Tour Team Ty’s ‘Battle on the Beach’ Season 5 Home

Rock the Block host and Season 3 winner Ty Pennington hit the beach for a fifth round of competition with a team he’d hand-picked for their track record and commitment. “Are you kidding me? This is a mother-daughter team in overalls from Nebraska. They’re ready to prove something to the world!” His dynamic duo: Michelle Mueller and Sydney Lorence. Michelle and her husband have renovated dozens of houses, and as a DIY content creator, Sydney is following in their footsteps. “My husband and I have renovated six houses,” Sydney said. “At the beginning, my mom helped us with a few of the first ones, and then we’ve kind of jumped out of her nest and been able to do it on our own.”

“I will confess I am a little … hardheaded,” Michele said. “But she is a younger version of me!”

“True,” Sydney conceded.

Ty was one of the only constants in a coastal clash that featured new faces, new twists and the biggest properties in competition history. Renovation Island’s Sarah Baeumler went from judging Battle on the Beach makeovers to coaching a team of her own, serving as a first-time mentor for married couple Steven and Angelina Jacobs of Waterbury, Connecticut. 100 Day Dream Home star (and Rock the Block and Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge winner) Mika Kleinschmidt also hit the beach as a rookie to mentor Baltimore renovators Anna and Josiah Julian. New judges Tristyn and Kamohai Kalama (Renovation Aloha) stepped in to evaluate the teams’ work each week.

The competition’s scenic new setting was Garden City, South Carolina, a jewel in the state’s Grand Strand of Atlantic coastal cities that welcome 20 million visitors to their shores each year. Each team had a budget of $100,000 and seven weeks to transform the biggest rental properties ever featured on the series. A weekly win could mean either $3,000 in instant prize money or a $6,000 boost to the $50,000 grand prize. Read on to see what Ty and his team built on the beach.

Team Ty confronted a timeworn, 2,411-square-foot house with one bedroom and bath on its first floor and four bedrooms and baths on its second floor. Its ceilings were “popcorn, popcorn and more popcorn.” Its palette was drab, and its contents were dilapidated, but Sydney was optimistic: “They say you can’t fix ugly, but you can fix ugly houses!” Ty suggested creating built-ins on the long wall facing the windows, but Sydney and Michelle decided to focus their efforts on rehabbing the fireplace — which would cost $500 just to seal safely for an electric insert — and adding character to the ceilings (once the popcorn was gone). They also decided to demolish a closet and remove a second refrigerator in the kitchen to create a properly spacious stop-and-drop area.

Texture, texture everywhere! After adding paneling that mimicked the look of shiplap to the walls and ceiling, Michelle and Sydney installed warm wooden beams overhead ($190) and warm brick tiles ($1,300) to add character to the now-functional fireplace. Their thrifted-and-cleaned couch cost just $200, and Sydney was able to style a gallery wall that looked downright deliberate, despite its decidedly last-minute creation.

The sofa and many, many seats surrounding it charmed the pants off the Kalamas, who “travel deep — like, I think just the amount of grandkids is close to 20 at this point, so we need a lot of space,” Tristyn said.

“This isn’t the largest space in the world, but they were able to fit so much seating in here and it doesn’t feel cluttered. I love the fireplace,” Kamohai added.

The quirky, vintage touches Sydney favored and the warm wood tones that spoke to her mom felt cohesive, but they did add up to a very particular vibe. “It does feel, I don’t want to say old, but it kind of feels a bit old? A mature coastal cottage,” Kamohai noted.

“Well, it’s got a little coastal grandma, grandpa going on,” Ty conceded. “But that is big here, you gotta understand — like, that is big here.” Nancy Meyers fans would rent this property in a heartbeat.

Team Ty focused most of their entryway budget on wallpapering the space at the top of the stairs ($5,760) and adding transom windows above each of the bedrooms’ doors to let natural light into the common space between them. They then mounted a pendant that matched the piece they chose for the living room and repainted the staircase walls a neutral putty color. Tristyn loved those choices, but she hoped for more: “It does feel a bit empty up here,” she said.

“I think that they could have maybe continued the wallpaper or maybe [added] a light fixture over the stairs [to] do something fun in the stairwell itself,” Kamohai agreed. “It’s darker, so it feels like it’s closing the space off.”

