Best & Worst from The Block 2022 Guest Room and Kids Bedrooms Reveals

It must be said, The Block 2022 Guest Bedrooms / Kids Bedrooms reveal wasn’t mind-blowing, was it? It did not make me clucky. It did not have me looking up surrogacy agencies or buying a bassinet for my cats. It certainly didn’t have me wallpapering my ceiling.

Were you underwhelmed too? I was hoping for a space as amazing as this kid’s bedroom from Luke and Jasmine or this one from Sarah and George. But like any time I try low-calorie wine, it was a sobering experience that left me disappointed.

It will come as no surprise that I didn’t agree with the scoreboard this week either. I’m not sure I’ve agreed with the scoreboard on any reveal this year so far. I’d rate this week’s rooms in order of best to worst as follows:

1. Dylan and Jenny
2. Ankur and Sharon (yes!)
3. Rachel and Ryan
4. Tom and Sarah Jane
5. Omar and Oz

Let’s dive into The Block 2022 Guest Bedrooms / Kids Bedrooms reveal below and then let me know at the end in the comments if you agree or not.

Dylan and Jenny Came First

For a room that’s leaning heavily into a toddler vibe, there’s a lot to like. The colour palette, for starters, ties into the one used in Dylan and Jenny’s kitchen, butler’s, laundry and mud room. So they get points for cohesion; an element that’s MIA in most other homes this season.

The hanging chair is also a standout moment. Who doesn’t love a hanging chair? I’ve not been this impressed by something hung since I saw Matt Shirvington run in the 2000 Olympics (if you know, you know). And the artwork, as per usual this season, is everything and then some.

It’s a light and ethereal room, it has a sense of charm and whimsy, and there’s plenty of storage. So all in all, they deserved first place. Was it a jaw-drop design? No. But with so many other rooms this week failing to impress, this is the clear winner.

It’s Not All Sunshine and Rainbows Though

Sure the room deserved to win, but like Nick Nolte in almost every Google Image search result, it looks like it needs a good tidy up. And that’s not a thought you want to have when you’re looking to purchase a home. There’s a sense of charm in this room, no doubt, but it needs editing.

We have lions, monkeys, koalas, a wombat and at least three different species of rabbit toy living in this bedroom. It creates a lot of visual clutter. The addition of wainscoting on one side of the room that stops at the wallpaper is also throwing my design eye into twitch mode.

On a sidenote, it would have been smarter to make this a kids room that was more easily-transformed into a proper guest room if need be. The wallpaper stops you from doing that as it’s quite obviously childlike.

And as much as we love a bunk bed here at TLC Interiors, two king single beds with a bedside between them would have been far more successful.

Rachel and Ryan Came Second

This room looks very… shall we say… lived in. And by that I mean it looks less staged for sale and more get in the naughty chair for not putting your Play-doh away. Why is there a throw blanket trying to escape its tomb? Why are there crayons sitting out on the table?

I get the ‘sell the lifestyle’ concept when staging a home, but this is taking it a step too far. I don’t get aspiration from this room at all. I get the urge to hide from the kids in the butler’s pantry with a glass of happy juice until the noise simmers down.

I’m being facetious, I know, but it’s just not what I expected from Rachel and Ryan, who are my fave team in the competition. I don’t hold it against them that they leant into the kids-room vibe if that’s where they want to take it, but the execution isn’t great.

There Are Some Positives to Highlight

This room, unlike Dylan and Jenny’s, could turn into an adult room if it needed to. The wallpaper they selected allows for that. Dylan and Jenny’s was very juvenile, but at least this one doesn’t feel like something you’d have to cover over if it was to be a teen space or proper guest bed.

There’s heaps of storage too, which every buyer will love, I’m just not certain that tone of blue on the wardrobe fronts has enough mass-appeal. I applaud them for trying to inject a bit of colour, but I don’t feel it works alongside the tone of the wallpaper either.

I know I keep saying this, so forgive me for repeating myself, but the art on The Block 2022 is some of the best I’ve seen on the series in years. The one in this space from Rachel and Ryan is sublime.

Sadly my frontrunners have fallen from grace this week, but I’m sure they’ll bounce back.

Tom and Sarah Jane Came Third

I have to come right out and say it: the crib in the middle of the room creeps me out. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I watch too many horror movies. There’s a Rosemary’s Baby element there that I can’t unsee. But I’ll agree with Shaynna about this room; it is easily transformable.

