As a Spanish home designer, I wanted to share my thoughts on creating special Spanish mailboxes. See and listen as I showcase these unique mailbox designs, and why I think they can charm many generations to come… (LISTEN to audio, or read text, below)
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Jeff Doubét Talks About – Creating Unique Spanish Mailboxes in Santa Barbara, CA
“Hey guys, as a Spanish home designer, I wanted to share my thoughts on creating special Spanish mailboxes. See and listen as I showcase these unique mailbox designs, and why I think they can charm many generations to come!
If you scroll these images… the bottom one is actually a historic mailbox at Casa del Herrero in Montecito (CA). And for well over 30 years, I’ve driven past this mailbox and I always get a smile on my face when I see it. Because as a artist and designer and artisan myself, I always think about how can we create, you know… unique and special moments for a homeowner, for their visitors- for the general public at large.
And when I was researching my book back in 2017… actually researching George Washington Smith up at UCSB – they have a special library (Architecture and Design Collection | Art Museum – UC Santa Barbara) where they house you know, hundreds and hundreds of his original drawings. And I stumbled across the drawings- his hand drawn sketches for this special mailbox. And I decided I would share a spread in my book (pages 48 and 49) of how we built the Spanish mailbox in, on the top image- which is my design.
And the backstory on my design was we were creating this special “art house” up on the hill in the foothills of Santa Barbara. And it was a moment in time where the homeowner and I were just wanting to, you know… we were very, very inspired by just the art that went into a, an estate like Casa del Herrero. And furthermore, his house was set back off the road and you know, you start thinking about, well how can you tell people that it’s a special property, when you can’t even see the house?
Well, you can start at the street. With a mailbox, with the gated entrance to the circular driveway, etc. etc. So, inspired by those 100 year-old drawings, I decided to draw my own mailbox and just thinking like, I don’t wanna copy it, but what can I do to tie in the special architecture that I designed into the house, and pull it into the mailbox.
And so that’s exactly what I did. The band of tiles around the top of this mailbox, we actually used throughout the house in different places. You know… even on the inside of the house, we ran tiles up and over archways, we used it in windows surrounds, you know we just got really creative with…
Basically, you know I kind of think of myself as a designer in this generation that has the Soul of an artist, and being inspired by those that came before us. You know, they’re long gone- but imagining what were those people like, and what were the… what were the architects like? What were the homeowners like? What were the crafts people that they all collaborated to build these cool things?
And, that’s actually what’s gonna stand the test of time. You know, these things make you smile, they make you think about what was going on in the minds of whoever created this thing. You know, and why in their right mind would they spend so much energy, time and money- you know, to build something special? And I think I kinda outline that initial thought in this blog post.
And I have designed dozens of special (Spanish) mailboxes for different properties, you know since I started designing Spanish homes in 2003. I have some of those drawings are in my book, and I like to doodle a cute little mailbox. You know, if it’s a street façade of a project, etc.
So, keep coming back. I got a modern Spanish mailbox that one of my clients designed, and I can share that in an upcoming post at some point- and just generally have a look around it.
This whole site is based on art and creativity and doing something different. You know… not just the standard cookie cutter thing that everybody does, ya know? I’ll leave it at that, and keep coming back for more. I just keep digging out old photos and stuff that I wanna talk about. In the meantime, have a great day.”
Jeff Doubét
Transcript of Jeff Doubét: Creating Unique Spanish Mailboxes in Santa Barbara, CA
Audio Source: [Listen to the Full Audio]
Date of Recording: September 17, 2025
Location: Santa Barbara, California
Photo Documentation: Spanish-Mailbox-Design-by-Jeff-Doubet. Historic-Spanish-Mailbox-in-Montecito-California
Locations: Santa Barbara, California and Montecito, California
Date: March 21, 2010 and June 1, 2017
Photographer: Jeff Doubét
Camera: Canon PowerShot A95 and Canon PowerShot S95
© ALL Photos on this site are copyrighted by Jeff Doubet: * You may pin them to your personal Pinterest boards, provided you include a direct link back to the original page you discovered them on. Thank You!
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Spanish Mailbox, Jeff Doubet Spanish Mailbox Design, Spanish Colonial Revival Mailbox, Spanish Architectural Details, Santa Barbara Architectural Details, Santa Barbara Spanish Exteriors, Classic Santa Barbara Spanish Homes, Spanish Quality Spanish Homes in Santa Barbara, Jeff Doubet Spanish Home Designs, Casa Del Herrero Spanish Mailbox Photo, Spanish Mailbox Photos in Santa Barbara, CA, Spanish Mailbox Photos in Montecito, CA, Spanish Tile on Mailbox, Iron Cross on Spanish Mailbox, Custom Spanish Mailboxes, Spanish Mailbox History
Explore more Jeff Doubet Spanish Mailbox Designs in my Book
Glean more insights on designing and building unique, custom Spanish mailboxes by checking out my coffee table book available now on Amazon.
A Jeff Doubét recommended product for designing and building your charming, high-quality Spanish style home +landscape. A 240 page, full color Coffee Table Book.
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