No Block contestant wants to cop an angry dressing-down from the judges over a disappointing room reveal. But during this Sunday’s episode of Nine’s reno show, one team suffered arguably an even worse fate: A room the judges deemed so “terrible” they were left in fits of hysterics.
Father-daughter duo Tayla and Rick were at a disadvantage for guest suite week, with Rick offsite recovering from an injury. But when The Block judges stepped into the space, they immediately noted that the main problems were with the styling – which is Tayla’s department.
At first, the mood was stern with judges Darren Palmer, Shaynna Blaze and Marty Fox, as they declared details like a white painted barn door to the adjoining bathroom “so bad”.
Be the first to know when news breaks. Download our new app
But as they began to pick at the details, the mood changed drastically.
They noted that the room’s modest study nook had a kettle, an outdoor chair, and strangest of all – a pot plant hidden under the desk.
Shaynna lost it, tears of laughter streaming down her face.
“Every week I say, ‘don’t put a plant in the corner,’ and then they put a plant under the desk. What is going on?”
Tayla had told Block host Scott Cam during his midweek walkarounds that she planned to put an air fryer in the room. He strongly discouraged her from doing so – so instead, she styled the room with a book of airfryer recipes and some cooking bowls, another incongruous design detail that had the judges cackling.
A gift-wrapped bottle of white wine on the bedside table was another odd element that it seems even Rick couldn’t get behind.
“You’re kidding,” he muttered to his daughter when Cam passed on that the judges had questioned it.
The judges managed to stifle their laughter for long enough to stick the knife in once more before they left the room, with real estate agent Fox declaring the space “unsellable”.
“It pretty much is,” Blaze agreed.
And sadly, there are no points for making the judges laugh: Rick and Tayla finished at a distant fifth place once the votes were tallied.
They scored 17 points out of a possible 30 – a long way from the winning team, friends Courtney and Sev, who scored a near-perfect 29.5.
And there was an extra sting in the tail for Rick and Tayla: Each team had been asked to name a budget for their room and then stick to it.
Their last-placed room was also the most over budget by a long way: while all other teams came in under or around their budget, they managed to blow past theirs by an order of almost $11,000, spending $30,406.27 against a budget estimate of $19,601.
Read related topics:The Block