Block twins Alisa & Lysandra on life after the police & starting their own online store

By Lysandra Fraser

It’s come to that time where I am writing my final guest post for Interiors Addict. I had been thinking to myself “What topic am I going to pretend to know about this week?” LOL! Then Jen suggested that it would be nice for the final blog to be about “Where to from here?” For Alisa and I, this is a question that we have been asked rather frequently of late.

I think back to a year ago and think “wow” at how both mine and Alisa’s lives have changed so dramatically. We were both police officers working part-time shift work, always striving for a bit more in life. We sat down and watched the finale of The Block one night and thought to ourselves, yep, let’s apply. Actually, let’s win The Block 2013 (no word of a lie). From the moment we decided to audition, we had this gut feeling that we were going to win.

Well as I sit here in front of my laptop, as winners of The Block, it’s only now that I have time to sit back and take in the gravity of it all and it still seems so surreal to me. I guess the biggest thing that has happened post Block, is that Alisa and I have handed in our badges and are no longer police officers. I think sometimes you just need to take a leap of faith, and that’s exactly what we have done.

I think what amazes us is that people are talking about our eye for design, and not about whether they did or didn’t like us on the show. Upon entering this competition, we would never have anticipated the response that we have had. It’s a very humbling feeling to receive such words of encouragement from so many people, and even crazier to think that people want to pay us good money to makeover their house… haha!

So, here to from here? Well, we have many exciting projects coming up in the near future, but one that we are concentrating strongly on at the moment is the launch of our online store. We are in the process of getting our website established as well as our own label. We will be selling homewares for everyone (not just interior designers) to buy. From cushions, quilt covers, lamps and throws to furniture and plenty more. Alisa and I found that it was really hard to find things we liked without having to drive all over Melbourne to 50 different stores, so we thought let’s come up with our own designs and fix the problem. Keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter as we’ll announce it as soon as it’s up and running!

I guess Alisa and I would like to conclude with saying thanks to everyone out there who has been behind us all the way. Thanks to the people in the industry that have taken us under their wings and guided us in the right direction. We know we have a lot to learn before we can even dare call ourselves interior designers/decorators, but with every month that goes by we get one step closer. Watch this space…

Love Alisa and Lysandra x