Brickman on The Block

Why is Brickman on The Block? Is he not on a Channel 10 contract?

The Lego Masters judge appears at a challenge on Tuesday.

Sunday night is the living/dining reveal and the theme for the rest of the week is “upstairs”.

But let’s get back to Brickman. I’ve watched a lot of Lego Masters in the past month and it’s a great show. And Brickman tears up when he has to eliminate contestants. It’s just lovely.



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33 Comments

  1. House 1 Spend $33120
    Wow! The way the furniture is positioned looks grand. It is remarkable how big it feels. For Neale it looks like he is seeing the work of a professional interior designer as the space is cohesive and sophisticated.

    The architectural points create visual interest that draw your eye up. The judges also love the dappled light created by the curtains.

    The big flaws is the lack of an oversized lamp to create a night ambience and the dodgy painting around the fireplace. Otherwise it is a perfect space.

    • Definitely the deserved winner this week, but undeniably advantaged by the biggest space, north windows all along, vaulted ceiling, all of which were gifted to them. Kudos to the team for styling well, but their layout was quite easy to arrange, and really, it would have been hard to stuff it up.

  2. House 3 Spend $24685

    Another wow! The judges love the vomit wall describing it as spectacular. It feels pretty special. For Shaynna, the wall is stunning. It mirrors the island’s curves beautifully.

    The table is described as gorgeous, artisan, and a beautiful piece. It is a moody, sexy space but there is no bloody lamp in there.

    Shaynna thinks the rug is too small and needs to be more shaggy.

    There is no art but the space does not need it.

    The kitchen is now brought to life now but the pendants have to go.

    • Really love that wall, and it was a huge point of difference to all the other houses. Somehow the curve was exactly right, just a gentle wave (not a half circle) to give some movement. I agree it didn’t need art, because the wall was the art.

      I agree with all the other comments made by the judges (weird, huh).

  3. House Two – Spend $17387
    The judges walk into a living space with yet another massive fireplace. for Darren, the bricks give it a country fee. Neale thinks Darren is being a bit harsh. The bricks give the new space age and a heritage feel.

    The judges are a bit over the monchromatic theme. It is monotonous. The space needs warmth.

    Neale again complains about the lack of lamps. How do these people live at home.(Memo to self: must get lamp to create a living space).

    For Shaynna, there is not enough interest in the room. Everything is below eye level. There is nothing to draw your attention up. It has a good footprint but lacks warmth.

    The dining table is too small for the house. Big tick structurally but it needs more.

    • This is a hard room to analyse. I do think that Sarah and George are getting a bit of a raw deal (house 5’s scores should have been way lower), but their rooms are nice without being good, somehow. I wonder too about the finishes – never mentioned but sometimes a factor that the editing ignores, to create a sense of injustice.

      Of course, I agree about the monochrome, because I have always disliked black and grey. They did have rust-coloured accents, but for some reason the colour made no impact. I like the bricks and the layout is good.

      Most telling for me was Shaynna’s comments about everything being below waist height. When she said that, I felt “yes! that is a big part of the problem”. Even if the dog picture had been hung, that would have made a difference.

      Yes, these guys have a reason to feel hard done by, but I hope they calm down enough to look critically at the feedback and the rooms.

      Why not choose an expanding dining table? Or are they twee now? Then you can have space, and a longer table when you need it.

  4. House 4 Spend $18946

    ‘I match’ exclaims Shaynna noting that she and the living space are twinning in white. It does feel like beach house and it matches the kitchen. For Darren, the space is photo shoot ready.

    It reworks the Hamptons aesthetic and not the Scandi vibe that Neale was expecting. It works well with the rest of the house.

    Neale bemoans the lack of lamp and Shaynna is aghasted by the lack of storage. Textures and materials are beautiful but it is really odd that the fireplace is in the naughty corner. For Darren, it is uncomfortable and ruins the space.

    • This room had a nice vibe, especially the timber parts which were lovely. It was too white for me (easily changed of course), though.

      The fireplace is wrong, IMO, but I can see how hard it would be for them to arrange that room. I did wonder why more of the rooms didn’t do the dining up the other end, and the lounge next to the windows. Maybe that would have worked here.

