Jeff Doubét shares building tips for modern Spanish interior designs in California. Before + After photos show how you can construct remarkable Spanish interior styling into your own custom home project. Welcome to another Spanish Home Design Photo Blog article.
This is where I share professional design insights on how I design Spanish interior styling into client homes. I also show you how these creative visions are built.
Spanish Interior Designs Before and After
Everyone loves a Before and After photo comparison. Here at the Creating Spanish Style Homes blog I continually add home renovations to the Spanish homes Before and After category. Please visit often!
BEFORE Photo 1: This home sits in a very desirable neighborhood, but the interior spaces were very outdated. As you can see, the home had a Colonial vibe to it. Painted white railing balusters, leaded glass front door, etc.
AFTER Photo: In the completed redesign, we removed the railing completely. We accomplished this by building the wrap around steps. The long steps eliminated the need for a railing overlooking the living room.
BEFORE Photo 2: Here is how the outdated entry foyer, staircase and view to the family room looked like. As I have written in my book on Spanish home design- You can do a lot with your remodel just by upgrading the surfaces of the interior (and exterior).
AFTER Photo: The entry foyer was transformed with new finishes to the walls, stairs and flooring. Spanish deco tiles were incorporated into the staircase rebuilt with dark hardwood. A new iron railing, Old World skim coat on the drywall… and a terra cotta floor.
Spanish Interior Designs by Jeff Doubét
The Spanish interior style within a Jeff Doubét designed home is typically created with a proclivity for fresh and unique interpretations of Old World features incorporated in the historic Spanish homes of the 1920s and 1930s.
These special Spanish interior design elements include: fireplaces with decorative hoods, kitchen range hoods, art niches, archways into other rooms. All examples are illustrated within this build.
ABOVE: Nothing makes me more happy than to visit a construction site and see a beat up copy of my book Creating Spanish Style Homes. I have been collecting photos of Post-it and earmarked copies. Someday will share a collection of them in a blog post one day.
Construction Photo 1: On this day I was visiting the job site to help the homeowners and their General Contractor walk through a wide variety of Spanish interior design upgrades they could make to their ongoing construction project, now in the works.
Planning Spanish Interior Designs
Planning Spanish interior designs for rooms and entire floorplans often include upgrades to fireplaces, kitchen range hoods, wall niches and ceiling beams. Paint colors, flooring, cabinetry, tiles, windows and doors are also things that can get overwhelming.
Construction Photo 2: A couple of weeks after my site visit, the project was progressing nicely. Rough electrical, wall insulation and a new Spanish hearth were under way. The homeowner shared photos as he inched up on the overall design for the fireplace.
Construction Photo 3: I thought his initial fireplace mock up was a little bit “wide” for the space. He had a specific flat screen TV planned, so I used those dimensions as I sketched a few suggestions for refining his early mantel layout.
AFTER Photo: This is how the Spanish fireplace mantel with hood turned out. The pair of plaster corbels make the mantel shelf feasible. Note how the flat TV floats off the plaster hood. I thought it turned out really cool.
Other Spanish interior design elements you can incorporate include things like this custom fabricated wrought fireplace screen. This design is permanently mounted, and has hinged doors for easy access to stoke that crackling oak fire you have been jonesing for.
Jeff Doubét Custom Spanish Interior Designs
Jeff Doubét custom Spanish interior designs typically include special upgrades to walls. Existing walls are often double framed in key locations. With an investment in planning, you will find important spots to build in niches, thick passageways and hidden spaces.
The extra effort and cost will also produce a higher perceived value to your home. I designed the double framed wall (above) to enable proposed built-in niches and the extra thick arched passageway leading to the living room, beyond.
Construction Photo 4: Building out the Spanish style bar in the living room is an example of the aforementioned framed double walls. You can see how the new wall accommodates bar sink plumbing. The extra thick wall also provide the space for a built in, oversized wall niche.
AFTER Photo: This is how the Spanish bar turned out. Note the custom fabricated mirror with floating wood shelves.
A close up photo of the custom cut arched top mirror, installed in the oversized wall niche. Once the mirror was in place, the dark stained wood shelves were installed. Make sure to stain the backside of your shelves- as they too, reflect in the mirror!
Jeff Doubét recommended product(s) for designing and building a quality Spanish style home +landscape.
