In an epic interior design battle, three up-and-coming two-person design teams were given the substantial home improvement challenge of renovating a rundown mountain home. They had a talented mentor to advise them, five rooms to update (and the exterior), a $100,000 budget, and just one week to work on each space.
The goal? To add the most value possible to the property.
It’s HGTV’s Battle on the Mountain and you won’t believe how one team took a dated, cramped space and transformed it into an airy, “mountain Scandi” retreat.
As a featured flooring supplier for HGTV’s Battle on the Mountain, Bestlaminate was thrilled to partner with Tony and Lynmari Navarro as they brought their vision for this cabin interior design to life.
Meet Team Myles of HGTV’s Battle on the Mountain Home Improvement Show
The husband-and-wife renovation team, Tony and Lynmari teamed up with Kim Myles, an Emmy-winning designer and HGTV host, to take a 1,278 square-foot home with a falling-down deck and reimagine it into something that reflects the tranquility and grandeur of its mountain surroundings.
The team was tasked with renovating the kitchen, the main suite, the living room, the guest suite, and a bonus room, as well as the home’s exterior.
Keep scrolling to see what they did in each space, and how you can draw inspiration for your own home or getaway.
Kitchen Renovation: DIY Home Improvement Ideas to Take a Room from Dim and Dated to Welcoming and Airy
One of the most impressive transformations done by Tony and Lynmari was in the kitchen.
The kitchen started out as a closed-off space with dated, knotty pinewood walls, dark burgundy paint, and floors that can only be described as dingy.
Tony and Lynmari made the wise decision to open up the space and extend the kitchen into the dining area. A beautiful island with a black and white stone top provides a place to eat or just sit and talk to whoever is working in the kitchen.
They swapped out the upper cabinets for open shelving and painted the walls a warm white, which makes the space feel airier. The chose a rich, dark wood for the lower cabinets and painted the trim around the windows in crisp black for a nice contrast.
Tony and Lynmari chose white oak, wide plank floors from Bestlaminate to tie everything in the kitchen together, making the room feel airy, light, and stylish.
Home Improvement Tips for Your Own Kitchen
Add an island: A kitchen island gives you more working space for food prep and also brings family and friends into the kitchen space without feeling like they’re in the way. With an island, conversations can start well before a meal is served.
Add some drama: A dramatic focal point like a stone backsplash or premium counter tops can give your kitchen a sense of style, a touch of uniqueness.
Open shelving: Turning your upper cabinets into open shelving makes things easier to reach and gives your kitchen an airier feel.
Light-Colored Flooring: Installing a lighter-colored floor can brighten up the space, make it seem bigger, and give it an inviting feeling.
Shop Light Colored Flooring Here
For their kitchen remodel, Tony and Lynmari chose Bestlaminate Cascadia Oak, which is a discontinued vinyl option. Recplicating this look is effortless with our wide range of light tone floors that are easy to maintain and install.
The Master Suite Renovation: The Best Home Improvement Ideas Play to a Room’s Strengths
The principal bedroom presented Tony and Lynmari with two big challenges. The room had low, slanted ceilings and no closet. The adjoining bath was also painfully tiny.
They knew a bigger bathroom with a full shower was key to making the room more livable. In the bedroom itself, they decided to play into the room’s natural shape to create welcoming feel.
Like in the kitchen, they drew on contrast to make the space feel bigger while also giving it a sense of style. They painted two of the pine walls and ceiling a warm white. One wall, they stained a rich dark brown with pale vertical accents. On the final wall, they applied a woodland-patterned peel-and-stick print to give the run some fun and character.
Rather than loose space to installing a closet, they opted for a hanging rack mounted from the ceiling.
And the same white oak, wide plank floors from Bestlaminate give the space a bright feel that’s perfect for a mountain retreat.
Home Renovation Tips for Your Own Master Suite
Contrast Walls: Adding some texture to a wall or two can give added interest to a room. You can add fluting to a dark wall, like Tony and Lynmari did. Or apply a peel-and-stick print. You can even just paint one or two walls a darker color to create some depth and contrast.
Creative Storage: Sometimes closest space is unavailable. When that’s the case, you can come up with creative solutions like underbed storage and hanging clothes racks to make the room functional without forcing it to feel cramped.
Use Your Assets: Tony and Lynmari positioned the bed so that the window — and the space outside — feels like a headboard.
Light-Colored Floors: To open up a small space and make it feel bigger, installing light-colored floors is one of the best things you can do.
Get the look: Shop Light Floors from Bestlaminate
Tony and Lynmari used Bestlaminate Cascadia Oak vinyl plank flooring in the master suite as well. The light color is perfect for giving an oddly shaped space a feeling of roominess.
Living Room Renovation: Budget Home Improvement Ideas to Brighten Up a Dingy Space
In the living room space, the old pine walls, the dingy carpet, and the dark fireplace conspired to create a cramped feeling.
Staying true to their “mountain Scandi” theme, Tony and Lynmari brightened up and completely transformed the space.
They followed the same theme as the kitchen, painting the walls a warm white, and using a black paint on the trim for contrast.
