The Block 2024 office and rumpus room reveal recap: Frontrunners receive the lowest scores of the season
It’s Week 9 on The Block, and the competition has hit new heights – or maybe new lows, depending on who you ask. With mezzanine rumpus rooms and office spaces on the line, the pressure was skylight-high. But just when our contestants thought it couldn’t get any more intense, the Domain Buyers Jury challenge was announced, cranking the stress levels up even further. Sleepless nights, last-minute decisions, and a whole lot of second-guessing set the tone for a week full of drama.
Some teams managed game-changing moves, while others were left teetering on the edge of a breakdown. So, who will walk away with a win, and who’s about to crumble under the pressure?
Get ready because this week’s reveals laid the foundation for some of the most explosive moments we’ve seen yet.
House 1: Maddy and Charlotte rumpus room and sitting room reveal ($38,835 spend)
Welcome to The Block’s “Week of Tears” – and no one shed more than Maddy and Charlotte. Their ambitious plans to transform Jessie and Paige’s old office space into a separate guest retreat sounded like a dream, but things quickly spiralled (pun intended) out of control. The issue? A new spiral staircase meant turning a window into a door, but that couldn’t happen without stripping back the existing cladding. Uh-oh! Were their big plans already unravelling?
Enter Nine In Six builder Aidan and the team to save the day. With their bold structural ideas back on track, Maddy and Charlotte breezed through the Domain challenge, picking up some good feedback (but the least amount of votes). But would their chill, cosy vibe win over the judges?
Rumpus room
Shaynna’s reaction the moment she steps in? “Wowee!” And Marty is right there with her, declaring, “What a room. The natural light – it actually feels light and airy. The girls have nailed it!”
The judges love their artwork choices, with Shaynna purring over the intimate, cosy feel. Darren gave a big thumbs up to the custom-made Joel Elliot cabinets, table and dowel feature wall, gushing, “The fact they’ve had these items custom made shows they really care about the detail.”
But the real highlight? Shaynna can’t get enough of their lighting plan, “This is the first time someone FINALLY got the lighting plan right. It’s an intimate space, and it’s not meant to be blaring.” Even Marty, in full real-estate-guru mode, is impressed, finishing with, “Ten out of 10 buyers will walk into this area and say, I like it. Everything works.”
Living and dining room reveal recap: One team delivers the ‘favourite room of the season’
Guest en suite reveal recap: Judges divided over The Block guest en suites
Kitchen reveal recap: Kylie and Brad steal win thanks to a bonus point
Main bedroom reveal recap: Joint winners and another unplayed bonus point
The girls crushed it in the rumpus room – could they keep the magic going in their sitting room?
Sitting room/guest retreat
While the girls’ second space was accessed through some, let’s say, “unfinished mess,” they left a cheeky note for the judges, promising a fully separate guest retreat to come. And boy, did it deliver.
Marty is blown away, calling it “a massive selling feature” and praising the game-changing decision to add an exterior staircase, which opened the door (literally) to all kinds of possibilities – think Airbnb, guest retreat, au pair accommodation, or even a holiday rental moneymaker.
“These guys may have put themselves ahead of the pack. It’s so multigenerational, multifaceted, multi-income generating,” Darren says.
Shaynna rounds off the praise, loving the nod to Jessie and Paige’s previous decor and even calling back to a similar power move from past winners Tess and Luke. “Bravo, girls! It’s a game-changer, it’s genius.”
This double-room reveal from Maddy and Charlotte was a reminder that fighting for your vision on The Block just might be worth the tears.
House 2: Courtney and Grant office and rumpus room reveal ($29,091 spend)
Courtney and Grant came into this judging riding high, with a hallway win under their belt and a bonus-point penguin in their pocket. Courtney declares, “I’m really proud of the room; I hope they appreciate the artwork and the curves.” But as the saying goes, pride comes before a fall – and boy, did they take a tumble.
