Inside The Block 2016 Week 9 Terrace Reveals

The Block 2016 is drawing to a close and I reckon they’ve saved the best for last. Unveiling the terraces, balconies and outdoor areas this week had me oohing and aahing like never before.

This week, I actually went on a tour of The Block apartments and saw all of these spaces in-person. And it changed a lot of my initial thoughts. I’m dedicating an entire blog post to the tour, which will be on the blog in a few days. But let me tell you… it’s very different in the flesh.

This week also saw the reveal of the re-do rooms. But I’d much rather concentrate on the outdoor spaces in this weeks recap, as there is far more to be gained by examining what did and didn’t work in these areas.

Want to know more about The Block? Read our ultimate guide to every season!

So let’s dive right in!

Kim and Chris’ Terrace

There is so much going for this outdoor space. Kim and Chris may have created rooms that I’ve deemed fairly middle-of-the-road in the past, but their skills on the terrace are undoubtably brilliant.

Firstly, the vertical garden at the end of the terrace was everything. It’s possibly right up there as one of the best moments in terms of outdoor areas on the series thus far. Kim and Chris do greenery really well.

Secondly, the colour palette was bang on. Fresh, contemporary, and muted enough that you could make it your own. The outdoor kitchen was also beautiful.

The one critique I do have is the TV. I’m personally not for a TV outdoors. It seems a miss to point an entire sectional outdoor sofa toward the TV and away from the views. I’d rather sit on that outdoor sofa and look at the vertical garden.

Considering there is a living room just metres away from the terrace, I don’t see the point in creating an outdoor TV zone.

Julia and Sasha’s Terrace

The devil is in the detail when it comes to Julia and Sasha’s designs, and it showed once again in their terrace this week.

From the two-toned floor tiles, to the wall lighting, to the black roof paint… it all made for a space that felt well-resolved. And again (as they do every week) this zone spoke to the rest of the home perfectly.

J&S did what I wanted Kim and Chris to do; point their lounge area toward the view. And I think it looks a lot nicer done this way.

There is a sense of effortlessness in this zone that’s actually quite hard to pull off. The best spaces never look like they were laboured over, and I this is a great example of that.

Karlie and Will’s Terrace

More an urban jungle than a terrace, I was most impressed by Karlie and Will’s zone out of all the areas revealed this week. I’m surprised they didn’t come first.

It was everything I love about an outdoor area; textural, colourful, unique and with a tonne of different pockets, nooks and crannies. I am sold! I want to have a party here. I’ll hire the space if need be.

Karlie and Will thought of everything in this zone, and the flow from indoor to out is a winner. The interior and exterior make sense side-by-side, and it is definitely the apartment’s wow moment.

The wood used for the deck is so good it hurts.

Dan and Carleen’s Terrace

Let me start off by saying this; the design and decorating in Dan and Carleen’s terrace is phenomenal. The colour palette is on-point, the materials used were amazing, the pattern play was up there with the best of them, and I loved all the greenery.

The biggest flaw: this whole space belongs in an interior space, not an outdoor terrace.

Leather sofas on a balcony is a clear fail. Two giant shelves on a terrace; what are you going to store or display on these shelves that won’t move, fall and break when the wind hits? I was also not a fan of the elaborate mirror either. And the dining setting doesn’t look to be an outdoor one.

The moment a storm hit, this entire zone would be deemed useless. I am confused as to their approach here. It’s completely impractical.

Andy and Ben’s Terrace

Did Andy and Ben run out of time or money, or was this actually a finished room? I’m not completely up-to-speed on what their thought process was here, but there is an obvious lack of finish in this terrace.

I understand what the judges said about it feeling like a bunker. I actually don’t mind an outdoor area feeling like an outdoor area. It’s a polar opposite to Dan and Carleen’s zone, which felt completely indoors, but it just needed to be taken a step further.

It needed a few white walls to give it some modernity and life, more greenery, a second zone (a lounge would have been nice) and some kind of outdoor kitchen. You can actually pull off a stylish, blokey man-cave vibe in an outdoor area, but this didn’t do it.

And the TV. Again, it’s a no from me on TV’s outdoors.

Stay tuned on the blog this week as I give you all the goss from my tour of The Block apartments!