You could almost hear Ty’s heart breaking as Sydney resolved to streamline entryway storage instead of investing in a built-in for the new drop zone, but he honored his team’s wishes and installed a gallery wall of fish prints, per their instructions, instead. As it happened, the Kalamas loved those fish. “This I am obsessed with, obsessed with!” Tristyn exclaimed. “It is so good!” The team even got bonus points for featuring an image of Hawaii’s state species, the reef triggerfish. “I think it’s really fun. It ties to the fishing [rods on the ceiling]. It’s very coastal. We’re on the beach,” Tristyn continued.

Team Ty knew the kitchen needed a soup-to-nuts transformation, as visitors stepped smack into the island and appliances and had no space to stow beach gear. The window-framed nook had serious potential as a dining area, but the pair of tables lost in space between the kitchen and the back of the house weren’t cutting it. Sydney and Michelle planned to flip their footprint, demolish the pantry, ditch the second fridge and create a proper mudroom area for returning shoregoers.

With Ty’s encouragement, the team took the kitchen’s palette in a sophisticated, sea-spray green direction with a hand-glazed, soldier-stacked vertical subway-tile backsplash and pale cabinets ($10,560) that extended their home’s cottage character. “This is great!” Ty said. “I’m pretty stoked you guys went with this color. I think it’s going to work well.”

“I do too,” said Sydney (who had been wavering between green and beige). “I’m glad you pushed for a little more contrast.”

Sydney, in turn, pushed for a pantry between the mudroom and kitchen, arguing that interior windows would bathe the space in natural light and prevent it from feeling cramped and dark. She and her mom integrated those windows with dark sage trim that matched the molding and added to the kitchen’s mixed greens, then installed even more pale green cabinetry beneath a Borghini gold quartz countertop and backsplash that matched larger slabs in the kitchen ($8,270). Again, Sydney stepped cautiously out of her comfort zone: “Compared to the subtle veining vibes I’m usually drawn toward, it’s definitely bold — but I like it,” she conceded. “I think you guys are right, we need to go a little bolder.”

With apologies to the sad-sack, wire-shelved former pantry that became the gallery-wall bench area the Kalamas adored in the first week, this is a vacation-worthy kitchen addition. A wine fridge, a built-in microwave and countertop appliances give early risers and sunset-cocktail enthusiasts room to fix a little something without creating traffic in the kitchen’s main prep areas. A new window joins the glass-paned wall in making the annex feel cheerful rather than cramped.

The wraparound banquette and spectacular bespoke table Team Ty created to maximize functionality in the dining nook are both lovelier and more practical than the lost-in-space tables they replace. New, contrasting molding for the trio of windows turns the beachy scenes they frame to interactive landscape art. Paired with a pair of crisp black dining chairs, the table’s sculptural, turned-wood legs give the dining area a playfully eclectic feel. Who knew this underused zone could comfortably fit eight?

The judges had mixed feelings about the new storage spaces Team Ty created. They loved the new mudroom’s stow-it-and-forget-it functionality so much that the beverage station and pantry’s relative openness felt a bit like an overcorrection. “I almost feel like if you’re gonna commit to a separate space, you should just fully enclose it so you can hide the stuff,” Kamohai noted.

That said, they were wholeheartedly in love with the main kitchen and its new dining nook. “I think [moving] it was a bold move and for you guys it truly paid off,” Tristyn said.

“It flowed right to where the eye should be, which is this beautiful view,” Kamohai agreed. And with that, Ty, Sydney and Michelle notched their first win.

With a footprint that echoed the kitchen and dining spaces on the home’s lower floor, the main suite invited another move that would make the most of views from the nook. Ty suggested both a tented mini-chamber (which earned him a look from Michelle) and a freestanding tub, but his renovators felt their time and budget would be best spent creating another built-in window seat. Since the bathroom attached to the bedchamber wasn’t especially large, Michelle and Sydney imagined they could continue their elevated, coastal-cottage aesthetic through this part of the house for around $10,000.

