The Block NZ judge Ann-Louise Hyde’s unexpected past

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Connie and Rach are disqualified from this week’s competition after breaking The Block’s rules.

Interior designer and The Block NZ judge Ann-Louise Hyde was born in the UK and moved to New Zealand 28 years ago. She has worked on commercial and residential projects and runs her own business, Hyde Inside. Her past jobs include professional cello player and selling encyclopaedias door to door.

Is The Block NZ your first time on television?

Many years ago, one of the bands I played in was on TV on a talk show in the UK, but that’s my only experience. I was playing the cello. I didn’t have to actually say anything.

Supplied The Block NZ judge Ann-Louise Hyde is an interior designer and a former professional cello player.

What are the worst two colours to put together when it comes to interior design?

There are no two worst colours because everything goes now, right? It’s not really so much colours. It’s tints and shades. So if you’ve got very clear colours together, and you’re a clear colour person, that’s awesome. If you’ve got muddy colours together, then that will be fine. But if you’re trying to put something like hot pink and then a muddy salmon together, it’s going to look really terrible. The other thing I really hate is pure white and pure black. When you put those together they look really cheap. So you’ve got to soften the black and make it charcoal and/or soften the white.

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Is minimalism still popular or is it going out of fashion?

Well, true minimalism will never go out of fashion. True minimalism has got repeating forms. It’s the same in visual art and music. It’s got repeating elements and beautiful light play and those are just beautiful. The thing you have to be wary of is the half-hearted attempt at it. Painting a plain room white and having boxy furniture in it doesn’t count as minimalism. That’s kind of lazy-ism. So minimalism requires exquisite detailing, perfect proportions and truly clean lines.

Supplied “The biggest rule of all is getting the ergonomics right,” says Ann-Louise Hyde.

What was your childhood bedroom like?

I had terrifying wallpaper. It was awful. I had nightmares. The scariest thing of all was this really creepy dude with a bowler hat. Later on I had a very 60s cream, brown, beige, orange kind of swirly designs and a lampshade with great long beads hanging down from it. I thought that was super cool.

What is the secret to good design?

For a residential application, the biggest rule of all is getting the ergonomics right. So everything actually has to function for what it’s designed for. Then the other big thing about it is you’ve got to decorate it with stuff that resonates with your soul and then everything will go together. To me, a residential interior needs to be all about the people living in it. I don’t think it matters a damn what anybody else says.

What do you mean by ‘resonates with someone’s soul’?

It’s the Marie Kondo (thing). It sparks joy. It could just be a really grotty, little scuzzy, old chipped ornament but it belonged to your great-grandmother and it reminds you of every Christmas that ever was. And it reminds you of the warmth and the family and the love that you have to them.

You’ve been a professional cello player. Do you still play?

Yes, but very badly these days. I don’t play particularly well, but I play occasionally. But I’m not in practice. I mean, it’s like asking an Olympic athlete who hasn’t run for 10 years, if they would be any good at it.

How old were you when you learned to play the cello?

At school we did all these music tests. I was eight. I came tops. So I was allowed to choose which instrument I wanted. I cried because I wanted to play the double bass and I was too short. They wouldn’t let me so I had to choose the cello because it wasn’t as big as the double bass.

One of your jobs was selling encyclopaedias door to door. How do you convince someone to buy them?

I was only 17 and I would knock on the door and I’d say, ‘Have you ever wished you had the answers to all the facts you could ever need right in your living room?’ Unless they said ‘No’ you were in and that was it. You made an appointment to go back again. I sold heaps.

What are the advantages of hiring an interior designer?

It just makes life easier. I mean, you have somebody independent in your corner, and they make sure that you plan ahead, and they help keep you focused. Probably the single most obvious thing is they save you from making expensive mistakes. And the idea is you get a much better end result for pretty much the same money – unless you’re on an extreme budget. But a good designer will really walk alongside you and bring out what’s going to make you happy in your space.

