Spanish Revival Homes: The Ceramic Edit

A 1927 Spanish Revival home on Las Palmas in Hancock Park, Los Angeles — once the private residence of architect William Hefner. Spanish Revival interior design by Noel Pittman, home represented by Jenna Cooper, with vintage Fajalauza ceramic lebrillos from Granada, Spain above the fireplace.

Spanish Revival homes — with their whitewashed stucco walls, red-tile roofs, and arched doorways — remain some of the most evocative architecture in the United States. Often called Spanish style homes, these houses balance theatrical detail with livable warmth, from timber beams and wrought iron to tiled courtyards glowing in the sun. Their interiors, defined by plaster walls and terracotta floors, offer a timeless backdrop for design. Yet what truly completes the look are the objects within — especially the extraordinary Spanish ceramics that bring craft, history, and soul into every room.

The whitewashed walls of a Spanish Revival home seem to hold the sun itself. Arches cast soft shadows across tiled courtyards, while red clay roofs with their undulating tiles shape the silhouette above.

Step inside, and the effect endures. Timber beams span rooms cooled by terracotta floors. Plaster walls shift with the changing light. Wrought iron traces balconies and staircases. 

In California and Florida, where the Spanish Revival movement first took root in the early twentieth century, these Spanish-style homes reinterpreted centuries of Iberian architecture into a distinctly American language. They were built for light and air, for lives that were both theatrical and welcoming — part stage set, part sanctuary.

But a home is not complete without the people and objects that inhabit it. Architecture creates the framework; the layers that follow give it soul. And here lies an opportunity often overlooked: the extraordinary ceramic traditions of Spain. For centuries, potters from Granada to Talavera, Manises to Galicia have shaped vessels rooted in place and lineage. This article highlights a selection — not a full map — of traditions that resonate most strongly within Spanish Revival interiors.

To bring such a piece into a Spanish Revival home is not to imitate Spain but to place it in dialogue with its origins — a direct thread between American adaptation and Iberian craft.

Spanish Revival Interior Design: Elements That Endure

Spanish Revival interiors begin with architecture itself. Thick stucco walls, sculptural archways, and timber beams define the space before a single object is added. Unlike other revival styles, Spanish Revival does not rely on decoration for character; the architecture already provides it. This integrity is what makes the style enduring.

Hedgerow Montecito Country House by Betsy Burnham Design — a Spanish Revival interior in Montecito, California, where arched plaster walls, terracotta floors, stair tiles, timber beams, and wrought iron details frame a double-height entry. Photography by Ye Rin Mok.

Plaster walls are central. Their hand-troweled, matte surfaces diffuse light throughout the day, giving rooms a calm permanence that glossy finishes can’t match. Against this backdrop, both rustic and refined pieces breathe easily.

Arches and niches do more than decorate: they frame thresholds, guide sightlines, and create natural pause points — the rhythm that gives Spanish Revival homes their intimacy.

Floors carry equal weight. Traditionally in terracotta, they ground the brightness of plaster and tile. Today, reclaimed terracotta often pairs with neutral stone, respecting tradition while accommodating contemporary life.

Patterned tiles — floral or geometric — punctuate stair risers, hearths, and fountains, a direct nod to Spain’s Moorish lineage used with restraint.

Wood and iron act as punctuation. Timber beams structure space without closing it in; wrought-iron grilles, lanterns, and balustrades add detail without heaviness.

A Spanish Revival home requires no overstatement. Its identity is secure in walls, beams, and courtyards. Only a few well-chosen objects are needed to complete the picture.

Where Architecture Meets Craft in the Spanish Revival Home

Spanish-style villa home in Hancock Park, Los Angeles, with a living room that reflects the hallmarks of Spanish Revival interiors — timber beam ceilings, a white plaster fireplace with green tile, and vintage Fajalauza ceramic lebrillos from Granada, Spain. Design by Noel Pittman.

Spanish Revival interiors balance romance and restraint. With plaster walls, timber beams, wrought iron, arches, and terracotta floors, a house can feel complete even sparsely furnished. Yet that generosity creates space for objects that share the same craftsmanship as the architecture. This duality — architecture that is both self-sufficient and inviting — is why the style remains beloved.

