THE OPENING EPISODES

of this year’s House Rules held a special surprise. All seven teams, drawn from all over the country, combined forces for a brand new challenge: to not only tackle the usual task of redesigning an entire house in just seven days, but to do so to sell it on and – hopefully! – profit from the deal. With the team that topped the leaderboard at the end of the series set to win potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars, the pressure was on to create something truly special. The house, located in Sydney’s inner west, was renovated, extended and styled for sale. The teams are usually designing with one of the other contestants in mind, but this time their only guidance was a set of rules supplied by judges Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Wendy Moore and Drew Heath. Drawing inspiration from Australian art and artists – including legendary 20th-century designer Florence Broadhurst – the contestants delivered an urban oasis from a relatively small footprint, generating plenty of living space in clever and creative ways. All three judges agreed that the biggest hit of the renovation was Queensland team Josh and Brandon’s elegant handmade timber staircase. The tradie brothers’ work especially impressed HR judge and Home Beautiful’s Wendy, who loved the vertical balustrade that the boys built. The kitchen was also a success: It was a good, compact, urban kitchen, thought HR Judge and architect Drew, who felt that the teams managed the space constraints well. “The whole space is nice and busy,” he says. “It is kind of like walking into a furniture showroom – in a good way. Because there’s just stuff everywhere, and there’s a lot to look at. All the palettes work together.”