Ranch Hands
Clever minds turned a custom build into an inspired hacienda
“This archway [originally a simple six-foot rectangular doorway opening separating the kitchen and dining room] was the most impactful architectural element that helped transform the home from California ranch to hacienda,” Donahoe says.
Written by Jennifer Blaise Kramer
Photographs by Sara Prince
Sometimes a renovation is a true transformation. That was the case for Rancho de Familia, a hacienda-style home in Toro Canyon. The residence looks like it dates to the turn of the 20th century, but it’s actually a custom build from 2002 whose modern lines were painstakingly reimagined—with a whole lot of love—by two women named Rita.
In the living room, the team transformed a stone fireplace into a rustic one with custom plaster; a Carolina K ottoman and a found flamenco dancer painting provide pops of color.
Designer Rita Donahoe, the owner of Rita Chan Interiors, had previously worked with Rita Villa Danchuk on her home in Faria Beach. The two share a coastal aesthetic: Donahoe is known for her breezy, clean, sustainable interiors, and Danchuk for her Bonita Beach and Hacienda boutiques in Summerland. In collaborating again, they sought similar success with a different look: colorful, collected, and deeply personal, nodding to Danchuk’s Mexican heritage.
“The first move was to change all the room transitions from linear openings to arches.”
“We had such great chemistry and rolled right into the next project just as we were finishing the beach house,” Donahoe says. “They are the second owners of this home, which was custom built and very nice. But, as they joke, their plan was to ‘dirty it up,’ which inevitably resulted in a total overhaul of almost every surface in the house and the best ‘dirtying up’ I ever could have imagined.”
Rita and Rick Danchuk, retired with four kids and six grandchildren, had hoped to create Rancho de Familia as a primary residence that reflected their Santa Barbara lifestyle. “We wanted to make the home inviting, comfortable, expressive, and filled with stories,” Donahoe says. Designed for hosting and entertaining, “it’s meant to be filled with family and friends.”
The first move was to change all the room transitions from linear openings to arches, a hacienda hallmark. Glazed bricks enhance the look, adding texture and character, and plaster provides depth on the walls and fireplace.
“The transformation of the transition from the dining room to the kitchen was perhaps the most impactful design decision we made, as it set our path for the home from a modern ranch-style house to a historic-feeling Spanish hacienda,” Donahoe says. “We redid all the other arches in the home from segmental to traditional round, which is more reflective of Spanish style, and added some arched niches, turning a basic squared-off closet in the playroom into an arched nook for the grandkids.”
In the kitchen, white-oak cabinetry by Two Trees Cabinetry was stained in a darker, richer finish for a traditional old-world feel. The cabinets wrap around both sides of the kitchen and dining room, accommodating a coffee bar, a cookbook niche, and a tequila bar. In the dining room, a reeded ceiling created by artisans in Mexico is accented by reclaimed barn beams.
“Designed for hosting and entertaining, the house is meant to be filled with family and friends.”
Donahoe, who also runs the Good Ancestor interior design firm with her husband, Brogan, is always thinking about sustainability. The team, including builder David Chase, incorporated reclaimed barn wood throughout the house, from the kitchen-island cabinetry to the laundry-room countertop and custom Murphy bed. Logs from the original kitchen were sanded down and reused in the dining room. Salvaged scaffolding boards that were used while plastering the ceilings and walls had so much character that the team repurposed them for the playroom daybed, which stores all the grandkids’ dress-up costumes.
Reclaimed bricks add warmth and pay homage to the homeowner’s father, a well-known landscaper and gardener in Santa Barbara. He loved to collect bricks from all his projects, and the Ritas used them in the family-room fireplace and on flooring. “We also used many pieces from our client’s history, such as her mother-in-law’s antique console table, her grandmother’s mirror, and her dad’s sombreros,” Donahoe says. Since the homeowner was a flamenco dancer, there are many bright pops of Fiesta memorabilia, in addition to artifacts from around the world.
“I suppose the only challenge was occasionally trying to find a middle ground between my more minimal, clean, and simple aesthetic and my client’s penchant for bolder colors and patterns and very expressive designs,” Donahoe says. “But ultimately this was the best part of the project, finding that middle ground together. We pushed each other out of our comfort zones and into a place that ended up truly magical.”
Nearly everything in this home is vintage and sourced locally; almost nothing is mass produced. In the dining room, a vintage Mexican chandelier from Casa Mexicana in Santa Barbara hangs over an heirloom table, a vintage bench is from Indian Pink, and vintage wooden and woven chairs are from Miss Daisy’s Consignment and Auction House.
“The intention was to make the home feel like it had always been this way, and I think what makes it truly special is how many beautiful stories are behind practically every piece and design decision,” Donahoe says, adding that the heirloom-rich interiors are soulfully authentic yet durable for generations to come.
