Love to suggest plants but feel the house style, material (ie.stucco, wood) and color is needed.

Sorry... yes, that would help.

House is Spanish style (tract home), Spanish tile roof, off-white stucco, dark brown wood trim, cobblestone driveway. Our soil is mostly clay with some gravel or stones here and there.

The sloped area where we plan to add natives gets full, all-day sun with reflective heat from the sidewalk.

I have some plants in mind including Ceanothus, Lantana, and Salvia.

Maybe a little bit of bougainvilla? It's so pretty with a Spanish style house (my favorite style). I don't think it's too thirsty.

Cleveland sage is my favourite native sage. Smells wonderful and the flowers are a hummingbird magnet.

Another fav of mine is Dendromecon harfordii. Its an explosion of sunny yellow blooms in spring and continues to bloom decently for much of the year for me. The foliage is more golden than other silver foliaged plants and it looks good for most of the year for me.

I love my cleveland sages also but they do look like sticks in late summer...you might not want that in front.
You could easily fill it with other salvias and yeah ceanothus would do good also.
You might look into the petite crepe myrtles if you could hide them from the street.
Lavatera is drought tolerant and fast grower and can be cut back easily. It'll grow 2 feet a year once established. Birds are always hiding in it and hummers like it also.

Since your house is white you may want to rethink having a white blooming crape myrtle. The blooms get lost against the house color.

I always think low growing natives need substantial evergreens near to show them off. Maybe the shorter junipers or cypress. Lantanas have enuf bulk to have a presence of their own. I have a red grass clump that seldom requires water ~ not sure if it is Japanese Blood Red. It is sold commonly in our nurseries.

Make sure of a particular salvia's growing habits. I bought a wonderful blue that has turned into a monster. Sorry I'm not up on species names for those plants. Salvai greggii has been the best behaved in my clay.

Ceanothus attract bees which is something to consider with children. I love bougainvillea with Spanish style homes. There are those that max out at 3'-5'.

This is a wonderful shrub not seen too often which was just planted. Coreopsis gold-yellow blooms could be a partner.

Carpinteria californica
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Thanks to everyone who has made suggestions, including some new ones we hadn't thought of.