The Block 2026 closed the door on its final week of interior renovations on Monday night, with a double room reveal, a perfect score, a $50,000 payday and another judging controversy leaving Lisa and Rosco questioning whether all five houses were being judged by the same rules.
With landscaping looming, the five teams had one final interior assignment: complete their designated kids’ bedroom while revisiting a room that had failed to impress Shaynna Blaze, Darren Palmer and Marty Fox earlier in the competition.
It was a sizeable workload at the end of what had already been a combative week.
The contestants had been given sponsor products and Block Bucks, while Scott Cam had suggested a cash budget of $20,000 for the week’s new bedroom. Domain then added another $10,000 for each team to revisit a previous room that had not landed with the judges.
That came on top of the Domain Buyer’s Jury and Listing Challenge, which had already handed Adam and Jolene a massive $50,000 victory and sparked fresh debate around inspiration, copying and what contestants should be allowed to borrow from their neighbours.
There had also been tensions involving Chantel and Wyatt, Courtney and Sev and Lisa and Rosco, following the fallout from House 4’s earlier perfect scores.
By Saturday morning, with only 24 hours remaining until the double reveal, the teams were racing to complete what would be their last work inside the houses before moving outdoors.
For Rick and Tayla, that pressure was showing.
With painting still to be finished, Tayla told Rick they were too far behind and pushed him to work faster.
It proved one instruction too many.
Asked whether he was getting over the experience, Rick went further.
“I’m over her,” he reckons.
The dispute eventually gave way to Sunday morning, when work briefly took a back seat after Dan and Dani arrived with their four-week-old son, Fletcher.
Then came the familiar scramble to tools down.
With the interiors officially complete, Scott Cam gathered the contestants and detailed a major collection of additions to the Plungie prize pool.
The week’s room reveal prize included a Kinsman kitchen valued at $50,000, Levantine Hill wine valued at $10,000, a year’s supply of Arnott’s biscuits and $10,000 of flooring from Flooring Xtra.
Those additions pushed the Plungie prize pool beyond $400,000.
Before the room judging began, Scott also announced House 2’s Chantel and Wyatt had won the $10,000 CommBank Better Budgeting Award.
Adam and Jolene: the high of $50,000 gives way to a brutal judging
For Adam and Jolene, the reveal came after one of their biggest successes of the competition.
Fresh from winning the Domain Buyer’s Jury and Listing Challenge and collecting $50,000, they entered judging hoping that momentum would carry into their kids’ bedroom and redo room.
Instead, the judges were immediately puzzled.
They had been asked for a kids’ bedroom, but the trio did not believe House 1 had delivered one.
The room’s wardrobe became one of the biggest issues.
Marty Fox thought the shelving-heavy configuration offered nowhere near enough hanging space, joking it appeared capable of accommodating only “three blazers”.
Scott Cam then relayed Darren Palmer’s assessment.
“Darren said if you were an adult living in here, you’d be super pissed off,” Scotty reads.
For Darren, the room was simply “meh”.
Marty went further, describing it as a bad room, while Shaynna Blaze questioned how the finish compared with the couple’s success in the buyer’s challenge.
“because this feels a bit lazy”.
The styling also drew attention from Shaynna, including the decision to position hand cream beside the bed.
The judges then moved into Adam and Jolene’s Week 1 guest bedroom, which had been selected as their redo room.
Again, the reaction was underwhelming.
Despite having access to the additional $10,000 redo allocation, Marty did not believe enough had changed.
“Well they’re saving that for plants because they’ve done pretty minimal,” Marty says of the $10,000 they were given to update this space.
Shaynna delivered an even harsher verdict, including an unwanted award for the room’s flowers.
“It’s just another lazy room and that has to be the worst flower arrangement this season,” Shaynna said, while Darren added, “The two rooms they have shown us today could still be redo rooms.”
The judges’ assessment left House 1 well short of the standard they had reached in the previous challenge.
Their estimated budget was $13,800, while their reported cash spend came to $16,734.34.
Chantel and Wyatt: another missed brief and a living room standoff
If the judges had been disappointed that Adam and Jolene had not delivered an obvious kids’ room, their frustration only increased when they entered Chantel and Wyatt’s bedroom.
Shaynna Blaze immediately questioned the pattern emerging across the houses.
“Is there an allergy to children?” Shaynna asks.
While House 2’s layout was considered an improvement on House 1’s, the positives largely ended there.
Darren Palmer found a long list of issues with the chest of drawers.