Ann-Louise Hyde loves:

My daughter: I love my daughter. She’s in her mid-20s and I’m very proud of her.

I love my daughter. She’s in her mid-20s and I’m very proud of her. My husband: My darling husband who has been an incredible love.

My darling husband who has been an incredible love. My puppy Thompson: I call him ‘the full English’ because he is a full English Pointer. And I love to go for dog walks at (my local) dog beach and (I meet) all these gorgeous people. Dog people are just the best.

I call him ‘the full English’ because he is a full English Pointer. And I love to go for dog walks at (my local) dog beach and (I meet) all these gorgeous people. Dog people are just the best. Music: Because it moves the soul.

Ann-Louise Hyde hates:

Politics: I get very wound up about politics so I probably hate the feelings it brings on.

I get very wound up about politics so I probably hate the feelings it brings on. Broad beans: I don’t like their disgusting texture.

The Block NZ, Three, screens Sunday to Wednesday.

The Block NZ: Accidents aside, entry halls tell the whole story about who’s aceing it this year

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Dylan and Keegan get their second room reveal win with a fantastic office, stairwell, entry and powder room..

REVIEW: All’s well on The Block NZ, until it isn’t. We have seen the second accident in as many weeks. First it was Keegan breaking ribs, and now Meg has whacked her head so hard (on the underside of a drop saw) that she has knocked herself out briefly and has concussion.

The potential for disaster is always there on a busy, cramped building site, especially when Blockies are rushing to finish rooms, as they are this week. And it’s probably only thanks to the Wolf (foreman Pete Wolfkamp) that we haven’t seen worse.

Dan calls in his sister Anita, who flips houses for a living. Good idea, even if Rach doesn’t think so.

Supplied Meg and Dan take a hit this week. Or more precisely, Meg does, when she suffers a head injury on site.

But, it is the slow starters who nail it this week. Dylan and Keegan have well and truly hit their stride, winning a second room reveal in a row, and another $7k from TSB.

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To his credit, Dylan always had his eye on the big picture, and now we see it all coming together, it’s great. The corporate look is morphing into a sophisticated, highly co-ordinated interior – you can see this when you glimpse other completed rooms through the doorways. It all ties in. Wow.

Keegan gets to choose the front door – it’s banana yellow (for Team Yellow). This is possibly the only thing Keegan has chosen, which must be a big deal for Dylan, who says he would have chosen orange.

But it works well, even if orange might have been better with the interior. It’s fun.

The judges are rightly wowed. There are smiles at the yellow door, and pretty much everything else. The powder room is “fabulous” (behind the James Bond door). And everyone loves the terrazzo tiles on the feature wall.

SUPPLIED There’s a real sense of sophistication coming through in Dylan and Keegan’s interior. The terracotta tiles in the powder room are a great choice.

Supplied When so many of us work from home, either full or part-time, an office is a great addition to a Block house.

But their fullest praise is saved for the mezzanine office, which ties in so well with the decor elsewhere in the house (and Ann-Louise’s clothes). The light fitting, the large artwork in the stairwell, and the tongue-in-groove light-grey ceiling in the entry all get a big tick. We couldn’t agree more.

“They’ve pulled back on the corporate vibes this week, and it softens the other corporate vibes of the house,” Chris says. (“Even though it’s an office,” jokes Dylan.)

Tim and Arty

With the largest square area of Gib, Tim and Arty always knew they wouldn’t finish this week. They simply have too much Gib to install and paint. It’s a massive task, and they are exhausted and need power naps. And there’s very little to show – just white walls with no decoration as yet.

SUPPLIED This is Tim and Arty’s unfinished entry and powder room, but we are loving the size of the powder room.

They estimate they still have another two to three days to complete the work. Wires are exposed everywhere.

But, these guys get one thing very right. And that’s a decent-size vanity in their powder room. A proper sink where you really can wash your hands, rather than one of those skinny ones that are so awkward.

And the judges say this: “It’s taking minimalism a bit far, really,” says Ann-Louise. (It was a joke.)

