with echoing reverb in the room.

Rick's entire home is a celebration of Mexican contemporary art and craftsmanship, as in this wonderfully graphic tile that offers a bold touch of color and pattern in his upstairs kitchen. More of Rick's equally modernist art collection has pride of place in the kitchen, where he cooks surrounded by design and decor he loves.

The metal-framed glass doors can be opened to immediately create one large room, blurring the kitchen and an outdoor dining space where Rick says he often works outside when the weather is nice. Bold shades of wine and cobalt blue coexist with plenty of wood, clay and other natural fibers like the palm woven tiles on the ceiling above.

Rick is clearly a fan of patterns and the bolder the better. The upstairs kitchen continues his love of craftsmanship in everything from the floor tile to the wooden stools.

The outdoor spaces in Rick's home flow easily from the inside and are also linked by a shared design sensibility, from the handmade palm woven tiles on the ceiling to the bright pink and merlot color scheme. With the upstairs kitchen sliding glass doors open, the kitchen and outdoor dining area become one lavish open space where nature and the domestic harmonize beautifully.