Darren Palmer has been a hot name in the world of interiors for years. He’s been a fixture on the Block for the last decade, he has his own successful business and even his personal life is all in order with a hot hubby and son at home.
We look at how it’s all come together for this low-key, high-energy TV personality.
How did Darren Palmer become famous?
It all started with a reality show. After toiling away as an interior designer for years Palmer applied to be a contestant on HomeMADE in 2009. The concept was like an early Block, with teams battling to renovate a house in five days.
While he didn’t win, Palmer made the final and as a result got some interior design writing gigs on GQ and House and Garden magazines and was ultimately tapped up by the Channel 9 producers of The Block.
When did Darren Palmer start on The Block?
Palmer first appeared as a guest judge on season three of The Block in 2010. The now 46-year old was an on/off fixture until he became a permanent member of the judging panel in 2013.
He’s now been overseeing room reveals and Block bust ups for the last decade and he’s got no plans to step away.
What is Darren Palmer famous for?
As well as his celebrity profile Palmer also has a successful interiors website selling everything from candles to rugs and art prints to gift sets.
He’s also the founder of the Darren Palmer Masterseries, an accredited online interior design course and he still manages to fit in large scale residential and corporate projects.
It’s not all work, work, work though and Palmer told TLC Interiors “nothing was more important” than family.
His is made up of husband, Olivier Duvillard, their son, Hugo as well fur babies, Frankie and Razzie.
How long has Darren Palmer been married for?
Palmer and Duvillard have a fairytale love story beginning back in 2010. Palmer had just come out of a long term relationship so was reticent to go on a date with Duvillard. The now CEO of Ultraceuticals skincare wasn’t taking no for an answer though and, after three attempts, Palmer eventually agreed.
“For our date, we met at the gallery that was across the road from my office and we had dinner somewhere in Bondi. I dropped him home and gave him a kiss goodnight and then I knew I was in deep trouble,” Palmer told website Beauticate.
Two days later he stayed at Duvillard’s place and in his words, “never left”.
Six weeks after they met, Duvillard proposed and the couple got married in Cape Town in 2011 (before gay marriage was legalised in Australia) and then in Australia in 2017 when it was legal to.
Palmer says the success of their decade-long marriage is knowing that “family is first”.
“We enjoy each other’s company and we are what comes first. We decided that a long time ago. Family is first, as parents and partners, and work fits around that,” Palmer told WHO in September 2024.
“We have this saying that Olivier cures the world one wrinkle at a time and I do it one cushion at a time. We take ourselves very seriously.”
In a previous interview with 9Honey, Palmer divulged more.
“We spend time on our relationship, we spend time together, we spend time with our son, we spend time with ourselves – it comes well before work,” he said.
The couple train together, share a well-stocked beauty cabinet and even wear each other’s clothes.
Where is Darren Palmer’s house?
Given his profession there’s nothing we’d like more than have a good nosy around Palmer’s pad, especially since it’s recently been renovated.
Palmer and Duvillard share a home in Bondi, NSW, a couple of doors down from friend and fellow designer Barry Du Bois from The Living Room.
The home was a two-storey building when they moved in – a 1930s California bungalow downstairs with a 2010 addition upstairs. “The second my husband and I walked through the front door, we thought, ‘This is our house’,” Palmer told Home Beautiful.
It’s since been upsized from two storeys to three, with a more open-plan design and a plunge pool at the back.
The couple also own homes in Byron Bay and at Hyams Beach on the New South Wales south coast.
Want more celebrity news? Head to the WHO website.
