Shaynna Blaze on the No.1 renovation mistake Australians are making

The Block’s Shaynna Blaze on how to renovate properly, turning 60, her new film and her 120-year-old rural Victorian ‘forever home’.

Shaynna Blaze reveals the No.1 renovation mistake Australians are making.

First up, Happy Birthday! Thank you. I’ve heard a lot of people saying 60 is the new 40 – and I have to say it’s really true because I feel f..king fabulous.

What’s the number one mistake Australians make when renovating their home? We’ve lived in this Instagram and Pinterest world for so long that people are just completely copying and pasting what someone else has done. There’s a lack of soul in a lot of things people put out there and an oversaturation of vanilla, with people just white-washing their home and their life.

Perhaps they are intimidated? Renovation costs a lot of money, and they don’t want to get it wrong, but people care too much about what others think and that’s where the cookie-cutter becomes a safety net. Also, people are too caught up in the value-add. My attitude is, if you’re designing in order to sell your house in five years, you’re living someone else’s dream.

You’re known for your work as co-host of Selling Houses Australia and as a judge on The Block, so it’s surprising to see your name attached to a film about domestic violence. How did The Fort come about? A few years ago, I was emceeing a candlelight vigil for Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre, and there was a roll-call of all the women and children who had been murdered by a partner or ex-partner. It was very confronting. My daughter Carly is a film editor and my son Jess is a sound recordist. We thought it was such a powerful subject that we decided as a family to make a movie.

Which spawned a charity… Voice of Change was founded to bring about prevention and change by commissioning projects that get the message out about the reality of family violence. We want to use the arts to spark conversations and take away taboos. We were just going to make a movie and then we thought, ‘This is something where we need to take responsibility for the next step’.

Stylish: Shaynna Blaze

You shared your own experience with domestic violence on national television in 2021 but gave few details. Why not? Because that’s not the story. The story is that it happened, and it impacted me and it has allowed me to be a stronger person and empower other people. When someone’s a survivor, you don’t have to break down their story, because that’s their story.

You recently renovated a 120-year-old “forever home” in rural Victoria and documented it for a TV series, Country Home Rescue. A walk in the park? Ha! In the past few years, trying to get trades and supplies hasn’t been easy. Initially the house was bought as a place to film and I was going to flip it. But then my marriage broke down and we were filming in there and it was a space where we bonded as a family, so I decided this house was meant to be in our life.

Not many interior designers are household names. How did your celebrity come about? I’d had the experience of being in the entertainment world [as a jazz and cabaret singer] and then also had a day-to-day job as a designer. I think just being my authentic self is what has done it for me. From my very first job in design through to Selling Houses and The Block, they all employed me to be just me.

The Fort screens from May 18, thefortmovie.com