By Steph Sandhoff
Welcome back for Week 2 of The Block. I think we can all agree that we’d like to ditch the drama and bring back the building. Personally, I’d like to go back to the days where the contestants still worked their day jobs and renovated ‘their block’ at night and weekends. If I remember correctly, those days provided us with a ton of horrendous wallpaper and apparently nothing has changed, if this week is anything to go by.
Before we move on, I do need to flag with you all how ridiculous it is to fully renovate rooms without a complete and functioning roof. Personally, it seems like a really stupid approach to building multi-million dollar homes. If the producers only ever listen to one piece of advice from this blog, I hope they decide to finish the rooves before the contestants arrive. Not only is it a waste of time when their work gets ruined but it’s also a waste of building materials, which is far from being environmentally friendly. We all know there is going to be bad weather, but pretending to be surprised every year is almost as stupid as pretending they didn’t know about the treated pine posts in the subfloors of Houses 2 and 3.
Before we get to houses 2 and 3, I’ll take a break from criticizing the show and move on to critiquing House 1 and their detached studio space.
HOUSE 1 // Kyle and Leslie
Photo Attribution: Nine
House 1 had the biggest space this week with a detached double room, which will eventually open up to their pool area. My automatic response to a detached studio-style space beside a pool would be to create a ‘pool house’. When I say pool house, I don’t mean a cabana or a ‘Tiki’ themed bar. I mean those expensive mini houses you see on American TV shows. You know the ones where the rich family offers the room to a kid from the wrong side of the tracks, or the Dad decides to rent it out on the down low to make some money and pay off his secret gambling debt?
Photo Attribution: Nine
Anyway, think about what those pool houses provide in terms of utility. They have a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and depending on the size of the space, a lounge room or seating area. It seems like Kyle and Leslie got part of the brief correct.
Photo Attribution: Nine
Once you’re through the door, a set of steps leads you to a bedroom. The bedroom itself is beautifully designed and styled, referencing the arch doorway in their bathroom. However, the arch on either side of the bed is dated and slightly tacky in a residential setting. These would have looked much better in a commercial space, where they could have been made wider and spaced better. The amount of curves in this space detracts from the overall effect and I would have preferred a square bulkhead behind the bed., as it would have lent itself to any changes the future owners would like to make.
Photo Attribution: Nine
The couple’s second studio area was turned into a large and spacious pilates studio. Although I love the space they have created visually, conceptually this seems like a really odd choice when you’re trying to appeal to a broad market. A kitchen and living area would have provided the couple with options. It could have been an entertaining area, a kids space, a guesthouse or a fully self-contained apartment to be rented out; a move that ultimately saw 2019 contestants, Tess and Luke take out the final auction. If you’re talking about the value in a home, you really need to consider the opportunities you can afford your buyer.
HOUSE 2 // Leah and Ash
Photo Attribution: Nine
Moving on to House 2 and Leah and Ash, or as I like to call them, ‘sour grapes’ and they have had another shocker. All their talk of ‘half baked styling’ has officially put me off the best flavour of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and for that, I may never forgive them. What I will do, however, is explain to Leah that ‘half baked styling’ referred to the fact that their last room had no towels, an unbranded soap dispenser and a fake red plant. Their room this week wasn’t half-baked but overcooked and burnt. Literally. The room is fifty shades of brown, five side tables and zero idea what the judges want from them.
Photo Attribution: Nine
Maybe I’m being a little harsh; the room is not irredeemable but there is a lot of room for improvement. Looking at the first two rooms completed by Leah and Ash, it seems as if they favour quite a dark and dramatic colour palette. While dark and moody spaces can be stunning and dynamic, they are definitely harder to create. As I’m sure most of you will agree, it’s not hard to imagine a light, bright and white room - the market caters to it. It takes more practice and time to use darker tones and textures successfully. You can see this in the clashing of the walnut wardrobe and light coloured floor. I personally would need more time to research and create a dark space, and I do this for a living.
Photo Attribution: Nine
Where I think they went wrong this week was a combination of form and function. This is not ideal when most people can achieve at least one of these. While House 2’s studio is only a third of the size of House 1, they had plenty of room to create a self-contained studio with all the necessary amenities. I think the confusion came where they failed to mesh the bedroom and living room ideas. Multi use spaces are hard to get right and need to provide everything the two spaces need. In this case, we have half a bedroom, and half a living room. The kitchenette itself is great, providing a sink, fridge and microwave but the studio as a whole isn’t a guest room and isn’t an entertaining space. It’s confusing from a buyer perspective and boring from a design one.
Photo Attribution: Nine
HOUSE 3 // Kristy and Brett
Up next are Kristy and Brett in House 3 and after hours of arguing over whether to spray paint or use a roller, they apparently couldn’t come to a decision and compromised on wallpaper. I’m officially done with Graphico wallpaper. I promise I have no issue with Graphico, or wallpaper in general, but we see it in multiple rooms every week and it’s becoming an excuse not to paint.
