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modern Spanish Interior Living Room with Fireplace and Staircase in Santa Barbara California

Spanish Interiors Collection 1

Jeff Doubet teaches Spanish interiors construction tips for blending modern and traditional design elements into the historic Spanish homes of Santa Barbara. In this post I share design resources, photos and how-to tips for building arches, niches, plaster fireplaces and range hoods. Ideas you can incorporate into your own Santa Barbara Spanish style home.

Spanish Interiors a Modern Spanish Staircase in a Recently Remodeled Living Room in Santa Barbara Ca
Modern Spanish Staircase in Santa Barbara

These modern ideas can substantially increase the perceived value of your own Spanish interior design. The special interior design details in this local Riviera neighborhood home were a collaboration between the homeowner and myself. Be sure to check out our Contemporary Modern Spanish exterior, as well.

Designing Spanish Interiors in Santa Barbara, CA

Furnishings, appliances, art and other home goods are a big part of Spanish-style interior design. Equally important in custom Santa Barbara style Spanish home renovations: designing + building improvements to the interior architecture.

a See Through Spanish Niche Frames a View into a Modern Kitchen with Plaster Range Hood

Jeff Doubet explains what Spanish-style Interior Architecture is: I believe it is the charm-giving elements that are permanently built into the interior of your custom home. These types of upgrades can include thicker walls, arches, niches, plaster fireplaces and range hoods.

a Spanish Style Plaster Range Hood Installed Above a Black La Cornue Range
Black La Cornue Range in Spanish Home

ABOVE: For the Spanish-style kitchen renovation, a black 36″ La Cornue range was specified. See my blog post on how this custom plaster hood was designed and built.

Modern Spanish Contemporary Furnishings in a Santa Barbara California Spanish Home
Modern Spanish Interior Design in Santa Barbara Ca

The design features of our custom range hood were simultaneously planned while designing our living room custom fireplace, above. Both are within 50 feet of each other and it was important to the overall design of the main level that these elements worked well together.

Building Spanish Home Interiors

Blending modern and traditional design elements into Spanish-style historic homes for new generations to enjoy is the goal. There are many steps a homeowner will take as they create an inspiring home and landscape. It starts with a thoughtful design concept for the space(s). Then, there are technical working drawings, building permits, construction and interior decorating.

a Spanish Style Home Remodel in Early Demolition Stage in Santa Barbara Ca
Santa Barbara Spanish style Renovations

BEFORE Photo: The interior was stripped down to the studs. A clean slate if you will for the design ideas that will be built into this space.

a Modern Spanish Style Home Interior Design Includes Contemporary Furnishings and is Accented with a Fireplace with Hood and an Elegant Staircase with Dark Wood Treads and Painted White Risers
Santa Barbara Style Spanish Interior Design

AFTER Photo: The completed interior design included a new plaster fireplace with decorative hood, thicker interior walls and a staircase redesign.

Designing Spanish Home Interiors

Interior Design Sketch: This was my earliest design drawing for the living room. It provides an overall view of what the room could become after suggested design elements are built.

a Jeff Doubét Design Sketch for a Spanish Style Fireplace Staircase and Interior Design of a Home in Santa Barbara California
Jeff Doubét Design Sketch for a Santa Barbara Spanish Interior

Ideas included redesigning the fireplace and staircase, as well as a new decorative HVAC register.

a Modern Spanish Style Staircase Design Has Painted White Wood Risers and Dark Wood Stair Treads in Santa Barbara Ca
Contemporary Spanish Staircase Design

AFTER Photo: A close up of how the Spanish staircase design turned out. Scroll further to see the construction process for how it was built.

a High Quality Fireplace Insert Being Installed in a Spanish Style Home Renovation in Santa Barbara California
Installing Spanish Fireplace

Here is a photo showing how a new high quality firebox replaced the old masonry firebox. The original firebox opening was too “short” as a living room focal point. The entire brick chimney and fireplace were removed. A new foundation was poured to support this new firebox.

a Spanish Style Fireplace Mock Up in a House Being Renovated in Santa Barbara California
Spanish Fireplace Design Mock Up

ABOVE: This photo shows how the early fireplace design concept was mocked up on the new firebox, using thin Luan plywood (and painted white). The homeowner wanted to see the scale and proportion of the new fireplace design, before real construction began.

a Jeff Doubét Sketch for a Modern Contemporary Spanish Style Fireplace Design for a Home in Santa Barbara California
a Fireplace Design by Jeff Doubét

After seeing the fireplace mock up, the homeowner requested that I tweak the design to have a more modern look and feel. This is my revised sketch for the fireplace design.

Spanish Interior Design Construction Photos

Construction of a thicker wall enhanced the appearance of the elliptical arch framing the view into the living room.

Spanish House Renovation in Santa Barbara Ca with a View Through an Archway to a Living Room Fireplace Beyond
Spanish style Home Construction

Structural plywood was specified by the project engineer, and enables the construction of the see-through niche at the staircase landing.

Developing beautiful Spanish Interiors in Santa Barbara

Creating beautiful, high quality Spanish-style homes requires an investment in the special focal points of your interior design. Employing independent Artisans is one way to build these custom elements such as fireplaces and range hoods into your home.

 Artisans Hand Crafting a Modern Contemporary Spanish Style Fireplace with Hood Design in Santa Barbara California
Modern Spanish Fireplace Construction

Here, a talented team of local Artisans handcraft the custom Spanish-style fireplace design. See more photos of Jeff Doubét custom designed Spanish-style fireplaces under construction throughout Santa Barbara and Montecito, California.

a Modern Spanish Interior Design in Santa Barbara Ca with Contemporary Furnishings and a Fireplace in the Background
Spanish Interior Design Santa Barbara Ca

Fast forward a few months later and you can see how everything turned out. A simple color palette works well with the built elements. The black staircase handrail, balusters and dark stained stair treads look nice with the black hearth.

