Life after The Block: Steph and Gian venture into rugs and parenthood

When it comes to personal style, former Block winners Steph and Gian have always had a crystal clear idea of theirs.

"Japandi is this grounding architectural style that we'll always come back to," says Steph.

This was the style the Sydney couple focused on in season 19 of The Block, which led to a record-breaking win.

The couple won a life-changing $1.75 million from the sale of their Hampton East home, and have since founded their business Japandi Estate centred around this aesthetic.

Unsurprisingly, the style is an amalgamation of the architectural styles that make up its name - Japanese and Scandinavian.

"At its core, it's minimalistic and functional," says Steph. "You have everything that you need and nothing that you don't, which are of course the very Scandinavian principles.

"The Japanese principles would be the way in which you feel in a space.

"When you combine texture, tone, colour, and all those interior design methodologies with functionalism and everyday sort of life, you get Japan."

Through Japandi Estate, the couple have created a space for others interested in the style by offering unique homewares, one-on-one styling sessions and architectural advice (Steph is an architect).

Most recently, they have partnered with Unitex to release a collection of rugs to suit their Japandi aesthetic.

According to Steph, this came about from a need to find rugs that fit within the style that she could recommend to her styling clients.

"I was challenged with finding rugs that not only work in one space, but actually work as a continuum throughout the whole home," she says.

"We found this natural synergy between [Unitex] and our brand to create a collection that was a one-stop shop where you could buy the whole collection, scatter them in your house, and know that they all work."

The collection features an assortment of rugs defined by clean lines, soft textures and earthy colour palettes.

When it comes to her favourite piece in the collection, Steph struggles to narrow it down to one choosing the Meadow in both the Cardamon and Malt colour ways.

"I like those two rugs because they're the inverse of each other," she says. "I like it because it creates a connection between two bedrooms without them being the same."

For Gian it's the Flora rug in Husk that has become his pick of the collection.

"It's a bit of an ode to that farmhouse aspect of Scandinavian design," he says. "There's the undertone of that floral, which you see in a few farmhouses, but it's done with such a Japanese and Scandinavian muted palette.

"It actually doubles up as a styling piece because as you walk over it, you see that underlying pattern, but it's so grounding to a room."

As well as the collection, the couple are about to welcome their first child, a little girl.

Unsure how this will affect their journey from a styling perspective, Steph says she is keen to see how their "style integrates with the practicalities of children."

Gian is confident they're not a couple who will be easily bothered by the mess and disorder that young children can bring to a home.

"We're people that will buy something to use it," he says. "We're not those people that buy a thing and are like 'oh don't touch it. It's got to stay nice and pristine'."

"We really like getting use out of things."

Steph agrees with this assessment of them enjoying a home that's well lived in.

"When you buy a natural piece of stone and then you don't want to use it properly and you don't want to cook the pasta, we're not those sorts of people," she says.

"It's like, 'just cook the pasta', make the stain, it's a story."

With their plates well and truly full for the past few years, the couple are looking forward to slowing down over the summer and enjoying their new life as a family of three.

"We're going to give ourselves a bit of time off renovating and planning that next project," says Gian. "I think we just want to enjoy the space we've created and enjoy the summer."