Tom and Sarah Jane have created a space that could convert into an adult room. That was a very smart decision to make. That aside, the design choices here aren’t successful. This room hasn’t got enough going on in it, but what is there doesn’t work.

It’s an uncomfortable space visually. The spearmint green on the wainscoting is very unappealing. The oddly placed (and oversized) side table and armchair don’t make sense. The pink rug is an odd size and in a weird orientation. And the drawers and change table are under-scaled.

Let’s Talk About the Wallpaper

I don’t think the wallpaper on the ceiling is successful. But I appreciate that they tried. It’s good to see teams pushing boundaries and not going all-beige all the time.

But with every risky design move comes the potential for it to backfire (see: blue tartan wallpaper. Also see: purple tartan wallpaper). And there are lessons to be learned from these risks.

In this room, the wallpaper is quite dominant. It would have been a more harmonious feel if everything else in the room was pared back and supported it. But that’s not what’s happened. Shaynna is correct: the wainscoting needed to be a much darker green.

More importantly, the furniture and decor needed to be very subdued, very quiet. Like the batch of contestants on any reality dating show, there’s a lot of noise in here and too many loudmouths fighting one another.

The wardrobe door (below) opening onto the door to the room was also an odd choice. The shelving should have gone here instead.

Ankur and Sharon Came Fourth

I’ve only said it once this year, but I gotta say it a second time: Justice for Ankur and Sharon! I’ve been hard on their designs this season, for good reason, but they got a raw deal this week. The short end of the stick. The Kevin of the Jonas Brothers.

The feedback that this room is noticeably different to the rest of their home is about eight weeks too late. This seems to be their signature, that every room bears no connection to the one before it. I’ve come to accept that. And so in judging this room independently, it’s actually very nice.

The blue wardrobes speak perfectly to the floral wallpaper. Whether you like the style of the wallpaper itself is another story, but you can’t deny the two elements work well together. The wainscoting works, the lights above the bed are phenomenal. The styling is quaint.

Why fourth place? These guys deserved second place, without a doubt. It’s a better room than both Rachel & Ryan’s and Tom and Sarah Jane.

There’s Room For Improvement, Of Course

There must have been a flash sale at the Macedon Ranges Rattan Emporium, because there’s a lot of it in this kids room. Some textural variance with the furniture pieces would have been appreciated, but they can easily be swapped out for something else.

And sure, the fox and rabbit artworks are too much on top of such a dramatic wallpaper design. But again, an easy swap-out. The mirror above the bed with those (gorgeous) lights is overkill, and the pendant is a bit basic. But once again, all easy fixes.

The only major issue I see that should have been clocked was the shelf on the right-side of the run of wardrobes. It would have made more sense on the left side (closer to the head of the bed) so you could fit two bedside tables in the room.

All in all though I’m still confused as to why they came fourth. To quote Kath Day-Knight, I am one confused tramp.

Omar and Oz Came Last

I see no issue with selling this as a four bedroom home. Let me put that out there. I see no issue with losing a guest bedroom to gain a TV room either. In fact, one living space in a home of this size feels like the mistake.

A family buying this home, quite frankly, will want and probably expect a second place to watch TV. I live in a two bedroom apartment with my partner and even I want a second place to go watch TV (He can’t stand The Real Housewives, which is probably grounds for divorce).

So the issue for me is not about the decision to lose a bedroom. As Shaynna said, just have a stylish sofa bed like one of these ones in there. It’s the fact that this room was so poorly executed. Almost everything about it is unsuccessful.

There Are So Many Issues

Opening a door to hit the side of a sofa is not ideal. Sitting that close to the TV and fireplace is not ideal. You could take bread to the sofa and turn it into toast in seconds. And all of that cabinetry, I don’t understand it. Why so many shelves in such a small space?

The shelves are the biggest issue for me. They definitely give this room the absolute inability to become anything else other than what it is. The wallpaper makes no sense either, nor does the mirror on the wall to the right of the fireplace. This whole room feels like the ‘before’ shot.

The only saving grace, actually, is the sofa. It’s a beautiful looking piece with a real sense of comfort to it. We’ve actually specified it for one of our design clients, so I can attest to its gorgeousness.

What did you make of The Block 2022 guest bedrooms / kids bedrooms? Drop a comment below and let me know your thoughts.

Images for this post were supplied by The Block Shop. Check out Nine Now for more of The Block 2022 guest bedrooms / kids bedrooms reveal.