Marty Fox considered the room “so forgettable”, while Shaynna was unconvinced by the overall styling.
The judges felt the room lacked the clear identity they expected from the kids’ bedroom brief and regarded the finish as another missed opportunity.
That disappointment quickly turned into outright frustration when they entered Chantel and Wyatt’s redo living and dining room.
The judges had previously urged the couple to flip the room’s layout to better make use of the view.
They had not done it.
For Shaynna, seeing that advice ignored again was infuriating.
“I’m sorry, these guys are so stubborn it’s ridiculous,” Shaynna fumes.
Her frustration continued.
“If I could get them in front of me I would shake them and just say ‘What are you doing?!’”
In another version of the judging reaction, her point was just as clear.
“I’m beyond frustrated. If I could get them in front of me, I would shake them and say: ‘What are you doing?’” Shaynna said.
It was Marty Fox, however, who supplied the description of the night.
He called the pair “askholes” — people who ask for advice and then ignore it.
Chantel and Wyatt rejected the label, pointing out they did not believe they had asked for the judges’ advice in the first place.
Their estimated room budget was $14,000, with a reported cash spend of $14,319.10.
The result would eventually leave them at the bottom of the scoreboard.
Lisa and Rosco: finally the kids’ room the judges wanted
After the first two houses missed the brief in the judges’ eyes, Lisa and Rosco gave the panel what it had been waiting for.
The House 3 bedroom was clearly designed for a child, but with enough flexibility to grow with them.
The judges praised its simple approach, consistent colour and texture palette, wardrobe design and reading nook.
The nook, which featured kangaroo wallpaper, was seen as a feature that could easily evolve in later years by replacing elements such as the styling with a mirror.
For Shaynna, the room finally brought some joy back into judging.
She praised the sense of fantasy and believed the room successfully sold the idea of childhood without making the space permanently juvenile.
She also connected the design to Lisa and Rosco’s family.
“Lisa and Rosco are pregnant with their second child and that’s why you can feel the love in the room,” she tells her colleagues.
Darren Palmer was equally impressed by the lighting, furniture, styling and finish.
“they’ve knocked it out of the park”.
Their success carried into the redo room.
Lisa and Rosco returned to their guest suite, changing the wallpaper and replacing furniture.
For Darren, the improvement was immediate.
“The success continues,” Darren says.
The judges regarded it as one of the strongest bedrooms produced on The Block, but one unfinished detail became crucial.
Darren spotted painting on the bedroom skirting that had not been completed and indicated that it would prevent him giving the room a perfect score.
That observation struck a nerve with Lisa, particularly after the previous week’s debate surrounding perfect scores for Courtney and Sev despite unfinished skirting.
“But you don’t need to paint skirtings to get 10s,” Lisa fires back.
That frustration only deepened as judging continued.
The estimated budget for House 3 was $16,395.44, while their reported cash spend was $14,016.33.
Courtney and Sev: colour, detail and another copying debate
Next came Courtney and Sev, already at the centre of one of the week’s most persistent questions.
Would the judges penalise House 4 for installing a mirror and fireplace in their revised living room after similar ideas had already appeared in Adam and Jolene’s home?
Before that issue could be confronted, however, there was the kids’ room.
And this time there was no doubt about the brief.
The judges immediately recognised it as a proper children’s bedroom and praised its use of colour.
It was described as the most colourful room they had seen during the season, while its execution and attention to detail drew widespread approval.
The CSR sound style wave bedhead was among the features praised, while the judges believed the smaller details — the so-called one-percenters — were helping distinguish House 4.
Like Lisa and Rosco’s bedroom, the judges also believed the space could grow with the child or eventually be restyled for an adult.
Darren Palmer explained why.
“There’s nothing childish about this room apart from the way it’s been styled and the things that have been included,” Darren says.
The reaction was even bigger when the trio entered Courtney and Sev’s redone living and dining area.
A fireplace had been added.
So had a mirror — positioned in the same place as House 1’s.
Darren could not help wondering how the neighbours might react.
“Darren says, ‘You do really wonder how House 1 is going to feel about this redo room…’” Scotty reads.
The issue had been hanging over Courtney and Sev during the week, with Sev already preparing a defence of their design choices.
“Here’s my rebuttal. I am fairly confident that (Jolene) got her inspiration from somewhere,” Sev explained.
“That’s how life goes. You get inspired by what you see and what you hear. So, it was always on our radar we just finally got some money from Scotty Cam to implement it. They should be flattered.”