Jeff Doubét Spanish Interior Design Styling Suggestions
Jeff Doubét Spanish interior design styling includes small and simple upgrade details such as decorative vent covers and register grilles you can purchase directly on Amazon.
There are many readily available Spanish interior design decor products you can incorporate into your home design. Arch top mirror designs available on Amazon are affordable and a complimentary way to tie in your Spanish interior design theme.
A direct link to other Spanish-style products on Amazon (and my other project overviews where they were installed).
Unique Spanish Interior Designs For Kitchens
On my Spanish Home Design Blog I like to showcase clients with excellent taste in materials, and who have chosen to be different in creating their beautiful projects.
AFTER Photo: This Southern California Spanish style kitchen incorporates unique material combinations to create a special high end look. Reclaimed brick was purchased out of Europe, and was used on the walls- creating a perfect backdrop for the plaster hood.
A close up of the Old World plaster finish that was applied to this handcrafted Spanish range hood. The design of your range hood can be an understated design element, surrounded by other finishes that make a warm and inviting space to work in.
AFTER Photo: This image showcases the brilliant choices the homeowners made for their truly special Spanish-style kitchen. Note how the colors and veining in the granite countertops compliment the reclaimed brick backsplash, and the red knobs on the 48″ Wolf range.
AFTER Photo: Another image showing how the imported European brick installed as a backsplash coordinates with the terra cotta flooring. Also, with the richness of the dark stained cabinets with wrought iron handles.
AFTER Photo: The eat-in kitchen has a long wood table with bench style seating and Spanish-style upholstered chairs on the ends. A flat TV is wall mounted in between the wine bar cabinetry. A great gathering spot for entertaining guests as they mingle in the large kitchen.
A close up of the refrigerated wine storage in a custom dark wood cabinet and refrigerator drawers underneath it. Oversized wrought iron drawer and door handles coordinate beautifully with the handcrafted iron chandelier, above.
THE EASY BUTTON TO VIEW ALL PROJECTS ON SITE
Spanish Interior Design Lighting
Lighting in a Spanish style interior design is very important when building out a high end renovation. The homeowners invested a lot of time picking out the styles for Spanish lighting for their home. Their choices paid off with a stunning result throughout their home.
A pair of handmade ceiling mounted iron lights with seeded glass were installed in the entry foyer. Ceiling mount lights are a nice choice when you have standard 8 ft walls, or a tight space where you cannot use pendant lights or chandeliers.
In the living room a grand, 2 tier chandelier and three tall wall sconces were hand fabricated by a local lighting expert. A 3 tier wrought iron chandelier can be fabricated for larger rooms and taller ceilings. The 3rd bottom ring would be even wider yet.
This photo further showcases the quality of the handmade two tier iron chandelier and the dark stained ridge beam it is mounted to.
Spanish Interior Design Style – Flooring Combinations
When creating your own Spanish interior design style, you will have many different options in materials and combinations of them.
Generally, I prefer to keep the combinations of materials to a minimum, as a home design can start to feel schizophrenic if too many are used. That said, there are good reasons to change things up now and then.
Spanish Flooring Combinations: Building the Look
Construction Photo 5: On this day, we met to discuss the layout options for the transitions between kitchen, foyer and living room.
A quick mock up of the Spanish tiles leaned on the stair risers, and viewed with terra cotta floor tile above, and hardwood sample below.
This image helps illustrate the floor design. Large square terra cotta clay floor tiles set on the diagonal, and the way we addressed room borders. Large clay rectangular tiles were installed to create borders, as well as baseboards.
In the photo above you can see how wide plank oak flooring was installed in the family room, living room and bedrooms in the lower level of the home. Hardwood steps paired with a row of Spanish deco tiles makes for an attractive transition between the two floor materials.
A choice of subtle color combinations in the Spanish deco tiles blend elegantly with the oak staircase, flooring in the family room and the terra cotta floors in the entry foyer. A job well done by the talented homeowners who made wonderful choices throughout their project.
Well friend, this wraps another site visit episode in beautiful Southern, California. I hope you enjoyed learning how to infuse more Santa Barbara Style into your own Spanish interior design project. Scroll to explore more helpful links and resources for designing and building your own Spanish-style home and landscape.