“I feel really sad,” says Chris. “I can’t even see what they were trying to do, because there’s so much of it undone.”

So they bomb, of course.

Meg and Dan

Meg chooses an Anaglypta wallpaper for her and Dan’s space, which is crazy. Because you have to hang it, then you have to paint it. That’s double handling in a week when they can least afford the time.

And then there is the accident, which puts Meg out of action for 48 hours with concussion. Anita helps Dan, but don’t have time to complete it all. There’s a lot of stopped walls with no paint or paper.

Supplied This is Meg and Dan’s entry. It is rather smart, with the black door that drew the admiration of the judges.

Supplied There doesn’t appear to be a lot of space to turn and walk up the stairs (behind the plant), but that may be an optical illusion.

Their powder room is visually “quiet”, with a black and white framed print and contemporary vanity, albeit one of those narrow ones. The judges like it. And they love the raw timber hallstand and coatstand. It’s simple, and it works well with the timber floor.

And the judges love the pendant lights above the stairs – the three different shapes work beautifully in that space. We are not so sure about the long green curtain drop in the stairwell, however. But Ann-Louise says they are a “ka-pow moment”.

Chris does not like the wallpaper that’s already up and painted. He doesn’t like wallpaper, full stop.

Supplied Meg and Dan choose a skinny vanity for the simple powder room.

“Overall, for me, these guys have absolutely got it nailed,” says Lauren. “It’s that perfect balance between design that wows and makes people feel good, and the widest possible audience.”

She is probably right.

Connie and Rach

Connie and Rach take a bold approach to their art, but turning a tiki artwork on its side still seems odd, even though the artist said it was OK. It would have been fine (better) to have a portrait-shaped artwork there, surely? The attic storage is a good selling point.

They do a great job of their powder room. But I wonder what the buyers of Meg and Dan’s house will think about the fact that their feature tile in the family room is downgraded to the loo in Connie and Rach? It’s very similar, but we are told not identical.

But the oddest thing about this house (number one) is the lack of a formal entry. The front door opens, and you walk into the living room, with the stairs just there.

As Chris says: “There’s no sort of journey into this house. You just walk in and everything’s there straight away. Everything’s super transparent.”

Ann-Louise doesn’t like the heavy black framing around the glass. But Lauren is wowed by the whole thing, looking up and down the stairs. But they like the fact, as do we, that the space is not “overly designed”.

Supplied The girls' powder room is an attractive space, but that tile looks very like the one Meg and Dan have in their family room. A little different, but not much.

There is a wee problem – Connie and Rach reuse an indoor plant they used in the family room the week before. This is against the rules. “You can’t re-use things,” says Mark, and he bumps a point off their total. Next time, he says, it will be a disqualification.

In summary:

Dylan and Keegan ($14,972.83) score 27.5 (out of 30); Meg and Dan ($18,764.35) score 23.5; Connie and Rach ($14,044.23) score 19; and poor old Tim and Arty ($22,618.67) score 6.5.

We already know which house we want. Do you?

The Block NZ continues on Three Monday to Wednesday 7.30pm, with the next reveal Sunday, 7pm. It streams on ThreeNow from 12.30pm

Ann Louise (Sado) Fay

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Ann’s artistic gift was displayed throughout her home. First, she decorated with original designs and paintings on the walls. Later, she painted portraits of loved ones or beautiful scenic places. Ann’s love of animals was a constant reminder of her own caring nature. She adopted everything from dogs to squirrels, robins and tropical fish. Ann graciously hosted family and friends from near or far. She often said, “There are two seasons in Montana: winter and company.” Throughout the years, Ann enjoyed sledding, starting water fights, hiking, swimming, card games, singing, playing the piano, being an active parishioner within the Cathedral of St. Helena (teaching religious education, delivering Communion to nursing homes, participating in the League of the Sacred Heart activities, etc.). If Ann was on the phone, she was most likely passing on prayer requests. Ann’s laughter was contagious, her kindness sincere.