Oldalgebra - Hi. I live here in LA also. I design and build custom furniture and cabinets and living out here I've done a lot of work in the Spanish style. I see you didn't get a lot of response to your post so I'll rant on a bit about Spanish style if you don't mind. I guess the first question I would have is how true to period they want to stay. That, and of course the budget, are the first determining factors. The space, the size and how much light the room gets also come into play. I agree with you about the tile counter tops. They are the worse to clean... not to mention to work on. One solid surface is the only way to go. However I do love vintage Spanish tiles. The real ones "cuerda seca". There are some good reproductions but nothing bets the patina of the real thing. Used as accents in the right places they can add an authenticity and really pop a design. Counter tops... soapstone like in the picture can be OK. It shouldn't be too busy though. Honed black granite or slate. Any natural stone on the plain side can work. The key is the finish. Nothing shiny. Limestone with a antiqued textured finish if you want something lighter. On the center island you can go with oiled wood. I did a copy of an antique French, end-grain butcher block with metal brackets on the corners that would work really well. I made top top slightly wavy to give an appearance of age. Cabinets... hardwood. Subtle distressing. Oil/wax finish. Rustic alder is used often. For a more sophisticated look Wm Ohs does something called "Spanish Revival". It's glazed with stepped detail, light distressing and rub-through. And believe it or not, green/blue painted pine(but it has to be done really well). Also white like the picture with the right elements works. Floors... of course terracotta pavers are traditional. Here again smaller accent tiles mixed in can really add to the look. I'd also through some heat strips under it to warm it up. Reclaimed wood or really well done distressed wide plank hardwood flooring works well. I've seen antique natural-edge limestone tile used and there some very good imported new antiqued ones but both of these are going to be at the higher end of the price scale. Maybe if there's not a lot of square footage. Other elements like rustic beam ceilings, coffered wood ceilings and the right wrought iron lighting fixtures really add to the look too. I could go on. I have a ton of pictures. You really have to narrow down the design first. One doesn't want to go off looking in the wrong direction. The taste of the people who are going to live there, what they imagine it to be, and how they respond to pictures of different looks is what I would go off of. John

Its a good idea getting rid of the two beams. Let me show you where our front door is as I can tell its hard to see from the photos! My original vision was something like this below but the contractor didnt really listen to our ideas he just replaced everything (termites/dryrot) and kept it the way it was (a whole other story) assuming thats what we wanted, so I'm not really liking it since a different vision was the whole reason we had it torn down. We did remove the step in front of the door and brought the whole porch up with more cement, then made it that much taller on the roof side to compensate.

There are concrete barrel tiles, but now there are metal and synthetic roofing designed to look like barrel tiles. A roof is a huge investment that you will live with for 20+ years. Choose wisely. Don't skimp on the underlayment. For barrel tile roofs the underlayment is what actually keeps your house dry. I have a concrete barrel tile roof and will change to a new product when the time is right.

Love your tile. I'd use the light neutral background color of the tile for the walls. How about the green for the mantle?