'Celebrity IOU': Jonathan and Drew Scott have the perfect tips to make your home LOOK bigger without BEING bigger
For the premiere episode of 'Celebrity IOU' Season 2, Zooey Deschanel was kicking it off with beau Jonathan Scott and his twin brother Andrew "Drew" Scott. The 'New Girl' actress was on the episode for a very special reason: to give her friend Sarah a home renovation to solve the space constraints that had cropped up after they downsized.
Sarah and her husband along with their three-year-old son Milo had moved to the home in order to be closer to the rest of their family. In the bargain, they had to downsize by a bedroom and it wasn't too long that they found out that they were pregnant. The couple welcomed their daughter and were making do with the 900 sq ft home they were living in. However, space was tight and a lot of aspects were not totally functional around there. Zooey had been there a number of times and she had seen Sarah struggle. The two had been close even before they began kindergarten. They described themselves as each other's "infinity best friends" but were more like sisters, both of them said in the episode.
Sarah had just gone back to college to be a therapist while tackling the new-mom life. Zooey had seen Sarah dedicating her life towards helping others and she said it would mean everything if she could do her bit and give her a renovation. Efficient use of space was going to be very helpful for Sarah and her family, to continue living comfortably in a 900 sq ft home, according to Zooey and this was her gift to her best friend, a thoughtful one at that. Does this situation sound similar? Do you have space constraints at home and want it to look bigger and need better flow without having to add extra square footage? Jonathan and Drew show you an option for you to do so.
Sarah's house had a closed-off kitchen, cutting it from the rest of the house. Zooey was heard saying in the episode that if she needed to talk to Sarah who was busy in the kitchen prepping food, she had to sneak up really close to her and it would be impossible for a third person to join them if they had to. This was mainly because there was exposed laundry in the kitchen, a big no-no according to Jonathan and Drew. Also, there was a back door that closed up space even more. Right next to it was a small dining room, also very tight and not quite ideal for someone like Sarah who loved to cook as well as entertain. Does this ring a bell? Here's a plan, straight from the Property Brothers is this is what you're dealing with and want to resolve it with a stylish reno.
Jonathan and Drew first decided to get rid of the walls that were blocking the kitchen from the rest of the house. The shiplap and the dining space was the next to go. They then planned to add white frame windows, to keep up with the mid-century modern style of renovation they were going for. This would also help to provide better insulation for the family. The next was flooring around the house. They decided to go with medium tone hardwood floors across the house that was going to make the open concept plan look much better
If you want to add brightness to your space as well as sophistication, you could opt for the same floors, as seen in this episode. If you share Sarah's interests in cooking and entertaining, you'd want your kitchen to be versatile. They moved the back door and the laundry to another functional space and instead created space where they could install customized cabinetry and a pantry for food storage. A large single-stone kitchen island with sleek waterfall edges and pendant lighting fixtures too were added to zhuzh up space and turn it into a stylish oasis for Sarah.
You can watch the rerun of this episode at 12 am on December 15, if you want to revisit the renovation and the plans and take extra notes. 'Celebrity IOU' airs Mondays at 9 pm ET on HGTV.