Apart from having an over exposed white balance in the photo’s again…grr, kitchen week was pretty eventful on The Block. Despite the hoo-haa on the big screen from Tim and Anastasia, all rooms were finished and looked quite the part.
Josh and Charlotte
I had this strange feeling that Neale was going to say “pared back” when describing this kitchen. This would make a great drinking game! Josh and Char created a simple yet refined kitchen using white as a base and added dribs of colour and interest with appliances, timber flooring, the extended timber countertop and some smashing cupboard handles. I think the timber counterop does look a bit funny and a little squashed. I think it would have looked better if it was a true extension of the stone bench and not looking like an aftermarket add on. Maybe with a waterfall edge as well. But overall, the design is practical and an integrated fridge/freezer hides behind cabinet doors. I love a hidden fridge! The cabinets are a matt finish I believe but it’s not how it looks in these shoddy photo’s. It’s also not that stark and bright either. Well done.
Jess and Aiden – winners!
Now this kitchen packs a punch! Beautiful colour palette using stone, greys, white, black and timber is right on trend. Traditional style cabinet doors adds some wonderful detail and the rangehood is devine. A great layout encompasses a cooking zone away from the snack zone, ie: fridge and pantry away from the ovens and stovetop, and this kitchen justifies that it works. Overhead lighting over the island is a but lacking however, that is an easy fix. I understand the problem with the tractor stools as they come in two heights (60 and 70cm or thereabouts) and I too pained over which is better. Glad I chose the smaller version for my kitchen which was harder to source but it is the right height. This my favourite kitchen this week.
Tim and Anastasia
There certainly was a lot of drama around this kitchen and it didn’t turn out as bad as Tim and Ana thought, much to their surprise! In fact, they came second! There is quite a lot involved in designing and fitting out a kitchen and I really felt for them this week because it seemed they were making a lot of mistakes around not knowing what trade was responsible for what and what they were responsible for in the end. Maybe their tradies should have been more open in telling them what part they would play in putting the kitchen together. The night before reveal, poor Tim and Ana were left with fitting off and fixing all the little things they thought the tradies should have done. If you’ve never designed and installed a kitchen before, you don’t know what questions to ask so you need good tradies to hold your hand through the process.
Dea and Daz
This has to be the most controversial kitchen yet on The Block. Dea and Daz swapped the dining room with the kitchen on the floor plan and created some whopping issues for the architects and associate designers, including Shaynna Blaze, to rectify. It meant sections of the dining room ceiling were only 2100mm high. In the end, the final design here is a little flawed. Although, I cannot imagine a dining room here in such a massive space.
The butlers pantry is very much open to view and it’s in a funny spot. It actually sits left of the fridge. You could say it’s actually, out of the kitchen. You enter the kitchen from the dining room via two “goal posts” which are support posts for the stone bath upstairs. Originally, this would have been an enclosed wall with the center being a doorway. It could have been redesigned a few different ways I guess in order to hide the posts. Small appliances like blenders etc were stored in the cupboard above the ovens. A little too high for everyday use? There is no conventional pantry ie: a tall pantry cupboard. Instead, pantry items to be stored in cupboards and draws around the oven and the island. Shaynna commented that a pantry could have been put where the integrated coffee machine cupboard stands and allowed to be a little wider, meeting up closer to the door where there is a gap. The colour palette was the last item to be smashed by the judges where they agreed the tiles don’t match the overall theme, the island bench doesn’t match the other benchtop and the timber floor clashes with the timber on the cabinets. I don’t like the tiles but I think the rest is fine. Wonder what is in store for next week?!