Designing and building a Spanish staircase

For the redesign of this historic Spanish-style staircase, I developed a second concept rendering. It was a starting point for the new design discussions with the homeowner.

Demolition of the Interior of a Spanish Style Home in Santa Barbara California
Santa Barbara Spanish Home Remodel

BEFORE Photo: The original staircase was a simple wood railing and 2 x 2 balusters. Previous generations of homeowners had painted it white.

a Jeff Doubét Design Sketch for a Spanish Style Staircase and Interior Design of a Home in Santa Barbara California
Jeff Doubét Spanish Staircase Design

Spanish-style staircase design: Within this design sketch I illustrate a vision for a new wrought iron railing that would curve down onto short, flared plaster wing walls. The first three steps of the staircase will have a curve to them. They would lead to a small landing, and then to the main climb of the staircase. Also note the idea for double framing walls at the elliptical archway, and a new see-through niche at the base of the stair landing.

Design Planning of a Spanish Style Staircase is Temporarily Mocked Up with Wood in a Santa Barbara California Home Renovation
Design Planning a Spanish Staircase

My ideas were well received, and a preliminary full size model was proposed. Here, the Spanish staircase is being mocked up using thin Luan plywood. The main goal of the mock up was to visualize the proposed three-dimensional forms. The contractor and crew used this to figure out how to permanently build the sophisticated compound curves of the wing walls.

Construction Photo of a Spanish Style Staircase Being Mocked Up Inside a Home Renovation Under Way in Santa Barbara Ca
Spanish Stair Landing Mock Up

A closer look at how the general contractor used thin craft wood to gently bend and “skin” over a wood frame. Craft wood can be purchased directly on Amazon.

Construction Photo of a a Spanish Style Staircase Under Construction in Santa Barbara California

After the mock up had done its purpose, it was removed along with the wood stair railings. A new clean air return vent was installed. Here, the see-through niche and elliptical archway are in the drywall stage of construction. See Artisans applying drywall mud to a Spanish arch.

Spanish-style staircase design

The homeowner is a talented designer, and decided to develop technical drawings for the project. It was the compound curved wing walls at the bottom of the wrought iron railing that was everyone’s biggest challenge.

a Computer Drawing of a Spanish Style Staircase Design and Drawing in Santa Barbara Ca
Spanish Staircase Cad Drawing

The CAD drawing he developed for the Spanish staircase design was helpful for the wrought iron railing fabricator and installer, as well.

a Contemporary Spanish Staircase Has a Curved Set of Steps at the Bottom of the Landing Black Wrought Iron Railings Balusters and Dark Stained Wood Stair Treads Contrast Nicely with White Plaster Walls and Stair Risers
Contemporary Spanish Staircase

And this is how all of our hard work paid off. The contemporary Spanish staircase railing is quite mesmerizing to look at. The flat black wrought iron and dark stained wood stair treads contrast beautifully with the light European oak floors.

a Modern Spanish Remodel in Santa Barbara California Showing a Grand Staircase and a Kitchen Beyond
Spanish Iron Railings in Santa Barbara

This photo showcases how the custom Spanish-style iron railing balusters terminate into the plaster wing walls. This shot also shows how nicely the arched wood stair tread design turned out.

a Completed Modern Spanish Remodel in Santa Barbara California Showing a Sitting Area Archway and Staircase Beyond

Here you can see how the plaster wing walls for the railing partially protrude into the living room. Note also how the see-through niche received a short section of matching wrought iron railing. Contemporary art + décor: Beautiful combinations for modern Spanish-style interior design.

Spanish kitchen design ideas

The color black is a prominent color specified in the interior design of this contemporary Spanish home in Santa Barbara. In the kitchen, a black La Cornue range was paired with black kitchen cabinets and other accent pieces.

a French Black La Cornue Range Stove is Paired with a Spanish Style Plaster Range Hood in a Contemporary Modern Spanish Home in Santa Barbara California
a La Cornue Range in a Spanish Kitchen
an Artisan Hand Crafts a Spanish Style Plaster Range Hood in a Santa Barbara Ca Remodel
Spanish Style Range Hood Construction

The Spanish range hood was hand fabricated in cement plaster. To see and learn more about the process, see my blog post Spanish Range Hood Design, Photos and Resources. There you will see more of this very talented and featured Artisan.

a Contemporary Modern Spanish Style Kitchen in Santa Barbara California Has a Plaster Range Hood and a Black French Range
Modern Spanish Kitchen Design

The completed Spanish kitchen design includes reclaimed wood ceiling beams and open shelving. They look great with the light stone countertops and white backsplash tiles at the range.

a Modern Spanish Living Room in Santa Barbara California with Fireplace and Spanish Staircase in the Background
Santa Barbara Spanish Interior Design

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 interior design project. Scroll to explore more helpful links and resources for designing and building your own Spanish-style home and landscape.

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Additional Spanish Home + Landscape Resources – 1,250+ Photos !

I’ve organized my snapshot posts and full-length articles into 4 main categories: Interiors , Exteriors , Landscapes and Store + More. For popular sub-categories like Spanish sheds, fireplaces, garage doors, tiles, etc. see my Portfolios. With well over 1,250+ photos and countless design tips shared… peruse at your own pace, or do a QUICK SEARCH for your specific needs!