      I dislike all this labelling – hamptons, scandi, beachhouse etc. Nearly all the rooms every week have been quite generic 2020 style, except for some touches of fifties in house 5.

  5. House 5 $20555
    They have nailed the storage and lighting requirements but it feels compact. Neale has seen apartments with more living space.

    For the judges the furniture choices is all wrong . The lack of dining table is a massive, massive mistake. You can not have a 5 bedroom house, an entertainers kitchen and not have a dining table.

    The lounge is too boxy and Neale feels that he is still in the kitchen. The position of the chairs around the fireplace makes it look like a campfire.

    For the judges the space is a complete fail. They need to get a dining table and purchase the 50s inspired lounge from Jardine.

    Complete fail but still score 7s 🤣🤣🤣🤣

    • Apart from the obvious fail with leaving out a table in favour of two odd chairs, this room was all wrong. It felt like all the furniture was squashed to the left, like it was lining a corridor. The mirror tv (which I never liked – what’s wrong with a black off screen?) looked lonely on that big wall, yet I don’t know how to fix that. Maybe a timber feature at bulkhead height – you could make those little cupboards and fix the storage problem.

      Definitely over scored. Even Tamara expected fours after the feedback. Hard to see what earned them the sevens.

    • I wish I had so much money that restoration became my folly.
      This would be a hobby that would be so much fun if money were no object.

    • It was a slightly disappointing episode as it really glossed over how (really, really) controversial the sale of those houses were and that as the sale was freehold (as opposed to the 99 year lease offered on the previous houses) the houses weren’t subject to tighter heritage control.

      There also was no sense of how the building flowed…we realised that these being landmark buildings (now owned by very rich people) that there needed to be much more circumspection on the final layout but it would have been interesting to know how a terrace originating as a family home, slumming it for a century as boarding house could be (or was) so reduced.

      We did find its original real estate listing https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-house-nsw-millers+point-122043526

      My God, the final decor was bad. The living space was oppressive with is dark walls and overwhelming cabinetry. The zebra carpet was abhorrent. The wardrobe was a crime against good taste. All destined for landfill in the next twenty years.

      What they did on the lower ground floor, particularly with the glazing was interesting.

  6. Wow don’t the living and dining areas look mean/stingy. You have this monstrosity of a kitchen and island and then these piddly little living areas. That is the problem with the grandiose kitchens you see everywhere – it is inconsistent with the other areas of the house. And Jimmy and Tan are wrong to assume that no one uses a dinning table anymore? Do they just sit in front of the tv? I did most of my study on the dining table, we play board games on the dining table, I like to have coffee with friends on the dining table – that’s without mentioning people actually using the table to eat.
    I think we need to move away from the kitchen being the heart of the home to the living areas – we spend more time there anyway.
    Really bad designs.
    On another note – can I say again how much I like the contestants. That Luke is such a happy guy I love seeing that. Also felt sorry for house 2 – no way they should have been close in points to house 5 whose furniture looked like it had been shoved against the back wall.

  7. The judges are too harsh on Sarah and George. If Jimmy’s and Tam’s room was a failure and there was NO dining room how could the judges give them 7s and 7 1/2 and justify giving S & G 8 1/2 and 8? Sarah’s and George’s living/dining room much nicer than Jimmy’s and Tam’s. They should have received higher scores or Jimmy and Tan should have received lower scores.
    Luke and Jasmin should have received lower scores for their terrible fireplace placement. That is an expensive fix.

    Maz, great description of that curved textured wall in House 3 as the “vomit wall”. I don’t like it either and I think it would be difficult to keep clean.

  8. Best challenge eva…build your dream home out of lego. If any of these contestants have watched Lego Master they know they should go big and use Technic.

    • Exactly. First thing I was bashed into believing in Economics is “wants are unlimited”

      Thanks for your work, Maz.

    • What a waste of an episode. Scrounging around bins of plastic blocks… and Hamish Blake for some reason, I don’t know, ffwd button got an extra workout tonight.

    • Looking at real estate in the suburb it looks like one where all the old houses are being knocked down for fancy rebuilds. Even the old 50s houses are $1.5 million plus

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