Finish carpentry in Santa Barbara, style by style.

Whole streets of Santa Barbara are still made of Craftsman bungalows, built from about 1905 to 1935. Inside, a bungalow usually has wide, flat casing around doors and windows, tall baseboard, and built-in bookcases or benches, often in stained wood. When a piece is damaged or missing, the job is to match the width, the profile and the wood so the new piece reads as original.

The city rebuilt itself in Spanish Colonial Revival after the 1925 earthquake. The style’s defining features include smooth stucco walls and deeply recessed wood casement windows. Inside, the window opening usually returns in plaster, with no wood casing. A replacement window set flush with the wall can be the right size and color and still remove that depth. Doors and beams are usually dark stained wood.

Much of San Roque was built as California Ranch in the 1940s, 50s and 60s: one story, long and low, with sliding glass doors onto a patio. Ranch houses usually have low, plain baseboard and narrow, flat casing. Owners often want taller baseboard and heavier casing. That can work, but ranch ceilings are often low, so we mock up a section in the room before anything is bought.

Inside the City, the Single Family Design Board reviews most exterior changes to a house, judged on fit with the neighborhood in size and design. Downtown in El Pueblo Viejo, the Historic Landmarks Commission reviews instead, as it does for a house in a historic district. Mission Canyon and parts of the foothills are County land. Interior finish carpentry generally needs no design review, and we tell you which applies before anything is ordered.

Building in Santa Barbara: who reviews a house, and in what order