Office
From the moment Darren walks into their office and utters the words “Business Centre,” you know it isn’t going to be good. Cold, sterile, and styled like a therapy session, the room left the judges less than impressed. “They checkmated themselves by taking this valuable real estate and adding it to that bathroom,” says Marty.
Shaynna appreciates the execution and colours, but that’s where the compliments end. “I don’t feel good in here,” she admits. The low roofline, high balustrade, and the room’s echoing acoustics made it feel anything but cosy. Darren agrees, adding that an office in a holiday home needs to be separate and private. As Marty summed up, “It’s the loudest room in the house, and it’s meant to be the quietest!”
Despite the couple’s best efforts, the office was a complete miss. Well executed? Sure. Functional? Not so much. Would their rumpus room redeem them?
Rumpus room
And just like that, the mood changes. As the judges step into the rumpus room, Marty’s spirits lift: “Now this is nice!” Darren can’t get enough of the artwork. “Fantastic artwork choices, lovely furniture, beautiful colour scheme; it’s interesting.” It was a total turnaround from the frosty reception for the office.
Marty, however, is quick to remind everyone that what looks good online doesn’t always pass the real-world test: “It’s the most Instagrammable. This will shoot better than House 1, but it won’t inspect better – and it comes down to the inspection.” And then there was the elephant in the room – or rather, the bathroom. Marty points out that their earlier decision to sacrifice office space to enlarge the bathroom threw off the balance. “Why have such a huge bathroom?”
Shaynna agrees, summing it up with a bit of foreshadowing: “This comes down to en suite week. We knew it was either going to work for them or bite them in the behind and well, it’s definitely bitten them in the behind.”
House 3: Ricky and Haydn rumpus room and games room reveal ($39,119 spend)
Ricky and Haydn, perpetual Block underdogs, have been riding their goofy charm for a while now, but even that was starting to wear thin. Sure, they’d bagged a cool $50,000 from the Domain Buyers Jury challenge, but when it comes to actual room reveals, the question is still: can they deliver?
They ditched their planned office space and gambled on a rumpus room and games room combo. Will their playful approach finally get them a win?
Rumpus room
Marty walks in and lights up like a Christmas tree: “If this doesn’t say Phillip Island, then I don’t know what does.”
This room is all about laid-back holiday vibes, and Marty loves it, especially the clever inclusion of a sofa bed: “This means they can sleep 10 instead of eight.” It might not be the fanciest setup, but for investors, this could bring a serious return.
Darren agrees, thinking the relaxed aesthetic could actually be a huge advantage. “There’s definitely a buyer who’ll want this relaxed, less uptight style of holiday home.”
Marty can’t help but reflect on the journey, saying the boys had finally taken the judges’ advice and run with it. “I’m far more comfortable here than in House 2. I feel like I’m away.”
Games room
Then came the piece de resistance – a full-blown games arcade complete with a pool table and vintage Street Fighter console. Marty is beaming, “This is what you call a league of your own. This is genius. This is the fun house!” He goes on, gushing over the smart design that would have agents rubbing their hands together, saying, “This is the one that people will visit, and their kids will beg, ‘Mum, Dad, we need this house!’”
Darren loves it, too, even if it isn’t super Instagrammable. “It’s not fancy, but I love it,” he says, knowing this space would win over potential buyers and investors alike. But it’s Marty who sums it up with an emotional twist, “I never thought I’d say this, but this is a house I would actually buy. It’s pulling on my heartstrings, reminding me of childhood memories with my mum and dad.”
If it weren’t for Shaynna pulling them away, Marty and Darren might still be in there playing Street Fighter like a couple of kids.
House 4: Kylie and Brad rumpus room and office reveal ($31,366 spend)
“I still can’t really work out what the space is,” Kylie said about their rumpus and office areas. “Just throw it all in and hope for the best.”
