Nowhere does the iconic Spanish Colonial Revival architectural aesthetic feel quite as, well, iconic as Santa Barbara. The cute, coastal Californian city is awash with white stucco walls, arched doorways, exposed wood beams, courtyards, and a distinctive Mediterranean flavor, where period charm is the currency and historic detailing is the fairy dust that makes the area feel as magical as it does.
And charm was exactly what interior designer Katie Labourdette-Martinez of the Santa Barbara–based studio Hearth Homes Interiors was looking to uncover in this historic Spanish Colonial Revival home, built in the Arts and Crafts era and very much true to that style. ‘There were small pieces of charm here already that are usually hidden by bad paint jobs,’ she says of the exposed wood door frames and beams that adorn the ground floor. ‘Everything in the home was architecturally already there, and I wanted to add beautiful elements that highlighted them.’
