Episode 25 Recap: The Block hit the halfway point with Guest Suite Week on Sunday night, as Adam and Jolene, Chantel and Wyatt, Lisa and Rosco, Courtney and Sev and Rick and Tayla raced to finish their bedrooms and ensuites before judges Shaynna Blaze, Darren Palmer and Marty Fox arrived — and by the end of judging, the season had its first perfect 10s, one team had collected $30,000 in a single night and another had been left at the bottom of the leaderboard on just 17 points.
For House 3, however, simply having a finished room to present felt like a victory.
Lisa and Rosco had endured repeated bathroom headaches during the season and once again found themselves fighting the clock after a shower-screen setback threatened to derail their reveal.
Their shower glass had been delayed and, when it finally became available, their glazier no longer had time to install it.
“If we don’t install it we can’t finish,” Lisa fumes.
“We might as well not show up on Sunday night.”
Rosco initially tried to keep things calm with an “All good”, only for Lisa to fire back with “It’s not all good!”
Help eventually came from elsewhere on The Block, with a glazier working with House 2 agreeing to assist with the installation.
With their long-running bathroom troubles apparently broken, Rosco could finally celebrate.
“We’re finally finishing a bathroom,” he said.
Elsewhere, the picture was far less frantic.
House 2: Chantel and Wyatt
Chantel and Wyatt were again well ahead of schedule, having collected their curving bedhead and largely completed their guest suite by Saturday evening while their rivals continued working.
That efficiency has become a feature of House 2’s campaign, but so has another pattern: despite repeatedly finishing on time and winning budget recognition, they had entered the week as the only team yet to secure a room-reveal victory.
And they had no intention of dramatically changing their aesthetic simply to satisfy the judges.
“Even though they want me to include colours, I’m never going to,” Chantel says defiantly, committing to continue to “strive for beige”.
Their strategy remained focused on creating a cohesive neutral home designed to appeal broadly to buyers rather than chasing a weekly judging win.
That meant layers of white, beige and soft neutral tones again dominated the suite, although different textures, Venetian plaster and the substantial bedhead helped create more depth.
Shaynna appreciated the “different types of neutrals on top of each other” and the “gorgeous texture”.
Darren also saw merit in the combination.
“A clever combination of traditional and contemporary,” he said.
For Marty, the bedroom at least succeeded in its most fundamental job.
“It feels like you’re in a space where you just want to go to sleep, which is great.”
The amount of storage was another advantage, with the judges noting that House 2 had substantially more than House 1.
But the ensuite brought familiar criticism.
The shower felt tight, and while there was little the judges regarded as fundamentally wrong with the room, there was also little they considered particularly memorable.
Marty described it as “a bit plain” and later said it “isn’t offensive in any way, but it’s a bit plain”.
Shaynna was tougher.
“It feels like a display home in a development. It’s copy-paste,” she said.
Her wider concern was the emotional connection — or lack of it — she felt when walking through Chantel and Wyatt’s rooms.
“I’m never going to give them a 10, because for me, in my calculations, human connection to a space is part of my judging process, and I feel a lack of human connection in every room I walk into that they’ve done,” Shaynna explained.
The supplied judging comments also recorded her making the same point in slightly different terms:
“I’m never going to give them a 10 because for me, in my calculations, human connection to a space is part of my judging process, and I feel a lack of human connection in every room of theirs I’ve walked into.”
Marty, however, could see the commercial logic behind their approach.
“There’s two ends of the spectrum here, they’re not gonna win a room but they will win The Block, or it will all fall flat on its face because it’s too plain.”
Their numbers also showed how carefully they were managing their build. Chantel and Wyatt had entered with a budget estimate of $34,000.00 and recorded a cash spend of $27,484.65.
They would ultimately finish with 25½ points, tied for second.
House 1: Adam and Jolene
After the calm neutrals of House 2, Adam and Jolene deliberately headed in another direction.
Their guest suite featured blush pink, maroon and a bold Grafico print, with Jolene openly wanting the room to establish its own identity.