Ty’s vintage-loving team was born ready for the week’s design challenge, which involved rehabbing and incorporating battered old pieces they found at the side of the road. Sydney and Michelle refreshed this magnificent wall mirror, which became their bedroom’s signature feature. A shiplap feature wall behind the bedstead layers the room’s color story, and a clever upholstered headboard treatment mimics a traditional quilt-hanging display. Wall-mounted task lights add a bit of metallic glamour, and a balanced arrangement of mounted art and nightstands infuses the room with history and symmetry.

It wasn’t the full-fledged tent Ty envisioned, but the vintage, glass-paned door Michelle and Sydney split to create a hint of separation between the sleeping area and the gauze-curtained reading nook ($480) paired beautifully with the mix of rich brown tones in the space. Walnut-toned floorboards complement wooden details on the pair of upholstered armchairs and the woven water hyacinth bins under the window seat. The dark wooden blinds offer just a bit of contrast on those dazzling white walls.

Fancy footwork couldn’t change this room’s fundamentals, so there was no point in agonizing over a new layout or blasting through walls. “We’ll make it feel as luxurious and beautiful as we can for the size that it is, and I think we can do that,” Sydney said. The double-headed shower, toilet and vanity would stay in their present locations, and an updated design and finishes would give the en suite much-needed polish.

Hello, little jewel box! Team Ty pulled the putty tone from the bedroom’s accent wall into the bath, then added a graphic pop in the shower by creating racing stripes with hang-glazed green-and-cream subway tiles ($420). Textural quartz with rounded edges tops off an opulent new vanity. A pair of framed Audubon shorebird prints extends the suite’s vintage character. A sconce with a trio of fluted amber glass heads crowns the rounded vanity mirror and completes the room.

Ty couldn’t help sharing his oceanview tub dream with the Kalamas, and Tristyn confirmed she could spend the rest of the competition soaking in it. Tub or no tub, Team Ty’s vintage door “frame” and upcycled, design-challenge mirror earned the judges’ respect. While the handsomely striped double shower wasn’t quite roomy enough for two, its visual appeal was perfect for a special-occasion stay. “As the person that would have to write the check to stay at that vacation rental, I would have felt great sleeping there at night looking out at the ocean,” Tristyn said. She and Kamohai declared the main-suite battle a tie, and Team Ty shared their prize with their neighbors.

The teams’ fourth week on the beach was a wild one: The Kalamas sent Michelle to work with Team Sarah for the week, then called Anna over from Team Mika to assist Sydney with her renovations. These temporary new duos were tasked with renovating a guest bedroom before rejoining their teammates.

New moms Anna and Sydney decided to focus their design on a baby-friendly room. “The goal of our house is family-friendly. I’m sure if you’ve ever traveled with your daughter, you know the struggle,” Sydney told her new teammate. She proposed creating a Murphy crib that would fold out of a dresser to accommodate the house’s littlest guests. Anna was in: “Ooh, that’s cool!”

Team Ty invested $550 in gray-blue and cream paint to create an immersive sleeping area for parents, and Anna lent her DIY expertise to a three-step process that yielded picture-perfect pinstripes. Symmetrical wooden nightstands and table lamps add cozy functionality to the nook, and the first of two bubble chandeliers provides a playful highlight for the now-blue ceiling. All of those choices charmed the judges: “It’s coastal, it’s fun, it’s unique,” Tristyn said.

Anna and Sydney carried their pinstripe motif all the way around the wall to a sweet lounger and reading nook by the door. The trio of framed vintage artworks extends the layered, coastal-cottage theme Sydney and her mom established downstairs. “[Sydney’s] house is really nice. I walked in, and everything was so cohesive,” Anna said.

The Kalamas agreed. “The design is sick,” Tristyn said. “The blue ceiling, I think it’s so fun! I really do! [And] the light fixtures are fun, they feel young.”

Sydney and Anna created bookshelves ($160) to frame out the funky closet hanging in space in the middle of the room, then concealed their one-of-a-kind foldout crib in the “dresser” along the wall ($430).

“[The Murphy crib] was super unique, super creative,” Tristyn said. “I think, on the flip side, that very thing might be what is taking away from the space — because you are limiting your bookability. Maybe the guest doesn’t have any kids or infants, right? But it was really cool.”