Photo Attribution: Nine
On a separate note, House 3’s studio space is one of only two that are connected to the main part of the house and the only one on a second story. The bones of this room were my favourite this week and pair that with a great use of colour, tone and texture, I think these guys deserved to place third not fourth. However, I really struggle with the layout. I didn’t mind their movement of the skylights, though it did make the stair area very visually busy. Add in the black and timber staircase and there are too many vertical lines. I never thought I’d hear myself saying this but I would have much preferred a nib wall (crazy I know) where the open rail is. A horizontal line would have let the skylights feature and provided a sense of width in the room while also referencing the plastered ceiling beams.
Photo Attribution: Nine
My next issue is the layout of the bed and kitchen area. I acknowledge, they have significantly less room to work with and hence less options. However I agree with Shaynna and say a bed really should not face a sink. I would also argue that a microwave would be more important than a sink given the fact they have a connected bathroom complete with sink. Maybe they weren’t keen on reminding the judges just how disconnected their rooms are. Moroccan spa meets New York loft; surely I’m not the only one that’s confused. The other aspect that lets the kitchenette down is the triple drop of height. We start with a wardrobe and bulkhead, move down to open shelving and down again to a desk. It looks seriously unbalanced. The bulkhead should have at least been extended over the open shelving, if not over the desk as well.
Photo Attribution: Nine
My advice for these guys is to buy a rug, research loft spaces and find a way to add a sense of entertainment. This is virtually a hotel room with a number of missing features you look for when you go away.
HOUSE 4 // Steph and Gian
Photo Attribution: Nine
From last place to first in just one week, Steph and Gian have managed a massive turnaround in House 4. Another connected studio space, this one is even smaller than House 3’s second story loft. They have, however, created what would have to be a perfect layout for this style of room. I would have loved to see this layout replicated in House 3. It incorporates a good-sized bedroom, a bed with a view and a hidden kitchenette/storage area. If it was Steph’s way or the highway this week then they should definitely stay right where they are.
Photo Attribution: Nine
This couple is starting to win me over, not just because how calmly they deal with problems, but also how they deal with some of the other contestants. I think Steph was out of her depth the first week and perhaps a little naïve. Add in the pressure of being an architect, but take away her normal design processes and we didn’t really get a good idea of just what this couple can do.
Listening to Keith and Dan about including a real fireplace this week was highly successful and I love the offset fireplace. If you think back it actually references the niche in their shower from week 1. How sexy is consistency! The plastered ceiling beams are also a great compromise, referencing the exterior style of the house whilst remaining modern and fresh.
Photo Attribution: Nine
I do agree with Shaynna – wow that’s twice in one blog, that the display shelves on either side of the dividing wall aren’t necessary. Although I do like the look of them, I think the additional storage that was lost would have been more important in this room. The addition of a bar fridge and coffee maker was great but the removal of the inbuilt shelves would have provided more hanging space. The only issue I really noted was the width of the dividing wall. It either needed to be slightly bigger to encompass the bedside tables or the bed itself needed to be smaller.
Photo Attribution: Nine
HOUSE 5 // Eliza and Liberty
Photo Attribution: Nine
Last and probably least this week, we have the overwhelmed and potentially unaware sisters in House 5. I don’t if you know but these two really don’t like to paint… so much so that they think anyone who does like painting or does it for living has to be a serial killer. An interesting opinion to make public on a nationally televised renovation show, where they are hoping to make money renovating a house. An undertaking that will mean they too are painting for a living; or painting for no money at all, if their latest room is anything to go by – they definitely aren’t winning the auction. Not if they keep turning up to buy tiles and furniture without knowing the dimensions of the room.
Photo Attribution: Nine
I’m honestly not sure where to start with this studio space. It feels like they brainstormed ideas and decided to go with every single one. Like the last couple of Houses, the room isn’t huge but it is detached and this should have given them a clearer idea of what needed to be included. It needed a kitchenette, a bed/sofa bed and an entertainment area. Instead they went with wallpaper from 2002 showcasing the wrong area of Melbourne, some of the ugliest and worst designed cabinetry I’ve ever seen and a set of Freedom furniture arranged exactly how they saw it on the showroom floor.
Photo Attribution: Nine
Located beside their pool I would have loved to see a kitchen bench run the whole way along, under the window, with open shelving in place of the above bench cabinets. This would have looked much better than the awkwardly placed cabinetry butting against the window and would have allowed the high and directional ceiling line to become a feature. I would then have gone for a slim island bench with stools, which could be used for dinning, study or an entertainment area for the pool. A sofa bed and TV down the other end of the room would have completed the room perfectly. This space is desperately calling out for some zones. They knew they had nowhere to place the TV and that in itself tells me the design of the room was never done properly in the first place.
Photo Attribution: Nine
If you guys are new to the OAK + RIDGE Block Blog then welcome and if you are back from last year or last week then thanks once again for hanging around and/or subscribing. If you’re all for working smarter not harder and would like each week’s blog sent straight to your inbox, don’t forget to subscribe, it’s free! I’d also love to hear your comments and feedback below.
See you next week for some ‘WFH’ spaces.