Keith’s Bargain Block design for The Windsor Balmoral House is way too much

Bargain Block houses always include a few bold design elements, but in The Windsor Balmoral House, the design overpowers the home.

Keith Bynum, the talented designer behind the bang-for-your-buck homes featured on the HGTV hit show Bargain Block has certainly never been one to shy away from a bold design choice.

But he may just have taken things a little too far in the most recent episode of the show.

The problem with The Windsor Balmoral House

Over the years, Bargain Block and Keith’s signature personality-filled designs have given each of the homes that the team has worked on a very distinct look and feel.

And while this is still true for the Windsor Balmoral House, this look and feel lean more towards the cluttered-and-thrifty side of things and less towards the cozy-cottage aesthetic that Keith was aiming for.

The reality is that even after inspecting the no-doubt highly curated photographs that the Bargain Block team used to promote the episode, you simply cannot ignore some of the most glaring design faux-pas.

Elements like the retro black and white tiles in the guest bathroom and the tapestry as a makeshift headboard in the master bedroom truly display Keith’s eclectic style.

But when it comes to the other surface-level designs of the home, the elements completely overpower the small space.

The red leather chairs manage to dwarf pretty much everything else in the home’s modest living room, while the newly-repainted fireplace still stands out like a sore thumb against the home’s neutral walls.

Moreover, the seemingly random pops of color are entirely out of place in almost every instance. Andon an even deeper level, the home just seems quite unpractical.

The home’s kitchen (which Keith and Evan chose not to extend) remains so small that cooking alone will really be the only option.

Furthermore, the general lack of storage space throughout the home, will make storing things like linens and other necessities a true nightmare for the seasonal changes.

Season 3 of Bargain Block so far

Keith and Evan spoke to Scott Fishman at TV Insider before Bargain Block’s season three premiere and admitted that season three of the show is taking things “back to the roots of the business on the smaller, really bad houses”.

So far, only a handful of episode from this season have aired, namely:

But Keith will still have plenty of opportunities to redeem himself for the over-the-top Windsor Balmoral House in the episodes which are still to come.

What Keith had to say about The Windsor Balmoral House

In the end, home design will always remain a truly subjective art, where opinions often differ.

This sentiment is so perfectly illustrated by the fact that Keith has branded The Windsor Balmoral House design “one of [his] favorites of the entire season” in an Instagram post from October 5, 2023.

In this post, Keith explains that he felt it looked “warm and cozy” and that the final design really captured “the British spirit”. What is surprising, though, is that Keith mentions that “This kitchen was soooo good!!”.

This is slightly odd, considering that the final design does not feature much besides wall-to-wall cabinets (painted beige), a singular hanging pendant light and a small green rug which barely fits.

Has The Windsor Balmoral House been sold?

At the end of The Windsor Balmoral episode, the show revealed that the house had already been sold before the episode even aired. So it seems like a Detroit local must have agreed with Keith’s British-flair.

And it is not the only house from this season that has already been taken off the market. Shea’s Zillow profile reveals that episode five’s “The Future House” and “The Physics House” are currently under contract.

Where Keith finds the décor elements for the Bargain Block homes

Even though The Windsor Balmoral House may not be a shining example, Keith has placed some truly beautiful elements in homes over the course of Bargain Block’s television run.

If you have ever watched the show, you will know that Keith is a huge advocate for thrifting and DIY art projects.

But when he encounters a design problem that simply does not have a second-hand fix, this designer often turns to his own design firm, Nine Design + Homes, or to a preferred local vendor (like Great Lakes Granite & Marble, Polycor, Virginia Tile Company and more.) for assistance.