“I want people to walk in and be like ‘wow, this is different to House 2,’ ” said Jolene.
The colour immediately got a response.
“Ooh colour, look at this!” Shaynna said as she entered.
Darren was just as pleased to see a departure from the safer palette.
“Love to see some colour,” he said, adding: “Something that’s not quite so beige and neutral.”
The judges thought Adam and Jolene had controlled the stronger palette well rather than allowing it to overwhelm the room.
“They’re really good with their tones, aren’t they,” Marty said.
Darren believed the couple had also shown restraint in the way they styled the finished room.
“They’ve really listened to pairing back some styling, this is modern simplicity with lots of colour,” Darren said.
There were still points of contention.
Darren wanted a rug, while Shaynna thought the wardrobe could have made better use of the available space.
Then came the exact critique Jolene had feared.
Before judging, she had admitted: “I hope I don’t get grandma quotes.”
But Shaynna immediately zeroed in on the carnations and decorative birds.
“If you’re putting carnations and those birds you’re saying ‘nanna’.”
The combination gave her a “nanna” impression, although it did not undo the broader praise for the bedroom.
Darren even described the approach as “memoir interior”, seeing a room that told a story through its styling.
The judges then moved into the ensuite, where the colour story continued through the tile selection.
“I think all of the colour in here is really the right level and right palette,” Darren said.
The room was not without execution issues. Mixed metals drew attention, with four different metal finishes noted, while some painting also came under scrutiny.
For Marty, it stopped the space reaching the very top level.
“Good room, but not amazing,” was his assessment.
He expanded on that conclusion by recognising the consistency between the bathroom and the rest of the home.
“It’s a good room, not amazing, but it’s continuing the story they have for this house,” Marty said.
Adam and Jolene had estimated $17,000.00 for the week and came remarkably close, recording a cash spend of $17,002.10.
That difference of just $2.10 delivered an additional result later in the evening, when they were awarded the $10,000.00 CommBank Budget award.
On the judges’ scorecards, Adam and Jolene finished with 25½ points, tying Chantel and Wyatt.
House 3: Lisa and Rosco
After the stress of getting the shower screen installed, Lisa and Rosco finally had a complete bedroom and bathroom to present.
The bedroom featured the first dedicated study area the judges had encountered among the guest suites, but the inclusion did not receive the reaction the couple may have hoped for.
“Nup, studies are done,” Marty declared.
He then questioned how useful the space would actually be.
“You’re not gonna sit there and do your GST returns are you?”
The judges felt the study had come at the expense of more practical bedroom storage, which was described as “pitiful”.
There were elements they liked, including the curtains and ceiling treatment, but the overall bedroom was considered too safe and generic.
Darren summed up the problem this way:
“Nothing bad or offensive, but nothing innovative or defining,” he said.
He later added:
“It presents just fine, but could have been done eight years ago.”
Shaynna was more severe, describing the design as “very basic 101 styling” before saying it “feels like a bad hotel”.
For Marty, simply being competent was no longer enough at this stage of the competition.
“They’ve done OK, but OK isn’t good enough at this price point,” Marty said.
Then the judges entered the ensuite — and the tone changed almost instantly.
The tiles, raw timber vanity, sconces and storage all attracted strong praise, with the vanity labelled “the best vanity we’ve seen today”.
Darren was emphatic.
“All of it is heaven,” he said.
Marty went even further.
“This would be my first 10,” he said, adding: “Can’t fault it.”
In another assessment, he described the bathroom itself as effectively 10 out of 10, but the weaker bedroom meant the overall suite could not reach that level.
It left Lisa and Rosco with one of the night’s biggest contrasts: a bedroom the judges regarded as basic sitting alongside an ensuite they thought could have warranted a perfect score.
Their estimated budget was $30,000.00, while their cash spend came in at $29,900.14.
They finished judging with 23½ points.
House 4: Courtney and Sev
If Lisa and Rosco produced the night’s biggest contrast, Courtney and Sev delivered its most complete package.
The pair again took on an ambitious reworking of their floor plan, repositioning the bedroom doorway and using the altered layout to create a larger, self-contained suite with its own kitchenette.
