Darren Palmer is standing by the controversial brief that saw this year’s The Block houses start looking remarkably similar, despite admitting he understood why contestants felt confused when he later encouraged them during a Masterclass to embrace colour and individuality.
Darren did something never done before in Block history when he told contestants at a promotional photo shoot at the beginning of the season that Mt Eliza buyers wanted homes that were “white, light and bright”.
“The brief was based on thorough market research,” interior designer Darren, 48, tells TV WEEK. ‘”Light, bright and white’ was a deliberate statement. They’re the words of the local sales expert, they matched the sales data, and I used them because they were the shortest true version of it. What went to air from day two was a fraction of the conversation, and on the ground the teams got the wider scope, which is what the Masterclass then put on screen.”
But after weeks of increasingly similar rooms, Darren arrived at The Block share house at the request of an EP to reiterate exactly what he meant.
“I do [understand why people feel they’ve received mixed messages],” Darren says. “What remained from day two were the descriptors, ‘quiet luxury’ and ‘roughly white, light and bright’. If that’s all you heard, sage green three weeks later looks like a change of direction, but the data says otherwise.
“On day two I showed the contestants two comparable sales. One sold in seven days and had a green drenched study. The other, rustic, dark and heavily timber panelled, had been sitting on the market for 369 days. I asked them to look into the references in their own time and make their own assessment. The descriptor was never the whole brief.”
Darren says the intention was never to tell contestants to play it safe, arguing the brief was about understanding the market while still creating something that would stand out.
“What I say carries weight, and it’s reasonable for teams to assume that what I ask for is what will score well,” he says. “The challenge I set was to exceed what the market expects rather than just meet it. So playing it safe was never the direction I gave, because safe only answers half the brief.”
However, he acknowledges the risk of giving five teams the same direction was always there.
“That risk was in the brief from the start,” Darren admits. “Five teams, one brief, one buyer pool, and if they all do the same thing neither we nor the buyer can tell them apart.”
Despite the backlash, Darren has no regrets, and denies production had anything to do with giving the brief.
“I didn’t take providing it lightly and I’d do it again,” he says. “The result we all want every year is for as many of the homes as possible to find their buyer, but it wasn’t a production conversation that prompted the brief. My focus is helping the contestants sell their homes, and you can’t do that without understanding who’s buying and what that buyer responds to.”
And as viewers continue to debate his judging, Darren says he’s happy to explain his thinking.
“Design is subjective, so people will disagree with calls I make, and that’s fair,” he says. “What I find is that when I take the time to explain the logic behind what I’ve said, viewers tend to appreciate the context.”
The Block airs Monday to Wednesday at 7.30pm and Sunday at 7pm on the Nine Network and 9Now.
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