This is where ceramics enter the conversation. Spain’s pottery traditions span centuries and regions, each one distinct and rooted in its specific landscapes and history. Many admirers know  Spanish style homes for arches and red-tiled roofs, but fewer are familiar with the artistry that has long flourished inside Spain’s workshops, from the sculptural lamps of Manises to the colorful Majolica artistry of Talavera de la Reina.

To live with one of these pieces is to add another layer of depth to a home. A jar or vase made in Spain does not compete with plaster walls or ironwork; it belongs to the same lineage. Placed in an alcove, on a console, or beside a window, it anchors the space with weight and history, turning architecture into a more personal story.

A Spanish Revival interior is most compelling when architecture and objects speak in harmony. Handcrafted ceramics bring presence and heritage, making rooms not only beautiful but deeply connected to the traditions that shaped them.

Spain’s Ceramic Traditions — Makers and Motifs

Spain’s ceramic traditions span centuries and regions, each with its own vocabulary of form, glaze, and motif. What follows is a curated selection of some traditions that resonate most deeply within Spanish Revival interiors.

Andalusia

Fajalauza (Granada)

Hand-painted Fajalauza ceramic tiles from Granada, Spain — crafted in the Albaicín following centuries-old Andalusian traditions. These glazed azulejos in blue, green, and yellow preserve Granada’s artisanal heritage. Photo by Carlos Bullejo for Elle Decor España.

Among the most enduring Andalusian traditions is Fajalauza, pottery made in Granada since the sixteenth century. Hand-painted in cobalt blue and emerald green, it often carries motifs of pomegranates — the emblem of the city — alongside vines and birds. The palette feels both rooted and fresh, instantly at home against plaster and terracotta.

Collectors prize Fajalauza for both its history and adaptability. Its colors harmonize with timber, ironwork, stone, and contemporary finishes. Large basins, or lebrillos, remain especially prized for their scale and presence.

Al Yarrar (Granada)

By contrast, Al Yarrar — a studio in Granada’s Albaicín quarter — revives Andalusian and Nasrid design traditions with mathematical precision: interlacing stars, arabesques, and repeating patterns. The results feel architectural, echoing tiled staircases and intricate ironwork in Spanish Revival homes. These ceramics make Andalusia’s Moorish inheritance tangible, their geometry resonating naturally with the arches, tiles, and ironwork that define Spanish Revival style.

Aragón

Detail of Mudéjar architecture on the tower of the Church of El Salvador in Teruel, Spain — part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Mudéjar Architecture of Aragón.” This 12th-century style blends Islamic tradition with Gothic influences, using intricate brickwork and glazed ceramic tiles.

Punter (Teruel)

In Aragón, the town of Teruel has long been known for bold ceramics. By the late Middle Ages, local workshops produced a two-tone palette: copper green and near-black manganese painted over white glaze. Birds, stylized foliage, and geometric bands became hallmarks of this Mudéjar tradition.

The Punter family workshop, active for five generations, continues this lineage. Their jars and plates carry the same graphic energy — strong outlines, confident blocks of color, simplified motifs. The same hand-painted freedom animates them as centuries ago.

Within Spanish Revival interiors, Punter pieces hold their ground. The green-and-black palette sits crisply against plaster, while bold linework adds definition beside timber or wrought iron. A single vase or charger becomes a focal point — an object carrying history into the present.

Galicia

Sculptural botijos (drinking jugs) by Sargadelos, contemporary porcelain ceramics that reinterpret the traditional Spanish botijo with bold cobalt blue and white geometric patterns, a distinctive hallmark of Galician ceramic design.

Sargadelos

Galicia’s best-known ceramics come from Sargadelos, founded in the early 19th century and reimagined in the mid-20th century. Unlike other traditions rooted in medieval or Renaissance forms, Sargadelos embraced modern design while drawing on Galician heritage: Celtic spirals, local symbols, and abstracted botanical motifs distilled into bold blue-and-white.
 
Sargadelos carries both modernist clarity and folkloric resonance, a rare combination that makes it highly collectible. Its vivid cobalt patterns stand out against the earthy tones of Spanish Revival interiors.

Otero Regal

Galician ceramicist Alfonso Otero Regal painting a hand-crafted ceramic vase in his Regal Cerámica workshop in Viveiro, Lugo.

Alongside Sargadelos, Alfonso Otero Regal represents Galicia’s more experimental, sculptural side. Based in Viveiro, Regal’s workshop produces ceramics that are asymmetrical, textured, and boldly contemporary — often blurring the line between vessel and sculpture.

