House 4 Stace and Yanita

The best friends from Palmerston North have created a modern, colourful home with a welcoming feel

Design consultant Stacey (Stace) Cottrill, 39, and PhD student Yanita McLeay, 29, arrived on The Block NZ full of enthusiasm and positivity. Daily morning yoga sessions were a source of curiosity (and some larking about) for the other teams but these Palmy girls are from the glass-half-full school of life and were undaunted by any negative vibes.

However, several near-wins coupled with some strategic moves by other teams led to Stace and Yanita reaching the halfway point of the competition without a single win. Plus, the fallout from their decision to team up with Ling and Zing and vote strategically during Dinner Wars saw the happy-go-lucky Team Orange brought low. But their first victory, for ‘do-over week’, was just the lift they needed to push them through to the final reveal. Stace and Yanita’s bold style was summed up in week five with their kitchen and dining area’s palette of blond wood, white, teal and splashes of golden yellow displayed to great effect.

The kitchen’s modern feel with a 1970s vibe was a hit with the judges, who loved its pops of colour. They also admired the team’s decision to convert a large window into a long, low window-cumsplashback and gain extra privacy and more cupboard space without sacrificing any natural light (thanks to a row of skylights). “We wanted to maximise the light coming in,” says Stace. However, the girls lost points for functionality by placing seating on both sides of the island instead of adding more storage, and failing to install powerpoints adjacent to the benchtops.