The Block 2024 episode 32 living and dining room reveal: ‘Vanilla’, ‘squashed’, judges issue some harsh criticism

The true villains of the show get found out amid all the plaster problems, and contestants commit apparently mortal living and dining room sins, according to the judges.

Claire Sutherland

4 min read

October 7, 2024 - 9:00PM

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Mimi might have declared herself this season’s villain earlier in the show, but Courtney and Grant are giving her a run for her money.

As the plaster disaster rolls on, the teams are scrambling to make up time after the late delivery. For the first time in the show’s history teams have been given painting teams, but if they don’t have plaster on the walls there will be nothing for the painters to paint.

Charlotte and Maddy’s plan for Venetian plaster on one wall looks set to be dashed when one of their plasterers doesn’t have the right insurance and isn’t allowed on site.

With a bunch of plasterers sitting idle in Grant and Courtney’s place, the sisters’ carpenter mate Jack heads over to ask if they could borrow one, but Grant claims every one of his team is needed.

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Courtney and Grant are once again rewriting history.

Luckily foreman Dan has a contact who arrives to save the day, but without asking the girls, Courtney swoops on him and asks him to come over to quote on a wall at their place.

When producers ask her and Grant about it later Grant makes like Donald Trump and just makes things up, saying “the girls didn’t have any issue with it. We actually gave them our plasterers in the first week”.

Cue footage of what really happened: Grant demanding his plasterers leave the sisters’ house despite them not having any work to at his place.

So when the villainous pair decide to snatch the Venetian plaster expert out from under Charlotte and Maddy’s nose, Jack is having none of it.

“They didn’t want to help us yesterday and now they want our help today? This is outrageous,” he says.

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Then it’s on to the judging.

Maddy and Charlotte did manage to get Venetian plaster on their feature wall, teaming it with cabinetry on either side of a natural log fireplace, white lounge and textured rug.

The judges note they used the same pendant lights as Ricky and Haydn did in their kitchen and declare both the dining table and coffee table too small for the space.

“I would like a little bit more drama,” Darren Palmer says.

Shaynna Blaze is again being rude about flowers, saying the girls’ floral arrangement could have been “found at the side of the road”, which is at least a bit better than her claim that Ricky and Haydn’s kitchen flowers could have been found in a bin.

She also thinks the room is “vanilla”, though Marty Fox points out that vanilla is a universally popular flavour.

Maddy and Charlotte's room was declared vanilla, and their dining table flowers maligned as looking like they'd come from the side of the road.

Courtney and Grant have a mustard velvet occasional chair, scalloped edge dining chairs designed by Courtney herself, arched doorway and built-in cabinetry.

Unfortunately their pendants are way too high and the placement of their fireplace, tucked off to the side behind one end of the couch, is a disaster.

“You sit at the end and it’s too hot, and the other end it’s hidden. It doesn’t do the job it’s meant to do,” Darren points out.

Courtney and Grant's living/dining room with its ill-placed fireplace.

Ricky and Haydn have a lowered ceiling over the living area, with pink occasional chair, randomly placed skylights, textured rug and winning artwork.

The judges love the cosiness created by the lowered ceiling but take issue with the orientation of the dining table.

Ricky and Haydn's dining table should have been placed the other way, according to the judges.

Kylie and Brad win plaudits for having the best lighting plan, with sconces and strip lighting plus a huge custom-made mirror, and custom-made black dining table.

The judges also like the black tile fireplace surround and the black painting plywood, which Shelley Craft had worried would cheapen the room.

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About the only fault they can find is that the rug is too small for the dining table it’s sitting on.

The only fault the judges could find with Kylie and Brad's living/dining room was the rug was too small for the dining table.

Mimi and Kristian didn’t fare as well, with Marty claiming the room felt as squashed as an apartment in the city and saying “there is no sophistication within this space whatsoever”. Shaynna took issue with the fact the lounge faced the TV. Apparently, you should watch TV with your back to it.