While rooted in the clay traditions of the region, his work feels closer to studio art than to functional pottery. Collectors sometimes describe the style as Picasso-esque, with Cubist inflections in form and decoration.

Placed within Spanish style homes, Regal’s work adds a bold, sculptural note — a reminder that clay can be both functional and expressive, carrying tradition forward in strikingly modern ways.

Valencia

Danae Marín of Can Betelgeuse Studio with her lámparas de Manises (Manises lamps), a contemporary revival of Valencia’s historic ceramic tradition, featured in Architectural Digest España.

Manises

Just northwest of Valencia, Manises has been a center of ceramic innovation since the Middle Ages, particularly renowned for Hispano-Moresque lusterware. Its versatility has carried through the centuries, but in the mid-20th century Manises found new expression through its distinctive lamps — sculptural bases with handmade motifs, glazed in Mediterranean blues, greens, turquoises and more.

Mid-century workshops experimented widely but it is the Manises lamp tradition that stands out most distinctly. Today, a contemporary revival is underway: Danae Marín of Can Betelgeuse is reviving Manises lamps and other ceramics, rescuing an almost forgotten tradition before it is too late. 

Lladró

Founded in 1953 near Valencia, Lladró has become synonymous with porcelain artistry. Beyond the figurines that made it famous, the house produces vases, vessels, and lighting defined by luminous whites, sculptural profiles, and precise glazing. In Spanish Revival interiors, a Lladró piece introduces clarity and refinement—its porcelain surfaces catching light as a subtle counterpoint to terracotta, plaster, and timber.

Talavara and other Spanish Regions

Talavera ceramic fountain in the Prado Gardens of Talavera de la Reina, Toledo — richly decorated with blue and yellow glazed tiles, part of the UNESCO-listed Talavera pottery tradition.

Other centers remain essential touchstones. Talavera de la Reina — recognized by UNESCO as part of the world’s intangible cultural heritage — is famed for its painterly majolica; nearby Puente del Arzobispo leans rustic, with earthen hues and folk motifs. In Catalonia, La Bisbal d’Empordà recognized across the Mediterranean for utilitarian amphorae and jars, is known for earthy reds, greens, and ochres. And more: across Spain, other regional workshops, past and present, contribute to a lineage of craft integral to Spanish identity.

Living with Spanish Ceramics in Spanish Revival Homes

Spanish Revival living room at the Hedgerow Montecito Country House by Burnham Design. Image by Ye Rin Mok.

Time and Placement

Spanish ceramics compel because they seem to travel across time and space. An antique Talavera charger softened by glaze, a Fajalauza basin worn at the rim — these bring patina and gravitas. Vintage Manises or Lladró ceramics add mid-century sculptural boldness. Contemporary ceramic work from Sargadelos or Can Betelgeuse shows the evolution of the lineage. Together, these pieces anchor rooms in both history and the present.

Ceramics also act spatially: a cluster of lebrillos turns a kitchen wall into a field of geometry and color; a single Manises lamp holds the eye with sculptural presence; Lladró porcelain softens light in a dining room. The key is restraint: in Spanish Revival interiors, one or two pieces can deepen a room without tipping it into theme.

From Los Angeles and Santa Barbara to Miami, Coral Gables, and Palm Beach, Spanish Mediterranean and Mission Revival houses welcome this mix of eras; ceramics are the objects that tie them back to the craft that inspired the architecture.

A Living Tradition

Spanish Revival homes have always been about exchange: Iberian forms adapted to American landscapes, architecture built to hold both shadow and light. Ceramics extend that exchange across centuries — clay shaped by Spanish hands, carried into new rooms, finding fresh relevance against plaster, timber, and tile. Artisans makers like Amitābha Studio extend this tradition today, reimagining antique vessels as lamps, preserving vintage forms as functional art, and carrying contemporary craft forward. More than decoration, they are continuations of heritage made luminous for the present.

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FAQs about Spanish Revival Homes

• Q: What defines a Spanish Revival home?

  A: Spanish Revival homes are known for white (or sand-colored) stucco walls, red-tile roofs, arched doorways, wrought-iron details, timber beams, and patterned tile. Inspired by Iberian and Mediterranean architecture, the style became popular in the U.S. in the early 20th century, especially in warm climates like California, Florida, and the Southwest.

