Jody Minns's Stories: Ty Pennington’s Top Secrets To Make a Small Space Feel Huge and ‘Full of Life’

Ty Pennington knows that nearly all homeowners wish they had more square footage—but in the latest “Ty Breaker,” he shows that even a small house can feel spacious if you design it right.

In the episode “A Boxed-In Box of Boxes,” Pennington meets Janki and Sean, a couple with two kids who live in a small cottage in Atlanta. This house is tiny and the layout is cramped and closed off, but the couple want to stay and try to make their place work.

With a $130,000 budget and the help of “Windy City Rehab” star Alison Victoria, Pennington needs to find clever solutions to this little house’s big problems. Here are their clever space-saving solutions, which might inspire some upgrades around your own abode so you can stretch your legs.

Stain can help make different floors look the same

Pennington and Victoria know they’ll need to take down some walls in order to give this home the sense of openness that Janki and Sean want. However, with the walls removed, they realize that they have a different problem: the floors.

The flooring in these different rooms wasn’t uniform, so while Pennington and Victoria can keep the maple floor in some parts of the house, they need to add some engineered hardwood in others. This means Pennington will need to find a stain that makes the old and new floors look the same.

He finds that the only stain that will do that is a whitewashed gray. Luckily, Victoria likes the look a lot.

“I love all the gray tones, and I think they tie in,” Victoria says.

The gray floors look light, modern, and, best of all, uniform. Plus, the pale tones make the small house look larger.

Two-tone cabinets are great, but the hardware should match

Pennington knows, right away, that the kitchen will need to be opened up. But that’s not the only change that needs to be done in this space. They’ll need to replace the appliances, counters, and cabinets.

“Would you be open to doing, like, two-tone, where those are the base and then we do the uppers and keep it light on top?” Victoria asks when it comes time to choose cabinets.

Pennington loves the idea of using white and gray cabinets, but initially he says that if they’re going to use two different-colored cabinets, they’ll need two different styles of hardware as well.

But in the end, Pennington and Victoria decide that different-colored cabinets were enough mix-and-match for this kitchen, and they go with pole handles throughout.

Use bold artwork to add some color

When it comes to the bedroom, Pennington wants to do something wild: add stripes.

“I’m thinking, just on one side, we do, like, these thick stripes and thin stripes,” Pennington says. “These different-colored stripes will make it feel like you’re really in a room that’s full of life.”

But Victoria hates the idea, saying that a striped feature wall will be too much. So instead they go with clean, white walls all around, plus a blue area rug with yellow accents.

Still, Pennington wants to bring in some stripes, so he paints some colors on a canvas to hang in this room. When the painting, and the room, is finished, Victoria is impressed with the extra color. While these stripes would be too much all over the wall, a smaller dose of these colors is perfect for this space.

“It brings the eye up, it brings the colors in that you love, and it’s a win-win,” Victoria says.

Patterned tile doesn’t need to be loud

This bathroom tile has a lot of pattern, but it’s still subtle.
HGTV

In the bathroom, Pennington and Victoria want to get away from the typical white subway tile look—but they don’t want to go too bold, either. They end up choosing a shower tile that’s filled with patterns but is still mostly white, making it seem like a typical tile—until you get up close.

“What I love about this is that it’s subtle but it brings in, like, all these fun shapes, and it gives it that sort of faded worldly vibe,” Victoria says.

A sliding mirror may help you keep a window

bathroom mirror — This mirror, with a black frame, looks simple and chic.
HGTV

While windows are usually seen as an asset, the window in the master bathroom creates some issues for Pennington and Victoria. The window is right above the vanity, so these two renovators will need to either get rid of the window or sacrifice a vanity mirror.

“My snap judgment mind would go: Get rid of the window,” Victoria says.

However, Pennington gets a brilliant idea. He suggests installing a sliding mirror, which could go back and forth like a barn door. This way, Janki and Sean could use both the mirror and the window whenever they needed them.

“Leaving the window, you get natural light,” Pennington says. “You also get fresh air.”

This secret window is a big hit with Janki and Sean. They love the ability to keep the function of the window while still getting a big vanity mirror.