The Block 2019 living and dining room reveal recap: Mitch and Mark cop year's most brutal feedback

Hoo boy, this week The Block turned into my high school, circa year 9. People were accusing one another of copying, lying and cheating, and girls were yelling at their partners telling them they were embarrassing themselves.

Someone even stormed off in short shorts.

This is what we have been waiting for people! Nicely appointed bathrooms are all well and good, but a little dose of drama just keeps things ticking along. Hat-tip to whoever stirred this up for us. 

In case you missed it, the juicy back story is that Mitch and Mark accused Jesse and Mel of knocking off another designer’s work on radio. 

Everyone heard and, when confronted, Mitch said one of the show’s executive producers had stitched him up. 

But – PLOT TWIST – the executive producer had footage that proved otherwise. He showed it to Jesse and Mel. It was like Watergate, but in the back streets of St Kilda.  

In another weird move, the producers set up a golf game between Keith and Jesse – presumably because both like to talk themselves up – and it’s fun to see someone tank immediately after boasting.

But we’ve gone off-topic. This week was living room and dining room reveal week. Here’s how it played out. 

Mitch and Mark

Tonight the pair received the most brutal feedback of the series.

The judges (and the nation as a whole) were thrilled to see the boys had removed the fake backlit windows but that wasn’t enough to save it. 

Neale Whitaker described their living and dining area as “kind of an assault on the senses”, with too many mixed metals coming into play. 

He felt they had focused on areas separately and hadn’t considered how they would come together. He went on to say: “I’m really disappointed … what bothers me is the lack of cohesion.” 

Darren Palmer did not dig their sofa and Shaynna Blaze likened the skylights to portholes and thought the backlit kitchen bench would blind people sitting at the dining table.

Finally she really ripped their choice of artwork saying, “What were you thinking?”

It was burn after burn for the boys.

Tess and Luke 

Tess and Luke are continuing to muddle through. They are behind on paying their tradies so they are trying to tighten the purse strings.

As such, their choice to splash cash on a bespoke dining table instead of going for something from one of the sponsors was possibly a dud move. 

Shaynna was a fan of the layout, saying it felt double the size of Mitch and Mark’s room.

However the couple’s decision to attach the dining table to their already enormous kitchen island bench fell flat, especially in a practical sense as it made the underbench storage unusable. 

Shaynna said: “I actually feel sick for them.” 

The kitchen layout impacted on the living area, meaning they had a compromised lounge room.

“They haven’t planned this space in terms of visual and physical flow,” said Neale, who also felt the fireplace got a bit lost in the room. He said the space felt oppressive. 

El’ise and Matt

While Neale felt El’ise and Matt’s living room had a homely feeling of warmth and liveability, Darren believed the layout let it down a bit. He also said the fireplace was a bit wasted – none of the chairs were orientated so people could enjoy looking at the fire.

Shaynna, who felt the whole space felt a bit “heavy”, thought the nest of petrified wood tables was weird. Darren thought the old-time scales weighing four apples was an odd bit of styling and Neale didn’t love their flower arrangement.

On the upside, Neale said: “At least, for me, El’ise and Matt are back in the game this week.”

Andy and Deb

Judges walked in to Andy and Deb’s living room and “exhaled and smiled”.

The decision to orientate the room so that the dining table ran parallel to the kitchen bench was a winner (Jesse and Mel were the only other couple to choose to lay the kitchen/dining out this way).

Darren said: “If I were any of the homes that didn’t orient the kitchen this way I would be kicking myself … there’s so much room.”

Neale raved about it, saying: “I can’t remember ever being in a home on The Block that has excited me more … everything just gels beautifully … You’re seeing a level of sophistication here that I would associate with professional interior design.”  

Darren agreed, saying: “They’ve created a house that has a lot of broad appeal. It’s a seamless flow from the front door to the back and buyers will love it.”

Shaynna thinks Deb could have a career as an interior designer and described it as “goosebump material”. 

The only suggestion was if they had taken a little bit of space from the dining and kitchen area they could have delivered a lounge room with two sofas (and the TV was too high to actually watch it comfortably from a seated position).

Jesse and Mel 

When he wasn’t telling everybody about how he towelled Keith in a game of golf, Jesse was working like a fiend to lay their living room floor himself. 

The hard work paid off. Their dining/lounge room was a hit and they ended up taking out first place (which was a timely confidence booster, as it had been seven weeks since they’d won a room reveal).

Remarkably, the pair spent just $7000 on their living and dining space (though admittedly they had some prizes from an earlier competition win that helped). 

Neale described it as: “the most successful living room of the day … it’s the only one where we’ve seen a big sofa like this” (unlike Andy and Deb they held back the extra 500 millimetres from the kitchen/dining so they could have the bigger couch).  

Darren loved the big rug that “delineates the room” and commended the fact the fireplace was central to the living area. 

The artistic wooden acoustic wall was a hit, though Shaynna felt the choice of artwork wasn’t quite right and they should have commissioned something if they were going for the high-end buyer.

The final scores looked like this:

Mitch and Mark – 22

Tess and Luke – 22 

Andy and Deb – 28

El’ise and Matt – 24.5

Jesse and Mel – 29

See you back here next week when we take this party al fresco for the big courtyard reveal.