• Q: When did Spanish Revival homes become popular in the United States?

  A: Spanish Revival architecture surged in the 1910s–30s. Its breakout moment was the 1915 Panama–California Exposition in San Diego, designed by Bertram Goodhue, which introduced Spanish Colonial motifs to millions. The style then flourished in California, Florida, Texas, and the Southwest during the 1920s real estate boom.

• Q: Where are Spanish Revival or Spanish villa style homes most common in the U.S.?

  A: The deepest concentrations are in California (Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego) and Florida (Miami, Coral Gables, Palm Beach), with strong showings across the Southwest and Texas—for example, San Antonio’s Monte Vista. You’ll also find smaller clusters in the Midwest—Park Ridge near Chicago even has a pocket nicknamed “Spanish Town.” California’s boom followed the 1915 Exposition; Florida’s came during the 1920s–30s Land Boom.

• Q: Who were the most influential architects of Spanish Revival homes?

  Key figures include George Washington Smith, who helped define the Santa Barbara style; Addison Mizner, who shaped Palm Beach and helped define South Florida’s Mediterranean/Spanish Colonial Revival identity; Bertram Goodhue, whose San Diego exposition buildings popularized the style; and Wallace Neff, known for glamorous Spanish villas in Los Angeles.

• Q: Are Spanish Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival the same?

  A: They’re closely related and often overlap. Spanish Colonial Revival leans more directly on mission and colonial precedents, while Spanish Revival casts a wider net of Old World influences, including Moorish and Andalusian references. In practice both share the familiar palette of stucco, tile, timber, and iron established in the 1910s–30s boom.

• Q: Are Spanish Revival homes the same as Spanish Mediterranean or Spanish villa homes?

  A: They overlap but aren’t identical. “Spanish Mediterranean” often describes houses with broader Southern European influences, while “Spanish villa” usually refers to larger, estate-like properties. Spanish Revival is the architectural term tied to the early 20th-century movement, but all share similar DNA: stucco, tile, arches, and terracotta.

• Q: What’s the difference between Spanish Revival, Mission Revival, Hacienda style, and Santa Barbara style?

  A: Spanish Revival blends Andalusian, Moorish, and Renaissance influences with expressive arches and tile. Mission Revival is simpler, inspired by early California missions. Hacienda style emphasizes courtyards and rustic finishes. Santa Barbara style is a refined coastal branch of Spanish Colonial Revival, polished with Mediterranean elegance.

• Q: What are the best Spanish style landmarks to visit?

  A: • Adamson House (Malibu, 1929) — Stiles O. Clements/Morgan, Walls & Clements; famed for Malibu Potteries tile; guided tours available.

  • Casa del Herrero (Montecito, 1925) — George Washington Smith; a National Historic Landmark; tours by reservation.

  • Santa Barbara County Courthouse (1929) — William Mooser III; widely considered the grandest Spanish Colonial Revival civic building; open to the public.

  • The Mission Inn (Riverside, 1902–32) — the largest Mission/Spanish Revival complex in the U.S.; hotel and museum.

  • Florida — Addison Mizner’s Palm Beach work shaped the region’s Mediterranean/Spanish Colonial Revival identity; in Coral Gables, the Biltmore Hotel (1926) anchors the city’s Mediterranean style.

• Q: Why was Spanish Revival so popular in Hollywood’s Golden Age?

  A: In 1920s–30s Los Angeles, Spanish Revival homes offered drama and romance — perfect for stars seeking both privacy and theatricality. Large courtyards, dramatic arches, and tiled staircases created natural backdrops for entertaining. That allure made it the favored style of Golden Age actors and continues to attract celebrities today.

• Q: Which celebrities have (or had) Spanish style homes?

  A: • Marilyn Monroe — her 1929 Spanish hacienda in Brentwood, Los Angeles, is now a designated Historic-Cultural Monument.

  • Diane Keaton — restored a 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival house in Beverly Hills (by architect Ralph Flewelling), later sold to Ryan Murphy.

  • Madonna — formerly owned Castillo del Lago (1926, John DeLario), a Spanish/Moorish landmark above Lake Hollywood.

  • Leonardo DiCaprio — purchased a 1928 Spanish Colonial in Los Feliz, previously owned by Jesse Tyler Ferguson.