The Block started back with a bang on Sunday night, with five new teams each challenged to renovate a guest bedroom for their first challenge in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.
The winning team will get to pick their favourite house in the highly sought-after area, putting them in the best position possible to bring their visions to life and nab that oh-so-desired crown.
And if that wasn’t pressure enough, some major twists kept contestants on their toes.
Darren Palmer, who usually judges the homes each season, is instead helping the teams on their journeys this year.
However, the timing of his insight during Sunday night’s episode forced teammates Courtney and Sev to drastically pivot with their design, despite already making decisions and ordering materials for their room.
The pair, who work in commercial construction and commercial interior design, respectively, were told to pick their furniture and finishings (like the rest of the teams) before meeting Darren and hearing his brief.
They quickly realised their bold blue wardrobe wouldn’t fit his instructions for a “quiet luxury” and “white, light and bright” brief, and instead would be the exact opposite of what would help them win.
It ultimately ended in tears for Sev, whose entire plan had to be thrown out the window.
“Everything she’s been dreaming of and really believed was the right fit for this area she’s throwing in the bin and starting again,” Courtney explained, as Sev cried beside her.
The pair told WHO the order of events was “interesting”, now they can look back in hindsight.
‘It makes for good TV’
While Courtney and Sev understood the furniture had to be ordered quickly since they only had from Wednesday to Sunday to renovate the bedroom, having to do it before hearing the brief did seem odd.
“It was jarring… They sort of put you in these decisions, you only got like 20 minutes [to pick], and it was a baptism by fire,” the pair told WHO. “It was always going to be, and on that first day we had to put things into fabrication because of what we needed by that Sunday… I think the wardrobe selection had to happen as soon as possible.”
Because of the order of events, the friends spent most of their week trying to rectify the mistake, and had to ask for permission to have the joinery covered up with a micro-cement finish instead.
Sev told foreman Dan she had “buggered up” already, but technically, she didn’t know she was making a mistake since the brief hadn’t been given yet.
“We had to sort of pivot. So yes, very interesting in terms of the storyline. It makes for good TV, I’m sure,” the pair said.
“In the moment, we were definitely sort of panic central, and how we were going to move with those decisions was quite difficult.”
We’ll have to wait and see if they can fix the problem quickly!
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