They did a white German schmear on the fireplace, giving it a fresh, new look and making it worthy of being the centerpiece of the room. They also repurposed several antiques to add functionality and contribute to their clean, but rustic vibe. For example, they converted an antique wine rack into a log holder for firewood.
And they carried the white oak, wide plank floors into the living room, tying the kitchen and living spaces together into one cohesive look.
Home Improvement Tips for Your Own Living Room
Treat Your Fireplace: If you’re lucky enough to have a brick or stone fireplace and mantel, explore different treatment options to give it an update. This can result in a dramatic change, giving your whole room a fresh, new look.
Embrace Contrast: Light walls and dark trim can draw the eye to windows, giving the space more definition and bringing a feeling of the outside, inside.
Repurpose Items: Shopping antique stores, thrift shops, and flea markets can lead to unexpected finds — especially when you’re willing to think of out-of-the-box ways to use those items.
Floors Tie the Whole Space Together: Flooring choices are especially important when you have an open floor plan, or you want to create a consistent feel or theme throughout the home. Consider how one flooring option might look from one room to the next. If you can find one that compliments each space, you’ll create a cohesive feel throughout your home.
Get the look: Light Floors at Bestlaminate
The Guest Room Renovation: These Mountain-Inspired Cabin Interior Design Ideas Are Fun for Any space
Guest rooms often get overlooked when it comes to renovating. They’re not where you spend most of your time, so they may not be where you put much of your budget. Tony and Lynmari wanted this mountain Scandi retreat to have something for everyone, and they demonstrate how careful choices and small details can turn your guest space into something your guests will love.
The guest room started off as a simple, boxy space with light-colored, nondescript walls, and the same dingy carpet found throughout the rest of the house.
The space underwent a complete transformation with a relaxing, earth-toned color palette and built-in bunk beds and shelves, along with a climbing wall and rope swing to make it an ideal kid’s space.
Wall-mounted reading lights in each bunk add to the room’s functionality and a subtle mountain graphic painted on one wall ties into the “mountain Scandi” theme of the house.
In this room, keeping with the earth tones, Tony and Lynmari chose a wood floor with a lot of variance in the grain and color tones, bringing a feeling of the outdoors into the room.
Home Renovation Tips for Your Own Guest Room
Cater to Your Most Frequent Guests: Tony and Lynmari made the decision to create a fun space where children could relax, play, and just hang out. Think about who will use your guest room most and tailor it to their needs.
Pick a Color Palette: Having a deliberate color palette to guide your choices — from paint to flooring to textiles to accents — will give your room an intentional feel and a beautiful look.
Small Details: Think about the small additions you can make to give the room a unique look, making it truly yours. Things like a simple mountain mural, in this case, can add whimsy to the room and make it something your guests remember for years to come.
Flooring Sets the Tone: Even in a small space with relatively low-cost furniture and accessories, put a little extra consideration into your floors. They can make even a simple room feel like a luxury space.
Shop similar styles:
- Bestlaminate Vinduri Ultra Red Spalted Hickory
- COREtec PRO Plus Belmont Hickory
- COREtec PRO Galaxy Maffei Cherry
An Updated Bonus Space: Budget Friendly Home Improvement Ideas Add Functionality to “Extra” Rooms
The final indoor challenge faced by Tony and Lynmari was to turn their rundown mountain cabin’s third room into a versatile, functional, beautiful bonus space.
Tony and Lynmari decided to turn this boxy room with teal walls and that same dingy carpet into a multi-functional guest room, office space, and entertainment area.
First things first… the carpeting and the teal walls had to go. As did the dated pine trim.
The walls got a fresh color and some texture with a fluting technique similar to that used in the main bedroom. Tony and Lynmari choose neutral wood flooring with furniture in navy blue and leather to give the whole room a down-to-earth, sophisticated feel that echoes notes from the rest of the house.
Home Improvement Tips for Your Own Bonus Space
Sophisticated accents: To make the bonus room feel like a grown-up space, look for furniture with sophisticated lines and colors and choose accents that are interesting, but that also fit within your theme.
Simple transitions: For a space to be multifunctional, it needs to be easy to transition from one purpose to another. A futon bed or fold out couch can make it easy to turn a theater space into a sleeping space. A projector and screen can offer movie viewing with a smaller footprint than a traditional entertainment center.
Flooring Makes the Room: A clean, well-maintained floor that looks new gives everyone who enters a great first impression of the room.
Shop similar styles:
Resources to Help with Your Next Home Improvement Project
Renovating any space can be quite an undertaking. It helps to have a little inspiration to see how your room could come together. You can see all the before-and-after pictures of Tony and Lynmari’s Battle on the Mountain experience right here.
Pay close attention to how much difference the floor makes in each space. And if you’re ready to pick out your own floors for your next project, remember Bestlaminate is here to help.
You can use our Room Viewer to see how your new floors will look in your space.
Our Area Calculator will help you plan out how much flooring you need for your project.
As a small family business, our commitment to customer service is unparalleled. Our team is ready to help you every step of the way, from answering questions about planning your project to installing your floors to taking care of your floors after you’re done.