With combined living and dining rooms revealed last night, it’s no wonder we are all on the edge of our seats waiting for kitchen week! There were some interesting design features and styles put forth in the dining the living rooms and some comments from the judges left the contestants feeling theirs rooms were a little under or over dressed. I cannot get over that the ‘winners’ of the designer session, Dea and Daz, who forfeited by intentionally not completing the ceiling of one of their rooms, will be speaking to Shaynna on how to better present their style. It’s sure going to be an explosive episode and I hope Shaynna doesn’t hold back! Let’s look at the rooms.
Winners – Josho and Charlotte
The dining and living room floors are finished with beautiful timber floors in a Chestnut overlay which neatly joins the two areas together. I expect the kitchen with also be finished with the same flooring for continuity.
An overlay flooring is commonly a thinner timber board of around 12-14mm which can be solid timber or have a solid plywood base and a thick 5mm timber floor veneer on top.
The bulk of the living room furniture was sourced from Coco Republic and consists of a rich dark leather sofa, a marble and teak base coffee table and two armchairs made with a heavy iron base finished in pewter with leather strap arm rests and grey upholstered seats. A huge natural hemp rug covers nearly the entire floor in the living room. It is a very interesting mix of materials but I am not completely sold on the rug.
The dining room is under dressed I think. There is a beautiful table, chairs to suit, a floral center piece, a candle and a single pendant light. Apart from sheer curtains and a shutter there is nothing else in there so to me it’s a bit bland and lifeless. It needs a little more but the furniture is a great base to work with.
Jess and Ayden
This dining room is also understated but a bit more emphatic that Josh and Char’s. It’s amazing what a dining setting can do to liven up a very large dining table! Great triple pendants hang above the table and offer a nice central focus. Jess and Ayden commented that they chose three pendants of varying sizes due to the table being so long. I think, however, that the single large pendant would have been enough. You can see with the next photo.
The living room was a bit of a ‘bitsa’. “Bits-of-everything” thrown in together. A lot of people said it was too busy and I agree. There is certainly a lot going on but I don’t think it’s because of the books, as one of the judges said. Shelves are meant to house more than a handful of books, you know, for the people that actually like books for reading! Not a fan of the huge pendant at the entrance that I’d walk into every day either…What needs to be changed? Hmm, I think the styling decor needs to be edited, the throws and cushions mainly and that darn pendant! Bold move with the rug though. Not for everyone though.
Tim and Anastasia
To me this room was a real knockout. I wished that Ana had not changed her mind about the artwork and the seagrass. I would have liked to see the seagrass where the artwork currently is and on the television feature wall with the art back in the dining room where it belonged. That could have helped to soften the hard edges of the arm chairs. Overall, the similarities in the dark furniture legs unite the room together. This is a clever way to match a furniture from different settings.
The dining room looks empty now that the artwork is not there but I think it has great bones, don’t you? Those pendants are fantastic and the bold, heavy looking dining table with the upholstered chairs looks grand and expensive. It pairs well with the sideboard too it just needs something on that empty wall. Imagine if they had bought a dining setting, dressed the table for dinner, created a different center piece, put the artwork up and off centered the orchid and added a few more interesting items to the sideboard…it would be great!
Lets not forget about the ceiling though. Those bulkheads need to be rearranged to hide all the crap you cannot see. Ha!
Lets not forget about the ceiling though. Those bulkheads need to be rearranged to hide all the crap you cannot see. Ha!
Dea and Daz
I can understand why they forfeited to gain more time solving their ceiling problem. It’s a monstrosity trying to neatly hide all those pipes! The dining room was still pretty nice through, considering. I’m not sure the rug is big enough but it sure adds a great textural contrast to the sleek floor. The chairs are wonderfully matched to the circular table and the space is defined well.
The living room cleverly has some elements from the dining room such as the occasional chair looking similar to the dining chairs and the coffee table seeming like the dining table. This is a clever way to marry two rooms together without relying on the same flooring. I have noticed that each contestant may have spent $2000 on small but nice smelling and looking candles for each apartment…I’m not sure where I sit on that one! With all the money spent on lighting and lamps, I don’t think I’ d be lighting candles in every room! But, let’s not be a hasty, in the event of a power outage, it would be very romantic.
Bring on Kitchen week!!!!!