Their week had not been straightforward. Tiling reportedly had to be removed and started again, but by reveal time there was little evidence of those difficulties.
The immediate reaction from the judges was simple.
“Wow,” they said as they took in the room.
The suite included a television, sink, coffee machine, fridge, toaster, kettle and substantial storage, giving it a level of amenity the other guest spaces could not match.
Moving the doorway was labelled “genius”, particularly because it allowed Courtney and Sev to tap into plumbing and make the kitchenette possible while retaining storage.
With access to a private courtyard as well, the room had effectively become a self-contained area within the house.
Marty was impressed enough to compare it favourably with one of their previous major rooms.
“I actually prefer this suite to the main bedroom,” he said.
The custom Grafico bedhead was another major feature.
It was described as “phenomenal”, with Darren impressed by how expensive the wallpaper appeared.
“It looks so expensive,” he said.
“It feels like grasscloth paper, but it’s vinyl wallpaper.”
For Marty, the finish represented a major step up.
“The quality is just next level,” he said.
Shaynna felt something the judges had been searching for throughout the day: a genuine sense that the room was somewhere she could imagine staying.
“That feels like I could live here,” she said.
She made the same point more explicitly during judging:
“This is the first room today that I feel like I could live here”.
Darren saw very little to criticise.
“Very hard to fault from what it offers,” he said.
He also described the finished suite as “It feels luxurious, like a hotel suite.”
The praise continued in the ensuite.
The glistening Beaumont tiles impressed Shaynna, who said: “How pretty, this just feels like it glistens.”
Marty then reeled off the room’s strengths.
“We have amazing mood lighting, appropriate storage, incredible stone, horizontal towel rails, not a pokey shower,” Marty said.
“I’m so happy.”
Elsewhere in the judging, he summed up the result with another short verdict: “I’m so happy, this room has it all.”
The judges also highlighted the stone, storage, towel rails, tapware, roomy shower, basin, curved details and signature sconces.
For a team that had repeatedly attempted ambitious designs, this was the week when scale, amenity and execution came together.
Their budget estimate was $31,616.20, with a cash spend of $32,418.98.
The result would put them comfortably on top of the leaderboard.
House 5: Rick and Tayla
The most difficult judging of the night belonged to House 5, where Rick remained away from the site recovering from an infected knee.
That left Tayla carrying much of the responsibility for the week, with former contestant Spence Thomson, from the 2018 season, arriving to help, while Tayla’s twin sister also joined the effort.
Throughout the build, Tayla had spoken about wanting to prove herself while her father was away, saying she was “going to make her dad proud” and “show him what she’s made of”.
Her guest room again took some design risks, particularly through a green Grafico feature wall that she described as “stunning, but it is out there”.
The judges, however, struggled to see the overall concept coming together.
The area intended as a kitchenette was described as a “study dressed up to look like a kitchenette” because it did not provide the amenities found in House 4.
Darren initially tried to identify the elements that worked, saying “some of the separate things are good”.
But looking at the room in its entirety, he was less convinced.
“It’s so close but not there,” he sighed.
Marty was significantly less restrained.
“This is terrible,” he said.
In another exchange, he responded to Darren’s assessment with: “You’re so kind … This is terrible.”
He then began identifying specific problems.
“Look at that barn door. The doona looks like carpet.”
The entrance became a major concern.
“Why have they put in a barn door with this kind of external architecture?” Marty asked.
The styling also came under sustained scrutiny.
The judges pointed to the doona, a mirror leaning against curtains, an outdoor chair at the desk, a bottle of wine on the bedside table, a book about air fryers and plants positioned around the room.
Shaynna thought the collection of objects lacked the sophistication and cohesion expected from the house.
“This is not sophisticated, this is not high end, we could be in Greece,” Shaynna said.
One plant was described as a “dead little plant sitting in the corner”.
When another was discovered underneath the study desk, Shaynna broke into laughter.
“Every week I say don’t put a plant in the corner, and they put a plant under the desk,” she said.
