A little bit jetlagged and with a piece of my heart still in Europe, but excited to get back to blogging and to share with you all the wonderful discoveries we made on the old continent.
But first, I must turn my eye to the new continent, because something exciting happened while I was gone: The Block 2011. For those who are not familiar with this popular Australian reality show, let me give you the gist:
4 couples, 4 derelict houses (or apartments) and 8 weeks to completely renovate and decorate the spaces in order to rack up the most profit for the sale of their house on auction day. The result: lots of blood, sweat and tears; some really interesting designs but also some tragically sad ones.
This year the block takes place in Richmond, an edgy up-and-coming neighbourhood in the heart of Melbourne, known for its shopping and close proximity to the city centre and the MCG, the famous football oval (Australians love their footy)!
Tonight was the first room reveal and let me tell you there is MUCH room for improvement.
The teenage couple. Ok not quite teenage but they are so young and fresh and cute but also definitely big contenders for winning this competition! Firstly, their
I love their sweet vintage style and think it works really well with the feel of the suburb and its demographics.
City girl, country boy. They are sweet but they're struggling to find their style! From what I understood (I missed every episode until now), they had been arguing all week to define the look of this room and the result is a the living proof.
I can't say I liked anything about this room, from the really sad reproduction mantelpiece to the bland Ikea furniture and the dysfunctional chair, they didn't have much going for them. I hope they will start taking advice on how to tackle a period house because the mantelpiece definitely should have been painted and this girl better start liking ceiling roses!
The outback mums. Their room looked straight out of a Real Living magazine, with the good, the bad and the ugly that comes with it!
I love the exposed brick, the fireplace (like ours!) and the bare lightbulbs. But, the room screams recipe for an industrial design look. I hate the blue vases mixed with the lime green accents and the weird looking white footstool. But to me, they are still second best.
The childhood sweethearts. They have the potential to become catalog living king and queen with every room looking like it's just been staged for yet another boring real estate listing.
This couple scares me. They scare me because they have ripped out a beautiful fireplace and replaced it with a sad looking gas heater (ok, in winter it might be convenient but there are other ways of heating a house - take a trip to Canada!).
They scare me because they are using a matchy matchy theme with glossy boutique hotel features that makes me believe I've traveled back in time about 10-15 years.
They scare me because they have opted for a brown shag for flooring.
That being said, I absolutely love the dark stained window frames so I'm hoping that there is a hint of goodness in them to pull it together in the coming weeks.
That's it for this week folks! If you live outside of Australia, I think you can watch all the action online (if the network hasn't blocked access). Hopefully the couples step it up next week!
Stay tuned in the coming days because I will share bits and pieces from our amazing French adventure!
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