August 20th 2018

This week’s guest bedrooms were a mixed bag. And, while some of the revealed rooms would have our competitors’ friends and family angling to overstay their welcome,  others would have their guests making their excuses and heading home to sleep in their own beds! Which of this week’s guest room gave you the urge to bounce on the bed?

Bianca and Carla

Once again Bianca and Carla achieved instant impact with their hallmark timber ceiling paneling. This week they revealed a modern, luxurious, guest bedroom with a simple and aesthetically pleasing colour palette that perfectly met this season’s brief. Their uber-functional bedside lighting, and stunning bedside tables with their integral power points, were an example to their fellow competitors. This modest pair need to believe in themselves a bit more. What they thought was a bad styling day was actually an exceedingly good styling day.

The leather chair provided a gorgeous vantage point for the room, the pretty artwork on the wall… and the paintwork they missed under the bedside table!!! Their luxurious walk in robe soon took our mind off their painting and plastering short fallings though. Combining take-your-breath-away glamour with next-level storage, layout and functionality, it is everything we want to see in a walk in and helped earn the girls a well-deserved win this week.

Courtney and Hans

Hans and Courtney went nude in their guest bedroom, in part intentionally, in part because they lost their car keys! I loved the styling of the guest bed, the nude (by design) colour palette, and their very funky choice of chair. Theirs was a well proportioned room, with the exception of the heavy, black pendants hanging either side of the bed, and the painting on the ceiling left a lot to be desired as well.

The style to sell challenge seemed to undermine their confidence rather than bolster it as we’d intended and that lack of confidence manifested itself in their slightly undercooked execution. My advice to them, as I said on the day,  “have fun with it and run with it”.

Kerrie and Spence

From a pile of concrete in their downsized guest bedroom, via some styling advice from us on the judging panel (adopted in part), Kerrie and Spence achieved mixed results with their guest bedroom. Their library, with its beautiful joinery, worked, and the storage in the walk-in wardrobe put a smile on my face.

The placement of the bed and its distance from the wall – pushed out by the padded bedhead which overlapped the power points – left a lot to be desired though. They won me over with their colour palette and welcoming scent as we walked in their room, but we’re still not seeing Kerrie and Spence’s personalities shining through.

Norm and Jess

Norm and Jess clearly listened to our luxe tips during the style to sell challenge, but sadly it was a case of style without substance in many facets of their guest room. Their extended bedhead dispelled the myth that blue and green should not be seen, but their wall sconces were way too high above the bed to be functional. We weren’t buying their reliance on Alexa to turn the lights on and off in the room, and we weren’t fooled by their free-styling phone chargers either ( cheeky placement to match their cheeky personality).

The wardrobe joinery, internal storage, and handles helped redeem them after powerpoint gate, but the styling of the study area let down the quality of their trademark joinery. Nevertheless, we left encouraged by the direction their apartment is heading, we’d just encourage a bit more attention to detail when it comes to basics like power points and light switches!

Hayden and Sara

Architectural features and execution impressed us from the striking door handles, to the ceiling detail, skirting and cornicing, to the quality of the paintwork. Sadly we were far from uttering their desired proclamation “they’re back” though. The styling and furniture were major let downs that left the room feeling hollow and lifeless. the sheen of the bedhead and the rag-roll reminiscent mottling of the wall behind it fought one another and, combined with the pendants, left the bed area unbalanced and out of scale.

Their sizeable walk in robe helped them claw back some credibility, but some simple styling touches would have helped sell the narrative of their apartment and given potential buyers something to latch onto.