Santa Barbara Home Designer Jeff Doubét shares Spanish Tile Collection 1 – A series of favorite photos showing how address numbers were embedded into stucco.

I thought it would be helpful to show you how this Santa Barbara stucco home was retrofitted with Spanish tile address numbers.

The transformation of this local Santa Barbara fixer upper house was well under way, and a wide range of talented teams had already put their touch on the property. To start incorporating classic Santa Barbara Spanish styling, the asphalt roof was replaced with a clay roof. Windows, new front door, lighting, chimney details… just a partial list of exterior upgrades that were redeveloped here.

To check out the “BEFORE” photo and the original Design Concept Rendering I had proposed for this house, please CLICK HERE. It is definitely worth seeing, so you can better understand the full context of this overall SB Home makeover.

The exterior plaster team had just finished the final coat of their beautifully applied Santa Barbara Mission Style finish.

Above: The landscape reno is well under way. The talented plasterer works on roughing in the plaster finish on the front garden walls.

Planning Spanish Address tile installation

So everything was going great… when I got a call from the homeowner. She was excited about how nice things were turning out, and now wanted to upgrade the project with decorative Spanish address tiles near the front door. I cringed a little as I listened… knowing the team would need to cut into their newly finished art work.

Heroes come in all forms, and the out of town client was lucky to have her plastering team still on site. Above: The Artisans hold up loose tiles in a design configuration I thought she might like. I snapped a photo and texted it over. Within a minute or two we had her approval and were off to the races.

I asked the guys to hold their pose while I traced around the tiles. They would use these pencil lines as a reference when cutting into the new wall. Soon they would be on their way to fulfilling the homeowner’s dream.

How to install Spanish Tiles in stucco

Ideally, it’s best to plan to install your new Spanish address tiles on the first (scratch coat) of the stucco process. I will explain this a little bit further, but it enables the plasterers to apply the second coat of stucco right up to, and around the tiles.

This post shares a series of photos that show how the Artisan team was able to retrofit the stucco with the new Spanish style address tiles. I will feature them in other upcoming episodes within my Modern Masters Series. I am always amazed at their depth of knowledge and skill, and the many local Santa Barbara Spanish homes they have worked on.

Above: If you happen to be a Scroller and just want me to cut to the chase… here is a shot of the completed project:)

Back to the task at hand. Here the Artisan begins precision cutting of the exterior plaster, in prep for the Spanish tiles. A grinding tool outfitted with a concrete cutting blade is being fired up to start cutting the stucco.

Note how the Artisan scored a multitude of grooves in the plaster? I learned this is one way to make a job like this “more doable”.

Helpful tools to get the job done

Using a specialty hammer and an Estwing tool used as a chisel, they begin to carefully chip out shallow beds of surface stucco.

A close up photo showing the 9″ Estwing tool in use. With the subtle curve on the ends of the tool, it is a perfect choice as a chisel. Note how they remove small chips of plaster by starting at a score mark, and chip toward the right?

Tips for Installing Spanish Tile Numbers

When installing Spanish deco tiles on a stucco house like this, it is important to know about materials the pros use. It turns out, once the guys used an all purpose ceramic tile adhesive to glue the tiles in place, the subtle undulation of the surrounding Santa Barbara Mission Style plaster finish was difficult to meet up well with perfectly flat tiles.

No worries: The tiles were now securely glued in perfect alignment. The next day, the Artisans came back and chipped more plaster away (around tiles). The “pinkish color” you see in the image above is actually an overlap of a special bonding agent the plasterers had painted on to the newly chiseled out stucco bed. They knew to use this special glue to ensure a quality bond with the pre-mixed stucco patch product. In total, beautiful transitions from the flat tiles to outlying existing plaster textures were achieved.

A Jeff Doubét Spanish Entry Design

A few more favorite photos of the completed project. These shots show how seamless the project looks, now that the painters touched up the house paint around the newly installed Spanish tile address numbers.

As per my original concept rendering, a heavy wood arbor was handcrafted to help visually transition the single story section of the house to a second story addition.

A close up shot of the rustic Spanish door I designed for the project. I have always loved the romance of a speakeasy door, and I try to incorporate custom versions of them into as many projects as I can.

A close up of the Spanish style speakeasy door, with the iron grille installed. The elegant Star Pendant Light in the background was purchased from Amazon. These types of Spanish doors are fun to live with. They provide a way to watch the world go by, as well as provide an attractive portal for fresh breezes.

Here, you can see how the Spanish wood entry door is deeply nestled into the recessed plaster alcove. The Spanish lantern style light also provides a sense of warmth to this entry at this beautiful Santa Barbara Spanish Style home.

This is how the sandstone steps with boulder accents turned out after the drought tolerant landscape was installed at this local Santa Barbara Spanish style home and landscape renovation.

Showcasing Classic Santa Barbara Paint and Stain colors

Classic Santa Barbara paint and stain colors for Spanish style architecture are featured in this project. I have spent countless hours researching historic colors for the look Santa Barbara is well known for. In this image, I also showcase the front entry door oversized sandstone step. The rustic, hand-hewn craftsmanship makes this landing have an Old Mission look and feel.

Below: I love how the homeowner followed through on my early Concept Design Rendering. She chose to plant succulents in the clay pots, since she and her husband would be in town only now and then. The pots sitting on the new plaster garden walls flank the wide sandstone steps leading up to the front door.

I really enjoy naming my design projects. I mentioned to the owner that I would be including multiple pages of highlights of this home in my Book (pages 150-157). When I offered her a choice of naming it herself, she loved the idea… and named it Casa Del Sol.

Another shot of the front door with Santa Barbara sandstone landing. I have had other clients who desired to embed the name of their home in the exterior plaster. Fine Crafts Imports offers their Mission Tiles Series in both numbers and letters.

Well friend, I am ready to post this story. I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about how you can infuse more Santa Barbara Style into your own design project at home. Please check back to see what I write about next!