The Block 2026 Living Rooms, Dining Rooms and Alfresco Reveals

The Block 2026 living rooms, dining rooms and alfresco zones were all revealed in one week. A huge undertaking for the teams, no doubt. But gang, real talk: it was a bit of a letdown, wasn’t it?

If there was a drinking game where you had to take a shot every time the judges mentioned the view I’d be in the ER getting my stomach pumped four minutes into critiques. Thankfully I refrained from playing, but did indulge in a Bex and a lie down due to some rather frustrating design moments.

From bonkers layouts, too-small furniture and pizza oven fireplaces, this week’s Block rooms left a lot to be desired. Let’s dive in and talk it all out below. And don’t forget to jump over to Facebook and Instagram to let me know your thoughts.

Adam and Jolene Came First

I have to say it from the get go: the entire mirrored wall in the living room is a hard no. It’s transporting me back to 1980s suburbia (and not in the cute way like rewatching Home & Away episodes and wishing you owned the hamburger phone). Nothing about that mirror feels quietly luxurious.

As a designer who lives in an apartment with a great view, let me declare: your internal design decisions do not all have to hinge on orienting everything toward the view.

There’s something special about moving to particular vantage points in the home to experience the view. So, mirror be gone! And while we’re talking quiet luxury, the sofas aren’t it. The pendant light isn’t it. The fabric on the sofa should have been far more muted – think eucalypt and not olive – with a pendant made from a softer material.

The TV wall feels quite brutal too. That huge backlit section projecting out is rather aggressive; the Nickelback of TV surrounds. The stone underneath is rather lovely, as is the fabric seat on top, but outside of that I don’t find a lot to love about this room.

The Alfresco Zone Was A Little Sad

This is absolutely not the contestants fault, but that exterior cladding – eek. It’s so dominant in appearance and in no way relates to anything that any of the teams are doing internally. Your exterior and interior should always be speaking a similar language. Sadly we need an interpreter.

Whoever chose those facades cannot be the same person who dictated the ‘quiet luxury’ brief. In the right hands someone could create a subdued lodge feel internally that would make that cladding work (with some darker charcoal tones in furnishing). But, it’s not happening here, and it’s made for some very disjointed properties.

Adam and Jolene’s alfresco zone itself, from a furnishing perspective, is a little sad. It feels like an afterthought. For these homes, with what we’re told over and over is a stunning outlook, it’s very unfortunate. This is the zone you need to make epic. Put a good chunk of your budget into it and cut costs in your dining room.

Lisa and Rosco Came Second

It’s interesting that Lisa and Rosco’s living room has the same layout and coffee tables as Adam and Jolene, but it feels infinitely more ‘quiet luxury’. Even the sofas have a similar profile. In this space though, there’s a sense of calm and refinement, with pieces that feel harmonious as a collection. They are this week’s winners for me.

The colour palette in both the living and dining is very successful. It’s a good example of how a room can feel calm and ambient without being all-white. Their TV wall is way more considered, resolved and impressive than any of the others this week, too. The curved portion of stone on the floor in front of the fireplace is brilliant, and I adore the stack of logs underneath.

Apart from the linear pendant light over the rectangular dining table (something I never do and you shouldn’t either), and the sideboard not running the full width of the artwork above it, I have no notes for this living and dining room. It’s a very impressive result from Lisa and Rosco and they’ve kept me away from the Bex and Savvy B this week. So far, anyway…

The Alfresco Was Also a Winner

Like inside, this alfresco was a winner for me. Lounge seating, tick. Dining table, tick. Built-in BBQ, tick. There was nothing not to love apart from that already-mentioned external cladding.

I need to take a moment to address something I actually can’t cope with: the insistence that everything has to face the view. I know I mentioned it above, but it was laid on so thick during judging this week that it bears repeating: your entire home does not need to face the view!

At this rate they’ll request teams knock down all the internal walls so when you’re on the toilet five rooms away you can take in the sweeping vista of Port Phillip Bay. Enough already.

Courtney and Sev Came Third

We have a sofa in the middle of the room too close to the TV, a rippled floor rug, and an odd armchair area on the back wall. I feel the same about Courtney and Sev’s room as I do about Richard Marx on The Voice: how did this happen and how can we ensure it doesn’t again?

