Jeff Doubet shares tips for modern Spanish interior design in historic Spanish homes of Santa Barbara. The combinations of classic and contemporary materials and finishes are a stunning example of how two designers blended their talents to create a unique, high-end Spanish interior design project.
Santa Barbara Spanish home renovations are trending toward more contemporary modern Spanish details inside homes that have existed for nearly 100 years. To put context to this post, I was working with an investment group, providing aesthetic upgrade ideas for their “flip”. Be sure to check out the Exterior Facade + Landscape renovation, as well.
On this day I was physically designing options for decorative elements throughout the house. With red rosin paper, I experimented with different corbel shapes and their size and scale. Rosin paper is cheap, and mocking up your ideas will enable you to “see” the concept(s) before you spend money to build them. This image shows my ideas for thickened wall passageways.
This is how the project turned out after the drywall and decorative corbels were installed and everything was complete. Shop, price and purchase a similar corbel on Amazon. Off-the-shelf products, easy to install!
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Spanish interior design Trends in Santa Barbara
Combinations of classic and contemporary building materials and finishes are trending in Santa Barbara Spanish interior design for 2025.
For starters, this Interior Designer chose a limited color palette throughout. The black windows coordinate nicely with the white walls and modern furnishings.
For your Spanish renovation, look for ways to layer interesting materials + textures. The design of this black wrought iron chandelier ties in nicely with the black French doors and the kitchen range. A modern table base with a thick sheet of glass makes eat-in dining table feel lighter in the room and contributes to the theme of iron details throughout the home.
A direct link to adaptable modern Spanish-style table bases on Amazon. See pricing + customization options from this handmade fabricator and seller, direct link above. Buy a customized metal base and add your choice of glass, stone, wood table top!
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A pair of Spanish arch top niches were designed and built on each side of the front entry door.
The Spanish corbel shape became a decorative theme we incorporated throughout the Spanish interior design of this home. Here, the hallway at the primary suite.
Through the corbeled passage, a view to a pair of French doors leading out to the backyard patio.
Designing Spanish Interior Details in Santa Barbara
I’ve worked with this realtor client on a multitude of real estate flips. He and his team were comfortable with my sloppy, rough sketches. For a seasoned group, they are an easy way to communicate creative ideas, and for the various rooms throughout this project.
BEFORE + AFTER: A sketch for the Spanish-style oversized niche in the primary suite.
This is how it turned out. Early conceptual design ideas can always be interpreted and/or refined to fit your specific needs and lifestyle. The design of this oversized niche with corbels could also be a backdrop for large flat TV in a family room or theater.
Teams of talent are assembled for quality projects such as this. I was particularly impressed with the Interior Designer who chose the various products, fixtures, tiles and other finishes throughout.
Designing Interior Details For A Spanish-style Home
There are many interior details you can design into your own Spanish-style interior. For example, oversized coving detail.
Old world details like ceiling coving and claw foot tubs look great with modern elements. Here, contemporary Spanish floor tiles and bathroom fixtures.
Barn doors were also a design element incorporated into this contemporary Spanish interior. Barn Door Assemblies can be adapted to both rustic and contemporary door styles.
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Oversized white contemporary tiles were arranged in a linear pattern and look great with the black, vintage hexagon tiles specified for the shower floor. A clean and modern black hardware pull on the thick glass shower door looks great.
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Spanish corbels frame the view into the primary suite. Wide plank French Oak flooring and the black windows and French doors, beyond.
This small dressing room adjacent to the large walk-in closet shows the contemporary baseboards used throughout. Amazon has a wide range of Spanish-style mirrors.
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Planning the Interior Details of a Quality Spanish Home Remodel
Many design details for Spanish-style homes are planned during the conceptual and working drawing stage. But special details can also be incorporated during the construction phase.
As I walked this construction project, I roughed in a focal point niche at the top of the staircase. Again, using blue painter’s tape and red rosin paper to help the project owners visualize the idea.
The Interior Designer recommended adding Spanish deco tiles and the oak shelf to the niche.
The tile in the niche was a great idea, tying in the warm color tones of the wood floors and doors.
Spanish interior design: Building High End Details
While designing and building your beautiful Spanish interiors, look for opportunities to include unique interior details. Whenever I walk a job site, I can usually find a variety of things to recommend that will help the property owner achieve a high quality Spanish home design.
For example, this project had an awkward area of the house where the new second story addition connected to the original house. The area had very odd ceiling and wall transitions to resolve.
My concept sketch above illustrates how I felt those obviously odd transition points could be softened and unified into an attractive solution.
This is how the upright decorative corbel detail turned out. You can also see how the plaster cove detail helped transition the various other elements, as well.
During the staging of the house for sale, a braided basket and matching decorative pot were chosen to accentuate the vertical corbel detail.
The idea for the upright corbel detail also served as a creative way to “beef up” the wall width directly to the right of the door. Scale and proportion of walls is something I always think about while designing the improvements to a Spanish interior remodel.
Quality Design Features For Spanish Style Kitchens
A swooped plaster range hood is another way to incorporate Spanish styling into your interior remodel. Range hood designs can often be coordinated with those of your fireplace(s), as well as chimney designs outside.
The Interior Designer of this project chose a subtle Spanish deco tile for the range backsplash. The same tile was also used for the entire wall at the kitchen sink, and an art niche, as well.
Here, the theme of using decorative plaster corbels continues. This is the view as seen from the living room looking into the kitchen.
Another view from the living room: looking down the wide hall toward the eat-in dining table.
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 by mixing some modern elements with classic. Scroll to explore more helpful links and resources for designing and building your own Spanish-style home and landscape.
