Jeff Doubét invites you to see a BEFORE and AFTER transformation of a Santa Barbara historic Spanish home. See how a modern twist was introduced into the build.

If you love small historic Santa Barbara Spanish homes as much as I do, you will enjoy some of the design decisions that went into this real estate investor “flip”.

The result: an immediate sale to a young family who appreciates the fresh upscale details within their new classic Spanish home.

Specializing in historic Spanish style home Designs

Are you a local Santa Barbara or Montecito homeowner looking for ways to improve your small historic home?

I am a Santa Barbara Home Designer who specializes in conceptual designs for upgrading the look and feel of a home, both inside and out.

BEFORE Photo: When I arrived at this initial consult I was quite taken aback. Sometimes historic Spanish homes are fixer uppers and need a lot of work. This one was in it’s own special category:)

The investment group was well underway with the major renovation of the small historic home. In anticipation of a future sale, they requested ideas for how they could add small details to improve their profits.

I reviewed the plans and made recommendations for how to improve future curb appeal. ABOVE: the design concept included a Santa Barbara style chimney, plaster door surround, iron window grille, clay vents and copper gutters…

For the landscaping, design ideas included a centrally located fountain, olive trees and potted plants flanking the front door. Santa Barbara sandstone rocks as inexpensive landscape borders, and flagstone with gravel for pathways.

AFTER Photo: Everything turned out beautifully. Their team opted out of the plaster door surround idea, and instead went with a taller front door. Their general contractor and interior designer added a lot of their own personal touches throughout the project.

As a collaborative team, everyone contributed ideas and talent- and together we created a very special home.

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Building Classic Santa Barbara Spanish style Homes

Historically, local Santa Barbara Spanish homes were made with two coats of exterior plaster and then painted. This was the technique used in this renovation. Scroll to see construction photos.

Other traditional details include incorporating terra cotta clay pipe attic vents, Tecate clay patio tiles and Spanish deco tiles. This small front yard landscape design included olive trees and a flagstone gravel pathway.

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To give the front façade of this historic home a decidedly modern twist, the interior designer chose a pair of contemporary wall lanterns and pin mounted black metal house numbers. There is something cool about combining old world, with modern… don’t you think?

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See more Spanish-style products on Amazon, and my project overviews where they were installed.

The Santa Barbara Spanish-style fountain became a beautiful succulent garden. We were in a severe drought at the time.

Building Santa Barbara Spanish Architectural details

Santa Barbara is well known for Spanish architectural details. One way to improve the perceived value of your project is to build them into your own project. This Spanish-style chimney is actually a faux chimney, built with traditional materials.

Architectural elements built with authentic materials add visual interest to any home design. Other classic details incorporated into this small Santa Barbara Spanish-style home are copper gutters and iron window grilles.

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Here, another photo of the clay vents and chimney. Cherokee Creek flagstone and California Gold gravel were installed.

Flagstone “steps” provide a hard surface to walk, and the gravel provides permeability. This landscape technique is less expensive as there is not much stone cutting involved.

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Rebuilding Small Historic Spanish Homes in Santa Barbara

Here are images showing the process of rebuilding a historic Spanish home in Santa Barbara.

In this photo the general contractor sets up forms for pouring new cement footings to modernize the foundation.

Once the new foundation was poured, reconstruction begins. Here the new framing and plywood goes up.

During the rebuild process, a lot of supportive neighbors would stop by to see the progress. When this much effort is invested on a Santa Barbara street, it has a ripple effect throughout the entire neighborhood.

A house well designed and rebuilt will increase the value of the surrounding homes.

Black windows are being installed, and weatherproofing of exterior walls and roof begin. Talented contractors keep a project moving, even when waiting on components that have yet to arrive.

A close up photo of the plastering process shows the 2 step exterior stucco process. The front of the chimney is the first (scratch) coat. The side is the second (brown) coat. In classic Santa Barbara stucco finish, the “brown coat” is the final coat. Then paint is applied.

If you are new to my blog, you may also be interested in Collection 1 , Collection 2 and Collection 3 of small Spanish home designs. With each project, I share a wide variety of Before and After photos.

Pro Tips for designing small Spanish homes

Recessing windows in a thick stucco wall is a Santa Barbara building technique that adds great curb appeal. You will need to discuss this with your architect and contractor at the early planning stage, as the window installation technique is different.

Rough openings of your framing will need to be oversized to accomodate the attachment method of the windows + doors. You will also need extra spacing (of 7/8″ to 1.25″) for the exterior plaster that will wrap into the bullnosed window opening.

A substantial 2 story addition was built behind this front façade. There is a hint of it just above the ridgeline. Flat roofs for Spanish homes are typically 1) less expensive to build. 2) and are easier to place and install solar panels and skylights.

Benefits of Building or Renovating a Small Home in Santa Barbara or Montecito, CA.

Small Spanish homes can be a real joy to live in, especially in Santa Barbara and Montecito CA. The perfect weather enables year around outdoor living. Spaces created in your landscape will extend the livable “square footage” of your investment.

The bottom line is all historic Spanish homes are cool. See the interior renovation of this home.

Well friend, this wraps another site visit episode in beautiful Santa Barbara, CA. I hope you enjoyed learning how to infuse more Santa Barbara Style into your own Spanish home design project. If you are looking for other small Spanish house designs- see Collection 1 and Collection 2 . Scroll to explore more helpful links and resources for designing and building your own Spanish-style home and landscape.