If you have been following Channel Nine‘s ratings slayer The Block I’m sure you’ve already laid your bets on which renovating team will reign supreme come the finale episode this Sunday night.
For those of you unfamiliar with the show’s premise, basically four teams of two are allocated a “fixer upper” property on a block of land (that’d be The Block of land) and are pitted against each other in a room-for-room contest of renovating and interior design. The fixed variables are timeline and budget, but otherwise it’s fair game. After renovations are complete, the properties go to auction and whichever property attracts the highest bid over the “reserve price” is the winner.
Of the four teams, newlyweds Sophie & Dale, brothers Mike & Andrew, and dating couples Brad & Lara and Dan & Dani, viewers would already have picked favourites (mine are the brothers because they’re very handsome), but when it comes down to the hammer which of the teams are most likely to take home the $100,000 prize? Let’s break it down team by team…
BRAD AND LARA
Boyfriend and girlfriend team mates Brad and Lara are cheerful unpretentious doers who love Bon Jovi and sport. Extremely likeable because their easygoing personalities are nicely offset by their enthusiasm for smashing the shit out of brick walls with enormous hammers, B&L have executed some incredibly impressive rooms under the tight budget restraints. Their main bathroom is like something about of InDesign Magazine or a sexy European hotel, and they’ve got a rooftop terrace spacious enough to accommodate the entire cast of Secret Life Of Us.
In their bio under ‘STYLE’ Brad and Lara put TBC… they’re still deciding, and this lack of a strong aesthetic vision is pretty clear from room to room. Their style veered between modern minimalism and country-style charm which makes for a jarring combination, and their guest bedroom seemed absent in style of any kind. But aesthetic continuity aside, this team should fare well at auction. Theirs is the biggest property of the four and they’ve used the interior space to its full potential. (LOL. I don’t really know what the fuck I’m talking about.)
PROS
Sleek living/dining room:
The sexual bathroom:
CONS
Dreadful bedroom without a soul:
Aesthetic confusion:
SOPHIE & DALE
Laidback chillers, Sophie and Dale, are the team I like to think of as ‘so Melbourne’ because of Dale’s singlets-hats-and-tatts personal style and Sophie’s offbeat crafty approach to interior design that regularly elicits descriptors such as “funky” from the judges. Lol – not to paint you with a broad brush or anything, Melbourne! The couple come from creative/design-oriented fiends – Dale is a landscape gardener and Sophie has a background in graphic design, and they have without a doubt had the strongest and most cohesive aesthetic of any of the properties.
They describe their style as Recycled vintage and one of their strengths have been in the details. Charming creative touches like stacked suitcases in lieu of drawers, art-like contemporary light fittings and textured splashback in their gorgeous kitchen have made Dale and Sophie stand out. The study overlooking the city is pretty wonderful too. However, having that very specific vision of theirs has backfired on occasion. When they’ve run out of time on a room and haven’t had a time to perfect those special details it’s very obvious like in their fairly lame living room, which is also the victim of a horribly awkward layout. And their type of design definitely isn’t for everyone. I audibly groaned a few times from the excessive cuteness of it all – particularly their refusal to make ANY CHAIRS THE SAME FUCKING COLOUR.
That’s purely my personal taste though, and there are plenty of buyers out there who would love Sophie and Dale’s special vibe. Come auction day I’m predicting there will be bit of a bidding war over this property that could result in a win for the newlyweds.
PROS
Fabulous kitchen with splashback of dreams:
Charming special touches:
CONS
An “unfinished” looking living room with awkward layout:
The chair situation:
DANI & DAN
Just in terms of pure viewing pleasure, couple of three years Dan and Dani (whose bio begins: Not every couple can say they met in the back of a stretch Hummer…) have possibly been my favourite team because of their incessant bickering. Watching them yell “fuckwit” at each other through dust masks makes you adore them and despise them simultaneously. In fairness to the pair, my boyfriend would be calling me a “fuckwit” and then some if we found ourselves in a situation requiring the removal of asbestos or operating a power drill because I’d be a complete liability.
They describe their style as Eclectic contemporary, which is a pretty accurate description of their nothing-out-of-the-ordinary schtick. Dan’s a chippy by trade and you can see the influence of his experience with building in the way the pair have manipulated the property’s space to great effect. (P.S. WHAT?! I sound like a brochure. Sorry.) Their open plan kitchen/living/dining space is fantastic, beautifully furnished and accessorised. It opens out to a timber deck with a four burner barbecue. Based on that room alone I kind of wish I lived there. For some reason that nice design aesthetic did not translate to the bedrooms which, while terrifically spacious, are foiled by disastrous decor. What’s with the padded fabric bedheads and extreme carpeting on repeat? I don’t get it. It’s possible that those mistakes will cost them at auction time because no one wants wall to wall brown carpet do they?
PROS
The fantastic open plan living space. Kitchen view:
Living room view:
CONS
That bedhead. That carpet.
Again:
MIKE & ANDREW
Wry cooperative brothers Mike and Andrew are the guys who like everything just so, to the extent that they invariably end up rushing to get rooms finished (sometimes they didn’t finish) or kind of giving up and gently giggling together. Bless. I found them to be the team that was the most hit and miss. Their ‘good’ was really good, and their bad was bad. Mike and Andrew are a project manager and laborer respectively and, like Sophie and Dale, have quite a distinctive streamlined design style of their own. They describe it as Rustic warmth with a contemporary touch but I’d definitely add in a word like “bold”, “adult” or “porn” into the mix as well, because it’s got that retro-shag-meets-contemporary-futuristic-tropics feel to it. If you what I’m saying.
Their colour palette was a combo of brown and white, which worked fabulously in their gorgeous kitchen featuring a chic timber roof and big white bench. They made the boldest, most daring statements, like a black floor in the study which I thought looked kind of amazing. For the living room their choices were less successful, which looked like a rich person’s library in a ‘slick’ 1980s thriller. In a bad way. The styling was another issue for Mike and Andrew, with some really hideous choices made for details like lighting and artwork. Despite that some wealthy single business man will be all over this property.
PROS
The gorgeous sunny kitchen:
Study featuring matte black floor:
CONS
Jesus. This room.
Styling issues:
Those are my thoughts so now’s your chance to dish your own thoughts. Who do you think will win? Please comment on how amazing/hideous the properties are in the comment section.
Images via homes.ninemsn.com.au