Team Ty was tasked with renovating two of their bathrooms in Week 5, a budget-draining proposition the judges balanced with a very cost-conscious design challenge. Each team was also responsible for renovating one of their upstairs bedrooms for just $2,500. That would mean inexpensive-yet-transformative touches like a new paint color and a footprint flip. Sydney favored centering the bed on a focal wall opposite the window. The whole team liked the idea of turning the area around the window into yet another reading nook, which would give their cottage-themed rental a sense of cohesion and continuity.

This shipshape new iteration of the bedroom has high-contrast nautical character, thanks to its fresh coat of navy paint and snow-white trim. Team Ty replaced the carpet with warm hardwood that softens the crisp colors. Then, they created seating with storage under the window and finished the room with a drum pendant that matches the pale bedding and window treatments. “We’re really going hard on these reading nooks!” Sydney said. “Vacation is a time when people finally get to slow down and read, so we think giving renters the space to do that will enhance their trip.”

One long, narrow Jack-and-Jill bathroom on the first floor wasn’t accommodating its adjoining bedroom and the home’s shared spaces. A smaller full bath and an itty-bitty powder room, on the other hand, would serve the property’s guests quite nicely — and when you’re already renovating two bathrooms in a week, what’s one more? “By splitting this bathroom in two, we can add major rental value for relatively little cost,” Sydney reasoned. Since the necessary plumbing was already where it needed to be, adding a new wall, sink and toilet would get the job done.

Sydney turned the newly created powder room into a proper pop of pattern by selecting and installing bold grass cloth paper ($500), a style choice that overwhelmed her delighted mentor. “I’ve gotta say, I’m very proud of Sydney,” Ty said. “She is gaining the confidence to make a statement of who she is as a designer!” Olive-green paint on the trim and interior of built-in shelving adds a hint of visual contrast, while the world’s teeniest console sink with a side-mounted faucet offers a space-saving spot to wash up.

Sydney made even more playful design choices in the full bath on the other side of the new wall, where tropical-fish wallpaper ($800) frames a showstopping, wall-mounted trough sink ($1,990) positioned for three pint-sized hand-washers to get ready for bed all at once. “With this trough sink we’re really catering to big families, but at the same time creating that moment when a potential renter is surprised by something they haven’t seen in other listings,” she explained. Team Ty invested $4,800 in hiring a team to install sea-green subway tile around the new tub and line a wall-spanning niche with a variegated inset that mimics the look of fish scales.

As the largest bathroom on the second floor, this space invited serious spending. Having one spacious and luxurious bathroom, Team Ty reasoned, could mean the difference between securing a booking and getting passed over for another rental property. Michelle and Sydney budgeted $8,640 to replace the vanity and swap a shower pan in for the tub, then surround them with opulent touches that would make them feel even more special.

Why yes, that is a marble mosaic on the feature wall of this dazzling new bathing area! Sydney chose to frame that installation with moody subway tile that builds out into a ledge, then outfitted the bath with a magnificent, marble-topped double vanity in a rich, traditional stain. Brushed brass shower and sink hardware amp up the opulence.

The Kalamas loved the look of the bedroom, but they weren’t as enamored with its new layout. “You’re looking straight into the neighbors’ house,” Tristyn noted. “Instead, the built-in should have been on the opposite wall, with the bed flipped — and then you could have seen the ocean!”

The second-story bathroom, in turn, “was gorgeous,” Tristyn told them. “It felt luxurious, [had a] walnut vanity, you had two sinks, it was really beautiful. And then you took one large bathroom and changed it into two!” The powder room felt too specific for her taste — but for a week’s worth of work, two out of three critically acclaimed bathrooms ain’t bad.

The very last interior space was one for all the eyeballs. The Kalamas tasked Sydney and Michelle with creating a memorable, multipurpose space that would charm would-be vacationers and clinch bookings. “This has to be wow on pow-pow,” Ty told them. Sydney favored a variation on a bunk room that converted the closet near the door to a play area and maxed out kid-friendly sleeping spaces at the other end of the room beneath the windows. Those windows wouldn’t accommodate bunks, exactly, but trundle beds could suit their purposes quite well. “I dig what you’re saying. I think we have to lower our maturity level in here if we’re going to really knock it out of the park,” Ty said.

“That’s perfect!” Sydney responded. “I already have a low maturity level!”

