Combining space and style in a Master Bedroom

Joining Jono of the Blockcast podcast this week is Block royalty Deb Saunders, who with her husband Andy were runners up in Then Oslo 2019 season of The Block. She has great sympathy for the contestants come judging day, saying “You’ve put your heart and soul into it and then come Sunday night, you’re standing up there. It can be very confronting.” So what are the take away’s from the latest round of reveals, which this week were the master bedrooms and walk-in wardrobes?

Kirsty and Jesse’s master came in as the in-betweener, featuring pitched skylights atop their sliding doors. A feature in every ceiling was skylights, which raises the obvious questions for bedrooms about skylight placement. “I think they use their skylights really well,” says Deb “I loved the arch doors this week and then the arches that they’re cutting into the Gyprock as well.”

Sound thinking and design

The target market for The Block houses is always families, so the contestants need to be creating a retreat for the parents. After all, they’re the ones buying the place! “And as much as you know, the parents might want to keep sounds in the bedrooms,” says Jono, “You also want to keep sounds out.” Achieving this all comes down to using the right materials from the beginning. “Keith was showing off the Bradford Soundscreen,” says Jono, “It’s what we say every week when you’re building your house. If you start with the good things behind the walls and on the floors and on the ceilings, the rest is all going to work really well.”

“Bradford Soundscreen goes together with the Superchek Gyprock like wine and cheese.” Jono concludes.

Room to swing a cat – or at the very least a coat.

A master bedroom needs a walk-in robe to match, and this is what let a few of the teams down this week. Mitch and Mark created a well sized walk-in, as Deb says “The wardrobe is a good size. I love that big mirror at the end, that sort of extends the space of the wardrobe.”

Josh and Luke secured the win off the back of their palatial walk-in, with Jono remarking that “it just comes down to that layout.”

It was quite an uneven week as Jono said, “I don’t think anyone got it 100% right.” There didn’t seem to be a Goldilocks rooms with ceilings, room and wardrobe all in proper proportion. But Deb disagreed with the judges’ complaints about the size of Ronnie and Georgia’s wardrobe, and she spoke from experience! “On our series of the Block we also built a very small wardrobe, and it didn’t affect the sale at all” she said.

Styling

This proved to be a point of controversy this week, with the potential rule-breaking help of one of the twins’ fiancé who came for a visit and offered a few pointers on how to style the walk-in robe. Ever the contrarian, Deb disagreed about Tanya & Vito’s choice of floorboards for the bedrooms “Neale didn’t like their flooring. Ah, I quite liked their flooring!”

“You don’t often see timbers floors in bedroom on the Block, but you guys did timber floors?”

“We did!” Deb replied “We had a very soft oak.”

“There’s something beautiful I think about having timbers floors in a bedroom and then that giant area rug that almost acts as carpet”

“Yeah Tanya’s done that really well there too.” Deb says, “I loved the texture and colouring the rug”

In summing up Tanya and Vito’s room, Jono provided an excellent wrap up of the whole week.

“Lots to love and a few things to fix up!”

To hear more design and building insights, listen to The Blockcast featuring interior designer Jono Fleming each Monday after The Block reveals.

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