ABC home renovation show set to outclass The Block and Dream … – The New Daily

With housing affordability in sharp focus, owners wishing to either sell or expand their current living spaces will draw inspiration from not two, but three home renovation shows on free-to-air television next year.

Nines The Block will celebrate its 20th anniversary season mid-year, Seven is launching Dream Home with Dr Chris Brown at the wheel, while the ABC is about to deliver Grand Designs Transformations in January.

So much choice for consumers of reality lifestyle television.

Home Beautiful magazine points out that theres something about good home improvement television that turns all of us into expert interior renovators and designers.

Watching the best home renovation shows can easily make us think that a gut kitchen renovation is an easy weekend job, it wrote in its August issue.

No matter the reason you watch, we love spending time seeing a home go from dated disaster to Pinterest-worthy in a mere 30 to 45 minutes.

Plus, its much less stressful than managing your own renovation.

Agreed.

Anthony Burke and Yasmine Ghoniem. Photo: ABC

Heavyweight hosts

These three shows are set to deliver very different formats from execution to finished product, and its looking like the ABCs new lifestyle series may well be the classiest home reno show yet.

Were all familiar with The Blocks chippy Scott Cam and Byron-Bay real estate agent, Shelley Craft, and celebrity vet and Im A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! former host Dr Brown.

But who is hosting the ABC series?

Some serious house heavyweights.

Restoration Australias Anthony Burke, a University of Technology Sydney architecture professor, will join founder of one of the countrys trailblazing interior design studios, YSG, Yasmine Ghoniem.

Things are moving so fast in design and architecture at the moment. It is fantastic to see the way issues like sustainability, multi-generational living, tiny homes, recycled homes and more are being explored by Australian homeowners, stepping outside the expected and into the provocative at all scales of building, says Burke.

People are rolling up their sleeves and transforming our ideas of living in Australia, one project at a time.

Ghoneim, who was recently described by the Australian Financial Review as the reigning It girl of interior design, said she was blown away witnessing extraordinary achievements by ordinary people.

Shes lived all around the world, designed bars on barges in Shanghai and celebrity houses in California, fronted rockbands in Sydney and done aid work in Kenya and Vietnam, she revealed in a 2021 Design Files podcast.

She grabs life by the horns, and brings the same fearlessness to her interiors, it wrote.

Ghoniem says she reckons young homeowners watching this ABC series will be inspired to take risks and give it a red hot go when it comes to realising their own renovation dreams.

Theres nothing better than seeing others understand the benefits of good design, listen to their gut and go for it, she says.

Tumbled marble, Gaillo Sienna and Toledo Marble, European Linen, Kimono silk and honed travertine were some of the materials used in Ghoniems Palm Beach, Sydney interior design job. Photo: YSG Studio

Whats different about ABC show version of The Block?

Having endured three-months of The Block resulting in childhood sweethearts Steph and Gian taking home $1.7 million in prize money we know the tried and true format.

Screen-tested couples are curated from thousands of applications Australia-wide to turn up for three months and transform a rundown dwelling into a state-of-the-art living space.

Manufactured dramas and tensions on building sites, heavily sponsored content from car companies and fast-food outlets dominate, and dozens of tradies in utes turn up to lay foundations, water-proof bathrooms and carry in marble slabs for kitchen benches.

Carpets, furniture, cushions and throws and artwork are often already curated from The Block Shop, Schots Home Emporium, Freedom Furniture and Beacon Lighting (to name a few).

Not so on the ABC version.

Yes, there will still be ordinary Australians wanting to live the dream of home ownership or already own their homes (or businesses) and need inspiration for their DIY jobs and improvements.

The new co-hosts will also provide insight, expert advice, and the odd shoulder to cry on, just like the others do (and will do in Browns case).

Burke and Ghoniem may well be going next level though, in renovation and design influence.

Theyll be tasked with overseeing a Moroccan oasis in the Blue Mountains, a pink palace on Queenslands Gold Coast, a French-inspired convict cottage in Tasmania and a low cost eco retreat on Victorias Mornington Peninsula.

Each episode will showcase two unique stories and two stunning home reveals be it interior design, renovation, or a landscaping makeover.

Sunset Onyx, Calacatta viola, Lapis blue granite, Isernia stone and American white ash were materials used for Ghoniems Darlinghurst project. PhotoYSG Studio

Ghoniem will deliver a masterclass

If her body of work is anything to go by, these home renovators are in for an absolute treat.

In an opinion piece for realestate.com.au, Ghoniem, whose formative years were spent in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia before studying interior design at the Savannah College of Art and Design in America, said that she was often asked at dinner parties what she did for a living.

Oh, well, Im an interior designer.

Oh cool, really? So, you pick pillows and stuff right?

Yep, exactly. I pick pillows and stuff, she wrote, sarcastically.

Industry labels like interior designer and interior decorator have been used interchangeably for years and they shouldnt.

Im here to set it straight and clear confusion surrounding an industry which so many Australians are obsessed with but, understandably, know so little about.

She said, at its heart, interior design is the art and science of understanding peoples behavioural patterns in order to create functional spaces for them.

Designers apply their technical skills, including drafting documentation for computer-aided design (CAD) programs, to provide a response to a persons life, home culture, dwelling and local surroundings.

Dr Chris Brown will help.

Browns reno show

Meanwhile, at the Seven networks recent Upfront showcase for 2024, Brown will be hosting Dream Home.

These will be the greatest home transformations Australia has ever seen, he told a converted audience, addingthat contestants will help each other renovate each others homes, turning their own somewhat basic house into their very own dream home.

They battle it out room by room, and someone wins a big prize.

James Warburton, Seven West Media managing director and chief executive, told The West Australian the series will be a very emotional one for viewers.

It really goes towards what the name suggests: peoples ability to completely renovate their home into their absolute dream outcome, he said.

He said it will be a very different to The Block.

Its not a reality show based on renovating something to go to auction to win every single couple in the show wins, in terms of the fact they will actually end up with their very own dream home.

But, it may well be Grand Designs Transformations that win the design prize.

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ABC home renovation show set to outclass The Block and Dream ... - The New Daily