Whatever questions remained about where the inspiration had come from, the judges were emphatic about the finished result.
Darren thought the living room was better in every respect.
Marty Fox was even more effusive.
“This is perfect!” Marty Fox said with delight.
He then praised the fireplace and its placement.
“It’s the only house with a fire that’s an afterthought in the perfect location. And look at the marble insert! It’s one of the best living spaces in Block history.”
That final assessment would prove prophetic when the scores arrived.
Courtney and Sev’s estimated budget was $12,255.15, while their reported cash spend was $11,920.
Rick and Tayla: a confusing kids’ room and a redo that did not go far enough
After their earlier painting argument, Rick and Tayla went into judging presenting a bedroom aimed at an older child.
The judges were not entirely sure who it was for.
There were elements pointing towards an older teen or tween, but the teddy bear created a different message.
Marty Fox summed up his reaction immediately.
“I’m a bit confused,” Marty reacts.
Darren Palmer was more positive.
For a start, the judges noticed there was no plant sitting underneath the desk.
“Let’s start with the positive, there’s no plant under the desk,” Darren joked, while Marty felt the room was “in the space of forgettable”.
There was, however, a large plant on the Grafico pampas grass wallpaper, which Darren liked.
He ultimately believed the room worked better as a tween space.
“This is probably a successful tween room because they do aspire to be bigger kids,” he says.
Other styling decisions were harder for the judges to understand.
Shaynna Blaze questioned the small table and ottomans in the corner, while the combination of pendant lighting and lamps directly below also caused confusion.
Tayla had left a note explaining a mirror would eventually be fixed to the wall, only for Marty to point out that this particular mirror was designed to lean.
The judges then entered the redone living, dining and alfresco space.
They appreciated changes including the new couch and artwork, and were pleased there was less empty floor area than before.
But after seeing what Courtney and Sev had achieved with their living room, House 5’s redo felt incomplete.
Shaynna was particularly unimpressed by a small decorative painting, saying she thought it belonged in a $2 shop.
“I’m disappointed”.
Their estimated budget was $11,984.70, while their reported cash spend came to $11,523.
The scores deliver a perfect 30 — and another controversy
When it came time for scoring, Courtney and Sev quickly emerged as the team to beat.
Before all three judges’ scores had even been revealed, the pair had already secured $20,000.
Then came confirmation of the season’s first perfect total.
Darren Palmer, Marty Fox and Shaynna Blaze each awarded Courtney and Sev a 10, giving them 30 points and their fifth room win.
The victory was worth $10,000 from Chery and another $10,000 from Domain, while their overall haul for the night was announced as $50,000.
House 3’s Lisa and Rosco finished just behind them on 29 points, with Darren Palmer awarding 9.5, Marty Fox giving them a 10, and Shaynna Blaze scoring 9.5.
The runner-up finish proved particularly difficult for Lisa.
She had just received a perfect score from Marty, but the earlier criticism of the unpainted skirting — combined with the previous week’s judging of Courtney and Sev — left her upset rather than celebratory.
“We’re all getting pulled up for the exact things that they got 10s for last week,” a tearful Lisa explained.
“It’s hard when you put your heart and soul into something and there’s different rules for different people. It starts to feel like, what’s the point? If we had gotten that score without those comments it would have been much easier to swallow.”
Rosco shared that frustration.
“It just seems like there are different rules for different people,” Rosco agrees. “So what’s the point?”
For Lisa and Rosco, another near-perfect result had again left them just short of the win.
Behind the top two houses, Adam and Jolene and Rick and Tayla tied for third place on 21.5 points.
Adam and Jolene received 7.5 from Darren Palmer, 7 from Marty Fox and 7 from Shaynna Blaze.
Rick and Tayla received the same combined total, with 7.5 from Darren, 7 from Marty and 7 from Shaynna.
At the bottom of the scoreboard were Chantel and Wyatt on 17.5 points, made up of 6.5 from Darren Palmer, 6 from Marty Fox and 5 from Shaynna Blaze.
The final leaderboard was:
Courtney and Sev — 30
Lisa and Rosco — 29
Adam and Jolene — 21.5
Rick and Tayla — 21.5
Chantel and Wyatt — 17.5
With the final interior rooms now judged, the competition is moving outside for landscaping — but the fallout from the scoring, the copying accusations and the battle over what does and does not deserve a 10 is unlikely to disappear with it.