As the laughter continued, she eventually managed only: “I can’t breathe.”
Back at headquarters, Scott Cam observed: “This has always been a nightmare of hers.”
For Marty, however, the concern went beyond a handful of styling decisions.
“It’s unsellable,” he declared.
The supplied account elsewhere rendered the same verdict as “It’s unsaleable,” but the broader concern was unchanged: the judges did not believe House 5 had established a coherent direction.
The ensuite did fare better initially.
The green marble and tile selections were strong features, but closer examination exposed further problems, including the location of the lighting.
“Oh wait, the whole thing is cooked,” Marty said.
One light was effectively a “spotlight” over the toilet.
The judges’ final concern was about the broader identity of the house and whether Rick and Tayla understood the buyer they were designing for.
Shaynna framed it in stark terms.
“We’re worried about their house, worried about their sale, and we’re worried that they’re not going to go in the right direction moving forward,” she said.
When the discussion turned to what sort of home they were creating, Marty quipped: “I know what it is, it’s a pass-in home.”
The financial figures also made the result harder to absorb.
Rick and Tayla had estimated a budget of $19,601.00, but their cash spend reached $30,406.27.
They would finish the night at the bottom of the leaderboard with 17 points.
The prize pool grows before judging
Before the final scores were revealed, Scott Cam announced more prizes had been added to the competition.
A Speediance Gym Monster 2 and an Elsewhere Pods portable gym were added to the Plungie Pool Prize, taking the overall value of that prize package to more than $300,000.00.
There was also the weekly CommBank Budget award to settle.
That went to Adam and Jolene, whose $17,002.10 spend had exceeded their $17,000.00 estimate by only $2.10, earning them $10,000.00.
Then came the judges’ scores.
Darren Palmer
Adam and Jolene — 8½
Chantel and Wyatt — 9½
Lisa and Rosco — 7½
Courtney and Sev — 10
Rick and Tayla — 6
Marty Fox
Adam and Jolene — 9
Chantel and Wyatt — 8½
Lisa and Rosco — 8
Courtney and Sev — 10
Rick and Tayla — 5
Shaynna Blaze
Adam and Jolene — 8
Chantel and Wyatt — 7½
Lisa and Rosco — 8
Courtney and Sev — 9½
Rick and Tayla — 6
The final Guest Suite Week leaderboard
Courtney and Sev were clear winners on 29½ points, with the result delivering their third room win of the series.
The victory also produced the season’s first perfect 10s — and not just one.
Both Darren and Marty awarded House 4 a 10, helping push the pair to within half a point of a perfect total.
The win earned Courtney and Sev $10,000.00 from Chery, while the two perfect scores added another $20,000.00, giving them a $30,000.00 haul for the week.
They were followed by a tie for second, with both Adam and Jolene and Chantel and Wyatt on 25½ points.
Lisa and Rosco finished behind them on 23½ points, while Rick and Tayla were last with 17 points.
The final order was:
1st — Courtney and Sev: 29½
Equal 2nd — Adam and Jolene: 25½
Equal 2nd — Chantel and Wyatt: 25½
3rd — Lisa and Rosco: 23½
4th — Rick and Tayla: 17
For Courtney and Sev, the result represented a major rebound after less successful weeks and demonstrated what the judges believed their ambitious designs could achieve when backed by strong execution.
For Chantel and Wyatt, another high score without a room win kept alive the question at the centre of their season: whether their neutral, broad-market strategy will prove more valuable at the end of The Block than it has been to the judges each week.
For Adam and Jolene, the night provided confirmation that their use of colour and stronger identity could work, while the CommBank win rewarded tight financial control.
For Lisa and Rosco, finally completing an ensuite broke their bathroom curse, only for the bedroom to prevent what the judges suggested could otherwise have been a much bigger result.
And for Rick and Tayla, the judges’ reaction made clear that they believe the house still needs a more coherent design direction as the competition enters its second half.
Attention now turns to Kitchen Week, with the next episode teased as another major challenge and a $100,000 surprise from Scott Cam also flagged.
