The Block 2020: Jasmin and Luke defend ‘copycat’ bedroom and hit back at Shaynna Blaze

Controversial Block couple Luke and Jasmin have labelled judge Shaynna Blaze “insincere” and a “smart-arse” after their on-air showdown.

Controversial Block contestants Luke and Jasmin have hit out at judge Shaynna Blaze in an interview with news.com.au today.

The WA couple received a perfect score of 30 for their kid’s bedroom and bathroom on Sunday’s episode – but eagle-eyed viewers soon spotted that their winning room was remarkably similar to a kid’s bedroom at a popular Byron Bay Airbnb created by design company The Designory.

Jasmin had been seen using a picture of the Byron Bay room for reference as they prepared their room reveal, and insisted it was “no secret” she’d been using it as her inspiration.

The two rooms side-by-side.

The scandal exploded on-air during Tuesday night’s episode, when judge Shaynna Blaze confronted the pair, telling them there was a difference between “inspiration” and “completely taking someone else’s idea”.

Now, Luke and Jasmin tell their side of the story – and they have some choice words for Blaze.

Watching the show, it appears you guys didn’t think you were doing anything wrong – you’d been shown on camera using the Byron Bay room as a reference image.

Jasmin: We were very open about using that image, as well as multiple others. I shared my mood board on Instagram yesterday and you can see that. All week we were sharing it with our trades, with everyone. It didn’t cross us that there was an issue in taking inspiration for your room. There’s been plenty of examples of it already this season: I did see that Sarah and George were referencing their bench from a catalogue, I also saw them flash their phone up to reference a door they were using. We never thought there was anything wrong with that.

Tell me about that tense meeting with Shaynna. When she said “I just want to speak to Luke and Jasmin about a couple of things,” it felt like you were being called into the principal’s office.

Luke: We were totally blindsided by that. We thought Shaynna was coming to talk to us about our gamechanger (a design element the contestants are working on this week). The fact that she blindsided us, and was so cocky and smart-arse about it …

Jasmin: Excuse me, Luke!

Luke: Well, it really annoyed me. It wasn’t fair getting made examples of and our names getting dragged through the mud. I could smile through it all on the show, but deep down, you could see in my eyes that I was fuming.

Yep, fuming.

Jasmin: She came across a little bit insincere about it: ‘OK, thanks, bye!’ It was hard to know where to stand because there’s been previous scandals like this on The Block before and Scotty’s cleared it, the judges have cleared it. For some reason, in our case it wasn’t OK. It’s hard to understand – why us, why now?

How would you have liked it to be handled?

Jasmin: Perhaps just a heads up that she was coming to have a chat about it – then I could’ve had my mood board ready and explain. She said she knew the elements we took, but I could’ve shown her four or five other bedrooms that have those same elements. It was hard to explain that without actually being able to show it.

Luke: We didn’t just have a photo of that room from Designory to copy – there was so many things that brought that room together. And to be honest, Designory didn’t invent spotted wallpaper and they didn’t invent bunk beds.

Shaynna: “You’re actually making money out of someone else’s designs.”

The Designory’s initial public response was quite pointed, accusing you of “the greatest form of public flattery that ever lived”. One day on and they’re having a flash sale to “celebrate.”

Jasmin: They’re not doing too bad out of it. Their initial backlash came as quite a surprise to be honest: I didn’t expect them to be so disappointed in the situation. It’s been very interesting to see the backflip in their reaction, to realise it’s actually good for their business.

Jasmin you said in last night’s episode that the confrontation had “ruined” your win. Do you still feel that way?

Jasmin: It definitely feels tainted for me. I feel Shaynna wouldn’t have given us the score she’s given us in hindsight. Having said that, it’s still remarkable that we pulled together those two rooms to that level in a week. Regardless of where we took inspiration, just the simple fact of pulling together those rooms in the COVID conditions – it was not an easy environment to come back to, with the limitations placed on us.

All smiles: Luke and Jasmin.

In a statement provided to news.com.au today, a Nine spokesperson said the couple had not cheated and that Blaze’s “gentle conversation” had been the best course of action.

“The Block is a real estate competition for amateur renovators. When contestants arrive on The Block to renovate they are not expected to be professional designers and in turn take inspiration from professional work and trends.

“Judges and producers feel it is not in the spirit of the competition to slavishly copy a design, instead they hope to see contestants bring their own flavour to each room.

“No points or prize money were deducted from Luke and Jasmin’s win as they had not cheated. It was felt a gentle conversation with the contestants about taking inspiration and slavishly copying would suffice.”

The Block continues 7:30pm Wednesday on Nine.