Before & After: Retro Ranch Remodel

Matthew and Jennifer Hibbard’s house hunt started with a coffee-table book.

While flipping through Alan Hess’s The Ranch House a few years ago, the Scottsdale couple were inspired to explore the 1960s tracts of the city’s Village Grove neighborhood.

Driving around, they came upon a house for sale, nearly obscured by overgrown shrubbery.

“There was a huge dumpster in the driveway, and inside, junk everywhere—you could barely see the floor,” Matthew says. The house turned out to be already under contract, but when the deal fell through, the Hibbards stepped in.

Being on a tight budget, they did most of the rehab work themselves—redoing floors, fixtures, walls, and ceilings—and then decorated with a mix of new and secondhand pieces. Click ahead for a tour.

“We wanted a 1960s vibe, but with our own take on it,” says Matthew, who painted an entry wall lime green (Valspar Ultra Premium City Chartreuse) and installed indoor-outdoor pebble floors.

The Cado wall unit was a Craigslist score.

Updates to the floor and ceiling brought the living room up to date without sacrificing the retro style of the space.

Jennifer found the Danish-modern coffee table on eBay and the side table/planter at an antiques mall for $40.

New items include a Crate and Barrel sofa and a flock of Etsy pillows.

The kitchen was retro all right, but lacked much style.

Jennifer found the Silestone quartz countertop online, never seeing it in person. It arrived a perfect fit for the multiuse room—literally and stylistically.

Though she says she’s “very bargain-oriented,” the occasional splurge creeps in: for instance, these new bubble chairs for $995 each from Room Service in Los Angeles.

The see-through Twilight II gas fireplace from Heat & Glo helps keep the room bright.

Aiming to avoid that furniture-showroom effect, the Hibbards combined art from HomeGoods with West Elm side tables and a vintage bench from eBay.

“I don’t like the look of knowing exactly where everything is from,” Jennifer says. In place of a headboard, Matthew covered the wall with an eco-friendly obeche-zebrawood composite from Brookside Veneers.

Before the remodel, the outdoor space in back was virtually ignored.

See it after, next.

Matthew replaced the exterior wall behind the original kitchen sink with a series of large windows and sliding glass doors.

Shopping tips

Stay in the know: “I always sign up for mailing lists at my favorite stores, so I know when new items are available and on sale,” says Jennifer. She also searches for online coupon websites to find coupons for items she knows she wants to buy: “I’ve saved hundreds of dollars.” Her preferred sites include couponing.about.com, retailmenot.com, and fatwallet.com

Jennifer shops etsy.com for vintage glass vases and Cathrineholm enamel cookware. Her one-stop site for desk accessories, trays, and cushions for outdoor furniture is westelm.com; she likes cb2.com for mirrors and stools.