We all know how judging goes when contestants take an approach like that …
Office
From the moment the judges stepped in, confusion reigned. Marty doesn’t hold back, calling it “the most uncomfortable room on The Block”. The couch placement baffles him: “Why am I sitting 30 centimetres off a glass balustrade, looking over the living area?” he asks, bewildered.
Darren is equally perplexed, adding, “They’ve dropped the ball massively. It’s functionally useless.”
“It looks like they just came in and dropped the couch. Can you imagine how confused a buyer would be? Like, why am I here? Why do I have theatre curtains? It’s like a peep show,” Shaynna says.
“Downstairs was a 10 – elegant, sophisticated, planned. But this? This is ridiculous,” she adds.
“What I want to say, I don’t think I can say on The Block,” Marty says. Let loose, Marty; we all need to swear now and then.
Rumpus room
It doesn’t get much better when the judges see the rumpus space, either.
Shaynna’s disappointment is palpable from the start as she comments on the wasted height in the room: “From a couple who understood scale, this is blowing my mind. The fact that everything is eye-level?” For her, it’s a missed opportunity.
By the end, all Shaynna can say is that she loves the floor, but that isn’t enough to salvage the room, leaving the judges baffled.
“To go from top of the mountain to the bottom of the barrel within seven days – shocker,” Marty says. “Ten out of 10 for creating the most uncomfortable room we’ve seen this season.”
“This is so disappointing at this stage of the game to be feeling like this,” Shaynna says.
House 5: Kristian and Mimi rumpus room reveal ($34,330 spend)
“This week was the worst week of Kristian’s life,” Mimi admits, and judging by how things unfolded, she wasn’t exaggerating. The Adelaide couple has been feeling the pressure for a while now, and this week it all came crashing down.
Their decision to move the rumpus room downstairs where the guest bedroom was and convert it into a pool room retreat? Let’s just say it wasn’t a hit. With only one room finished, the judges aren’t exactly thrilled about what they see.
Rumpus room/”pool room” retreat
From the moment the judges walk in, things don’t look good. Darren’s immediate reaction? “Basic.” He compares the space to a “display suite” – and not in a good way. “These things look so boring together. It’s ‘meh’,” he declares.
Shaynna isn’t holding back either, calling out the lack of connection to the outdoors, especially for a room so close to the pool. “If this was supposed to be a lounge area to service the pool, this isn’t really doing it,” she says. “Isn’t this like a cabana? Shouldn’t this be a place that’s pool-friendly? Where kids can come in with their bathers and play games?” The vision was all wrong, and the judges could feel it.
Marty believes the space would’ve been better off as a guest bedroom with an en suite. “This is the perfect spot. Imagine a bed here, looking out into the garden,” he muses, dreaming of what could have been.
Shaynna sums it up best: “If you’re going to change the floor plan to your advantage, you have to blow us away. This has zero connection to lifestyle outside. Isn’t it funny today, we’ve seen two of the front runners completely unravel in front of our eyes, and two of the underdogs rise to the top.”
Week nine office and rumpus room reveal scores
| House | Team | Score | Place |
| House 1 | Maddy and Charlotte | 28 | 1st |
| House 2 | Courtney and Grant | 23.5 | 3rd |
| House 3 | Ricky and Haydn | 28 | 1st |
| House 4 | Kylie and Brad | 16 | 4th |
| House 5 | Kristian and Mimi | 12.5 | 5th |
This week brought plenty of highs and lows, with Maddy and Charlotte tying with Ricky and Haydn for the top spot at 28 points, while Kristian and Mimi found themselves at the bottom with just 12.5 points, closely followed by Kylie and Brad on 16.
With Maddy and Charlotte receiving plenty of praise once again, Kylie’s frustration and rivalry with the girls only intensified. Will this simmering tension finally explode, or can Kylie channel her dark energy into getting back on top?
This article is brought to you by Snooze. It’s amazing what 50 years of Snooze can do.
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