Madalynn Dudley
The 2021 Block teams revealed their redo rooms and their additional spaces this week. There were rooms I need to stay in immediately, spaces I want no child to enter, and redo bathrooms with timber stink screens that made no sense at all.
Grab your wine goblet as we dive into a mammoth week of room critiques. Actually, when the stars reveal themselves on The Masked Singer I’m left Googling “who the hell is Vinnie Jones?” and “Who let George Calombaris back on TV?”. Very happy they made this robe larger, but the green Colorbond roof panels I’m still not on-board with. All in all, a very smart move that corrected functional issues from previous weeks; can’t be mad about that!
It’s neutral without being boring, and it’s giving me what their bathroom last week didn’t; a little unexpected design to admire. After the shock revelation that the eventual buyers of these homes get all of the furniture and decor (I’m only 11 seasons behind with that news), I feel like they shouldn’t have to go out and buy a mirror. Also, the bed and wallpaper is such a moment, and the ceiling is so high and impressive, I feel the wardrobe doors in a shaker style with brass handles is too much. Like a couple on Married at First Sight, theses ones are too desperate for attention. Kirsty and Jesse scored second place this week, with their redo room tweaked in colour. Gone was the shocking baby blue around the lower half of the room, swapped out for a more subtle blue/grey tone.
The room feels a lot warmer and more welcoming with some soothing grey tones and warm timbers. This reflects the sort of modern Hamptons style I write about on this blog all the time.
As it stands, there’s just a big gap there with nothing to fill it apart from the weird milking stool they made during the week.
Honestly, the jokes I could come up with regarding a milking stool in the bedroom are endless, but I’ll keep it PG. This is one of the best-looking rooms Kirsty and Jesse have delivered, and there’s a few reasons why. All of the juvenile styling can be removed in an instant and the space will still look appropriate for a teen or guest.
Secondly, I fully appreciate that they didn’t install 45 skylights in the ceiling like other teams did. Sure, it would work as a short-stay guest bedroom, or a room for a small child. I’m beginning to wonder, from a planning and layout perspective, if it would have been smarter to have just the sliding door, or just the window with plantation shutters on it.
The bench seat is beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but it’s quite long for one person to use in a room where other things are needed.
Mitch and Mark’s Redo Room Guest Bedroom Mitch and Mark came third this week, with a room redo I thought was rather successful.
Truth be told, the room to begin with wasn’t particularly bad and I thought the judges were a bit hard on them week one. I do remember saying in my assessment of this space, “An upholstered bed would have been more successful than timber, in a soft grey and with some subtle piping”.
The bedside tables also work in making the space feel fresher, and the smaller bed was a wise move.
They were also being very kind with the challenge piece Mitch and Mark included in this room. I feel the same way about it as I do that new Making It show on Channel 10; lets leave the bad crafting to Tonia Todman. I’m not even a parent and I feel compelled to tidy this up before potential buyers walk through.
We’ve seen some great examples of rooms for little ones over the years on The Block, but sadly this isn’t one of them. Mitch and Mark said that this room could easily be converted to an adult space if need be. To then bring in bedding and kids furniture that’s not exactly the same tone as the doors, but not far enough away from them, is unfortunate and throws off the room.
I’m so glad my girl Shaynna Blaze raised the issue about the skylights.
I think the country let out a collective sigh of relief this week when fourth-placers Tanya and Vito removed the brown tiles from their shower. And to be honest (I know I’m still in the minority here), I don’t think the white tiles are a better option.
I’m obsessed with the wallpaper, I really like the built-in bunk beds, I think the ladder is sublime and I appreciate the lighting. I actually wouldn’t change much here though, outside of removing the vintage play set that frees the souls of angry spirits to wreak havoc on your bedroom.
Tanya and Vito are rather fixed on not having carpet in rooms and you can see how unwelcoming it makes a space like this feel.
As it stands it is an amazing space, but it reads a touch like a kids play centre, not a warm and inviting cocoon.
They did nothing in this bathroom apart from put up a timber screen so that you could only smell and hear someone going to the toilet, not see them. What’s stupid though, is that their guest bedroom and home cinema totally needed tweaking, so I don’t understand why they didn’t choose one of those rooms to improve.
Consider them burgers from the Hungry Jack’s Grill Master range. Shaynna delivered a third-degree burn by saying that, with this space, the boys actually created their redo room.
I’ve not seen a duo make so many nice furniture and decor items look so bad. But by melding them together like this, they’ve created the design version of Amazon Prime’s Nine Perfect Strangers (honestly, how could a show with so many good actors stink so much? The colour palette either needs darkening all over, with moodier blues, or lightening altogether by removing the dark timbers. What did you think about The Block 2021 redo rooms and new bedroom reveals?