This layout just isn’t successful. I’ve explained how to orient furniture in an open plan living room before, and this isn’t how it’s done. Apart from the appropriately-sized artwork (a stunner, btw), the scale in this room is completely off.

Stylistically, I don’t mind the stone that runs under the TV, and the nest of coffee tables are rather beautiful. Those features aren’t enough to redeem this room though.

It not only misses the ‘quiet luxury’ brief, but it bears no resemblance to the other rooms they’ve delivered so far. You want your entire home to have cohesion; a consistent look and feel throughout. It’s one of the big focuses for me when I design an interior; rooms needing to speak to one another. They didn’t achieve that here.

The Alfresco Was Fine, but Not Great

I can’t really say that the alfresco is designed. It’s furnished, sure, but it’s not designed. They placed a dining table on one side and a seating area on the other. And the furniture is nice, don’t get me wrong, but some more permanent features would have made it far more impressive.

It’s not selling a fantasy or a dream to me as a potential buyer. It’s selling spinal pain after sitting on a bench seat with no back support. But, they did orient everything toward the view, which seems to be what the judges were looking for when allocating their points this week.

Rick and Tayla Came Fourth

Marty Fox took the words right out of my mouth regarding the fireplace in Rick and Tayla’s living room. In what world does a pizza oven belong inside? I can’t make sense of this design and why they decided to execute it.

It wasn’t the only weird moment in the living room either. The too-small rug, the sofa pushed against the back wall, the huge gap of nothing between it and the TV, and the Anastacia armchair (it was Left Outside Alone); all big blunders that could have so easily been avoided.

This was a room where I did enjoy many of the individual elements (dining table and chairs were nice, as were the armchairs and the artwork) but none of them came together in a way that worked.

Lastly, we again have a sofa in a colour and material that doesn’t feel ‘quiet luxury’. You heard it here first: we’ve moved away from velvet as a ‘luxe’ fabric. There are so many better ways to evoke a sense of sophistication.

The Alfresco Was an Impressive Moment

That small table in the alfresco area is very easy to swap out for something larger, so despite some of the commentary from the judges, I don’t find that to be a major design sin. On the other hand, the major design win this week – to my surprise and delight – was the built-in bar zone in Rick and Tayla’s alfresco area.

It has a BBQ, a sink, a benchtop for prep. The slushy maker was perhaps a step too far, but overall I’m so glad to see some proper design in the alfresco zone – not just plonking down some freestanding furniture and calling it a day. I give them points for this. It was an incredibly successful moment.

Although the dining area needs a larger table and chairs, I did love the set chosen.

Chantel and Wyatt Came Last

Forget the view for a minute when I say this, but I must declare: I love the orientation of Chantel and Wyatt’s living room. It feels so much nicer than the other four. The TV looks far more successful on a smaller section of wall, and the fireplace under it looks a thousand times better than having it to the side.

I still say that Chantel and Wyatt are fulfilling the quiet luxury brief the best based on last week’s room and this living and dining room. Of course there have been some blunders before that, but I don’t mind the style direction of this space.

The huge issue though is that it does look like a furniture showroom after the mid-season sale. It’s been emptied out with barely anything left behind. It needs way more in it. The overall feel is on-brief though.

Side note: in a room of this size you’re never going to reach the coffee table from the sofa. We accept this. Often when I design, the coffee table is there to resolve empty space, with an opportunity to showcase decor. You then use side tables at the ends of the sofa as well as slide-over side tables in the middle for drinks.

The Alfresco Was Barely-There

OK, so there wasn’t much going on here, but I do want to say that at least the cladding on this exterior (and Rick and Tayla’s) is a lot better than the charcoal version the other homes are covered in. It’s so much more in-keeping with the look and feel of what’s going on inside.

That’s really all I can say about it from a positive perspective. The furniture is nice, but there is no fantasy created.

A final check-in before we wrap up the recap: if you played this week’s drinking game where you take a shot every time a judge mentions the view, how many IV drips were you given in the ER and how many minutes into the episode were you calling 000?

What did you make of The Block 2026 Living, Dining and Alfresco Reveals? Drop a comment below or come say hi on Facebook and Instagram to let me know your thoughts.

For more on The Block, or to catch up on episodes you missed, check out Nine Now.