Before & After: This $57K Ranch House Revamp Proves You Can Never Have Too Many Plants

RJ Guillermo and Francis Aquino outfit their 1951 L.A. home with a backyard oasis—and roughly 350 potted plants.

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Janelle Zara

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After spending more than a decade together and sharing 10 apartments, Los Angeles couple RJ Guillermo and Francis Aquino were ready to settle into a home and start a family. They adopted their son, Jordan, in July 2021, and as they made plans to adopt Jordan’s infant sister, all their household needed was a house.

In the San Fernando Valley, RJ Guillermo and Francis Aquino updated the exterior of their midcentury home with fresh wood cladding for $5,000.

The couple began their search in the fall of 2019, when the market was competitive to say the least: They attended more than 50 open houses before being outbid on their dream home, a 1,200-square-foot, 1954 ranch house on a 6,550-square-foot lot in the San Fernando Valley. Luckily enough, it landed on the market again a year later—and they pounced on the opportunity to purchase it, closing the deal in August 2021.

$11,000 Paint	$5,000 Wood Cladding	$10,000 Accordion Door
$6,000 Dining Pergola	$10,000 Office Space	$4,000 HVAC
$5,000 Landscaping	$5,000 Miscellaneous
Grand Total: $56,000

Before: Exterior

Before: The midcentury home’s exterior was painted bright blue with white accents.

Its farmhouse blue-and-white board-and-batten siding "wasn’t really us," RJ recalls—but with its three bedrooms and ample backyard, "It had the potential to be the perfect home to raise our family."

After: Exterior

The couple spent about $11,000 on exterior and interior paint.

Francis and RJ sought to create an open plan with plenty of indoor/outdoor connections. These are hallmarks of many midcentury homes—and houses in the Philippines, which was important to the Filipino couple. As an avid collector of tropical flora with 350 potted plants, Francis also wanted to open the interior to more natural light. "I knew my indoor plants wouldn’t survive the darkness of the house otherwise," he says.

Before: Kitchen

Before: A pony wall separated the kitchen from the living area.

The couple have industry experience—RJ is an architectural photographer and Francis is a workspace designer and manager—so they set a budget of $60,000 and took on the roles of contractor and designer themselves.

After: Kitchen

RJ and Francis took down the wall to connect the kitchen with the living area, improving the home’s circulation.

In the kitchen, they splurged on knocking down a pony wall and part of the exterior wall, but they saved by keeping the existing cabinetry and sourcing an accordion glass slider directly from Teza Doors. "They were able to give us the manufacturer’s price," Francis says, "which was 40% of what we would’ve paid at Home Depot."

Herman Miller Eames Hang-It-All

Design Within Reach

In the mid-1940s, Charles and Ray Eames began designing toys and furniture for children, including molded plywood animals, colorful building blocks and whimsical masks. “We have to take pleasure seriously,” said Charles Eames, and the Hang-It-All (1953) is an example of this mantra.

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Before: Living Area

Before: The living area lacked natural light for the couple’s extensive collection of plants.

After: Living Area

The couple installed a new glass accordion door that fills the living/dining area with light and improves access to the backyard.

Ikea BRÖNDEN Rug

A blend of several weaves creates this vibrant pattern with plenty of texture and character. Each rug is handwoven by skilled craftspeople and therefore a unique work of art in pure wool.

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Rj and Francis sourced the accordion slider from Teza Doors and installed it for a total cost of $10,000.

Before: Backyard

Before: The home’s large backyard had room to grow.

The enormous backyard now has a small playground and a Tipsy Tank pool for the kids, plus an ample pergola the couple designed themselves. "We affectionately call it a greenhouse because it’s full of Francis’s plants," RJ says.

After: Backyard

In the backyard, the couple added a pergola and outdoor dining space for $6,000.

They painted the blue-and-white exterior peppercorn black and dark gray, added wooden siding for warmth, and completed the project for a total of $57,000 in December 2021—just in time to host Christmas for RJ’s family.

The pergola provides plenty of space for outdoor dining and Francis’s collection of cacti and succulents.

The home’s living area now opens wide to the backyard—perfect for SoCal’s sunny climate and indoor/outdoor lifestyle.

Their newly light-filled interior is outfitted with furnishings by Filipino designers like Rhea Carlisle and Jun Tan, and traditional household items—like a walis tambo broom and the quintessential wooden spoon and fork sculpture—hang on the walls. "We’re bringing in a little bit of our heritage," Francis says.