It was a tough week on The Block with the teams having to serve up two kids’ bedrooms each. But we must say, the reward they were working for made it well worth their stress and time. The winner would receive $175,000 worth of appliances from E&S and $10,000 from MG. That’ll bring the value of their home up quite significantly, giving them a massive advantage this early on in the competition.
While some teams opted to bring their teenage bedroom dreams to life (looking at you, Emma and Ben), others styled for much younger, with Han and Can creating a nursery. But of course, one team completely missed the memo. The judges compared it to a… nursing home. That’s rough.
3 mistakes from The Block week 2
Mistake 1: Missing the brief
If you’re given a certain criteria, make sure you’re getting the elements right. Robby and Mat got it all wrong this week with one of their kids rooms that was “like walking into an upmarket nursing home,” according to Marty.
“This is the room Nan comes in when she looks after the kids. Oh boys, what have you done?” Shaynna adds.
The judges started roasting the room – “The mood is meh, the mood is yawn, the mood is ‘I need to have a little lie down for five years’,” Darren says.
“And I may not wake back up,” Marty quips.
Mistake 2: Measured once
A blunder that cost Emma and Ben this week was incorrectly measuring the wall they planned to wallpaper. Ben got the numbers mixed up, so they had a metre of space which needed to be covered. Their solution was wooden panelling on either side of the wallpaper. But this choice completely ruined the functionality of the room, and the judges weren’t fans.
“What it is, is an impediment to the beds being left of symmetrical. Because that’s what they should be to be able to use the wardrobe properly,” Darren said.
Marty tested his theory, opening the wardrobe and drawers. “I’m trapped. This is a disaster,” he agreed. Getting that single detail incorrect ruined how the room functioned and flowed.
What they should’ve done
Always follow the age-old phrase ‘measure twice, cut once’. Make sure your measurements are right before committing. Double or triple check it, always!
Mistake 3: Painting
A common mistake is not getting the paint job right. Cutting in is extremely important to the overall look of the space. Getting it wrong will make the room look cheap, incomplete and unprofessional. A few teams were called out on their dodgy paint jobs – Alicia and Sonny, and Robby and Mat.
What they should’ve done
Here’s a few tips for nailing your painting job.
Never skip the prep. Repairing imperfections and having a clean surface makes for better paint adhesion. Always use painter’s tape around skirting boards and architraves to give you better precision and neater trims. Roll in a W pattern in 1-metre sections. Then roll again with light vertical strokes for smoother coverage and fewer coats.
What the judges thought of the kids’ rooms
House 1: Emma and Ben
This week, Emma and Ben channelled their own childhoods to create a kids room that they would’ve loved.
They created a blue wallpapered teen room for a boy featuring a circular niche and bench seat surrounded by dark navy wallpaper. Shaynna was “instantly stuck by the depth of colour,” and she loved the “detail and energy” of the room. But Marty disagreed, saying the colour was too dark and not memorable. Darren was with Shaynna, agreeing that it’s “far better than okay… there’s lots of interest, lots of punch.”
Their second room was full of soft pinks, creativity and patterns any young girl would love and could grow into. Marty felt it was better than the first room., “I feel like I’m in a Daylesford home right now. It has something really special in this room, and very marketable.”
House 2: Han and Can
The girls finished their rooms this week, and it was a job well done. After winning the bedhead challenge with their soft pink cloud-shaped bedhead, they continued to impress the judges with how they styled it in front of a lit-up wall arch. Shaynna, however, had some criticisms. When looking at the furniture in the room individually, it looked nice. But when looking at it all together, “it’s too much,” she said.
Overall, they loved the colour palette of both rooms and the boldness of their decisions. “The ideas are something to be commended on,” Darren said.
House 3: Britt and Taz
Winners of this week, Britt and Taz went bigger and bolder for the kids rooms this week. And you know it’s a hit when Darren says “Yum. I love that a lot” when he enters them. They loved everything, from the arch walls, the orange styling and artwork choices. “They’ve really got class,” Shaynna says in relation to the wallpaper choices and how they have made a neutral colour palette more interesting to the eye. “I truly believe that this has been hit out of the ballpark,” Marty says.
House 4: Sonny and Alicia
After a tough week, Sonny and Alicia completed two kids rooms that were good, and in some ways… bad.
The judges immediately loved their choices of wallpaper, but the styling of the rest of the room let them down. A TV hanging on the wall with nothing else but a small, cheap-looking kids drawing table and chair that’s more scandi style rather than the country feel of the other side of the room. Shaynna likened it to “a really bad motel,” and she’s spot on there. While the second room is praised, they don’t think it works for a kids’ room. “I am in an adult’s room,” Shayna says.
House 5: Robby and Mat
The boys had one hope – to style the ‘grandpa’ patterned bedhead to make it fit into a kid’s room. Unfortunately, they didn’t succeed and they were wiped from their spot on the top of the board. “As we see time and time again, rooster one week, feather duster the next,” Marty says. Ouch.
These images were originally published on nine.com.au/TheBlock.