Team Ty set the stage for the ultimate seaside slumber party with a pair of custom-built trundles that pull out to fill the space between them. “You guys stress me out,” Mitch the carpenter told them, “but I love you.” Ripping up the carpet and replacing it with durable plank flooring ($800), then building out these trundle beds ($1,400) maximized functionality at this end of the room. Michelle and Sydney also designed a pair of dressers at the foot of the trundles to offset the loss of the closet to their scroll-stopping lifeguard tower. Which, speaking of…

What vacationer with kids could resist this full-fledged, two-story, fabulous-for-a-rainy-day playhouse? The pink seagull-spangled wallpaper ($500) extends into the closet to create the perfect background for afternoons indoors and those all-important, online-listing images. Team Ty spent a whopping $2,000 on the lumber for this room, but this rock-solid build will pay for itself in bookings in no time. “The tower is enormous, and it fits somehow in this room?” Ty marveled. “I’d been sort of against this thing along the way, but maybe [Sydney and Michelle] actually pulled off a miracle!”

When one of your judges is willing and able to climb up and pose inside your vacation rental’s lifeguard tower, you know you’ve pulled off a solid build (in all senses of the word). “This is a ‘Wow,’” Kamohai said. “Like, you stop somebody’s scroll.”

“This is a kid’s dream,” he continued. “It just hits you in the face right when you open the door [and] kind of makes the space feel really small and tight — but it’s because you have all of these beds that this space works.” In a battle that’s culminated in close competition after close competition, this week was a tidal wave in Team Ty’s favor, and they took the win with ease. “Every time [the judges’] feedback is we’re going hard on our themes,” Sydney said. “We’re going hard! We’re committed!”

“This was another committed risk. This one paid off,” her mom agreed.

With one last round of competition and $21,650 of their budget remaining, Sydney and Michelle turned to their home’s exterior. The vinyl siding had been redone in the last 5-10 years, Ty estimated, and they could spend the money elsewhere — but Sydney was all for painting it, and she and her mom agreed that it should be pink. “I’m not opposed to that. That will give some contrast to the railings,” Ty mused.

After turning their blank white house seashell pink ($10,300), Team Ty added texture and life with greenery as far as the eye can see. “I want lots of plants, everywhere, hanging off [ceilings] — something that just catches your eye compared to everybody else’s house!” Sydney said. Can you guess what they decided to name their property?

With a quirky sign, a whale knocker on a seafoam door and a green wicker chaise with power-clashing patterns beside a riot of blooms, Team Ty’s curbside entrance announces that this house is a character. There are other pink houses on the beach, but there’s no pink house on the beach quite like this one.

Abandoned to the elements with a few sad-sack accessories, the beach-level deck was a huge opportunity for investment. Team Ty created a two-sided outdoor shower, then built up a curtained pergola that turned the majority of the space into a breezy cabana with container plants and a fire pit. As in the front of the house, they layered bold patterns with wicker furnishings and texturized their space with tropical foliage.

Team Ty hauled a truly massive outdoor grill ($1,320) up to their first-floor porch to nestle beneath the windows of their dining nook just outside the slider. Partnered with an outdoor refrigerator Sydney then topped with a bespoke tiled counter, this space is perfectly situated for serving guests.

On the other side of end-to-end wooden picnic tables ($300), Team Ty mounted an outdoor television on a privacy screen ($250). As with the curtains for the pergola and the L-shaped wall around the outdoor shower, that detail is key; while exposure to the elements is the whole point of renting a beach house, exposure to other renters isn’t so optimal.

Speaking of private indulgences, Team Ty’s guests can come in from the Atlantic and warm up with a view of the waves from the hot tub tucked behind the pergola. A fire pit and sitting area beside the water feature offer another elemental experience, and a pair of stand-up paddleboards are ready and waiting for guests who want to skim above the ocean.

Team Ty’s aching backs got their due when Tristyn and Kamohai admired the “next-level” grill they’d installed on their first-floor porch. “You have a flat top?!” Kamohai marveled.

Tristyn also praised the privacy screen. “Because now you can spend time out here and not worry about shirtless people,” she joked, eyeing Ty’s outfit.

Sydney and Michelle faced stiff competition from the other two teams, both of whom loaded up on amenities just as they did — and a game-changing golf cart ended up securing the win for Mika’s crew. That said, Ty felt in his bones that the overall win was still well within their grasp.