Tour Alison Victoria and Michel Smith Boyd’s Winning Season 6 ‘Rock the Block’ Home

Windy City Rehab’s Alison Victoria — a Chicago-born designer and renovator who loves vintage authenticity, next-level kitchens and all-out competition, not necessarily in that order — has been around the block a few times. As a competitor in Season 1 and Season 2 of Rock the Block, she notched week-to-week victories but didn’t clinch the overall win. She’s thrown down on a slew of other HGTV competition shows (hello, Battle on the Beach, Battle on the Mountain and Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge) and returned to Rock the Block as a judge in Season 3 and Season 4 — so her laser focus on the champion’s street sign with her name on it is relentless.

Louisiana-born designer Michel Smith Boyd of Luxe for Less, on the other hand? Reported to Colorado for Season Four and promptly conquered the block. So why’s he risking a sophomore slump? “I don’t think that any other champ has come back to defend their title, but how could I resist coming back with this one?” he mused. “I mean, if anybody wants to win more than Alison, show them to me.” Good luck with that search: “I’ve never wanted something so badly, which is the reason I’m back,” Alison said.

For all their combined experience, Alison and Michel were nevertheless in for surprises. A second team of veterans — Season 4 competitor Jonathan Knight (Farmhouse Fixer) and his brother and bandmate, Jordan Knight, who served as a judge in Season 3 and pitched in on Jonathan’s Camp Revamp property flip — rounded out the slate of veterans. Kamohai and Tristyn Kalama of Renovation Aloha and Chelsea and Cole DeBoer of Down Home Fab arrived to compete as rookies. This season, teams headed to Grantsville, Utah, a boom town outside of Salt Lake City that’s grown a whopping 26% in the last five years. Each home’s lot is a full acre — the biggest in the competition to date — and features 5,500 square feet of living space spread over a basement, first and second floor. Each home was initially appraised at $750,000, and teams have six weeks and $250,000 to take the values sky-high. The homes had to speak for themselves, as no judges would know who designed which property before rendering their verdicts. Another first: A weekly win earned bonus cash for the victorious team (to the tune of $3,000) and for their fellow rookies or veterans (who would receive $1,500). Got all that? At the end of the six-week competition, the house that appraised for the highest amount would win it all.

Both Alison and Michel adore the color green, so going all in on showstopping slabs of exotic green quartz for the backsplash and countertop, investing $6,380 on an opulent green hood, framing the window with green subway tile, installing a green sink and committing to green appliances — including a 10-burner range (another major investment at $12,500) — was an easy power move to make. “Bringing in the green has been something I have just been obsessed with,” Alison said. “It’s calming and at the same time energizing, so you’re going to be seeing a lot of that throughout the house.” She and Michel were also eager to wrap their island in rich, warm brass. They rounded out their kitchen with on-trend, pale wood cabinetry and elegant arches that transformed the transitions into the front hall, living room and pantry.

As they did in the kitchen, Alison and Michel opted to install minimalistic shelving in lieu of upper cabinets to cultivate an uncluttered look. They concentrated their visual pizazz on more green quartz, punctuated here with a brass undermount sink (to the tune of $860). “I literally have a gold sink under my green counter [at home],” Alison said, “so you know I’m happy!” Michel acknowledged that the judges might call out the nonstandard storage arrangement, “but we’re pushing the envelope here.”

A sleek, dark-stained floating bench beneath the dining room’s picture window made the most of the space on the far side of Michel and Alison’s fluted-base table. Fluted paneling that echoes the pantry walls creates flow through the arch from the kitchen and across the dining room ceiling. Faux ceiling beams installed perpendicular to that paneling integrate the dining room with the living room that occupies the back of the house on the other side. The kitchen’s recessed lighting continues here, and Michel and Alison layered in a contemporary chandelier at the center of the dining area to define the space a bit more.

The meager window at the rear of the house wasn’t anywhere near the access to the outdoors Alison and Michel envisioned, so they expanded their horizons with truly massive glass doors. “We doubled our living room by opening up to the deck,” Michel noted. “Did the house grow?!” Utah’s chilly winters (and this house’s aesthetic) called for a fireplace, but the extra $5,000 a gas installation would require wasn’t in the budget — so this electric version represented a strategic pivot. Flanked with floating shelves and a dimensional custom mantel surround that carries seamlessly into the ceiling beams that extend from the dining area, this space feels cozy and integrated — and, as Michel observed, it flows right out to the deck.

Alison and Michel couldn’t have asked for a more sympathetic judge for their first evaluation of the season: Queer Eye’s Bobby Berk is every bit as enamored with showstopping finishes as they are, and he appreciated what they were after with their design instantaneously. “In every house it was a lot of earth tones, [and your kitchen] really set itself apart when I walked in and saw that different color,” he said. “The brass, the marble and all the other textures just honestly screamed luxury. It really made your house stand out the most. The green kitchen turned into green money!” Those calculated risks paid off to the tune of $3,000, and Alison and Michel were ecstatic to secure the competition’s first win.

Setting the stage with a transporting entryway was essential to continuing Michel and Alison’s winning streak — and, of course, announcing their intentions to buyers. “This is where people step into our point of view,” Michel said. They streamlined and unified the foyer’s disjointed architecture by enveloping the first story in white oak panels with gorgeous graining and sleek, contemporary molding. They softened the transition from this space to the rear of the house with another elegant arch, then layered their design with a midcentury-inspired daybed and a sculptural olive tree.

The first-floor powder room threw out all the restraint Michel and Alison exercised in their minimalistic entryway. “I feel like this powder room is the one room [where] everybody comes, they should want to take a selfie,” Michel said. Alison agreed, and she splashed out on a priced-to-sell antique copper sink that she knew she could restore to glory. Michel was skeptical but supportive, and Alison returned his trust by encouraging him to spend all $3,000 of the previous week’s winnings on textural, tonal cork wallpaper that carried across the walls and the ceiling. An irregular mirror and a sculptural pendant complete the space.

The white oak paneling Michel and Alison installed in the entryway carries past a pivoting “panel” (that is, a hidden door that cost them $2,270) that opens into this serene office, where a rear feature wall boasts both versatile built-ins and a central wallpapered panel with brushstrokes that soften the cabinetry’s right angles. “We want to break up the monotony of the bookcases. This paper actually celebrates the curve we [used] in our popout, but that vertical line is also a trick on the eye to make a small room feel taller,” Michel said. A contemporary lozenge-shaped desk echoes those forms, and sculptural accessories extend the space’s gallery-like feel.

Michel and Alison relocated the mudroom door to create an open arch leading into the kitchen, then carried in pale flooring and cabinetry that transitions from open storage to stop-and-drop benches for removing coats and shoes. The veined green quartz they used to great effect in the kitchen and pantry recurs on a utility counter around the corner from a stacked washer and dryer. “It’s not big, doesn’t mean it can’t be special,” Alison noted. “You know it’s almost unfair of us to be on the same team? I feel sad for [the others],” Michel said.

Evaluation of the remaining first-floor spaces fell to Help! I Wrecked My House's Jasmine Roth, who took top honors in Rock the Block’s first season and moved to Utah just a few years ago, and fellow first-season alum Mina Starsiak Hawk (Good Bones). Alison and Michel’s hidden office was the hit they knew it would be: “I’m obsessed with this door,” Jasmine said. “So many points for creativity!” Mina agreed. They admired the gorgeous white oak that carried through the rooms, and they appreciated both Michel’s and Alison’s power moves in the powder room. The week’s sole misstep was a minor one; the judges argued that without a door between the mudroom and the kitchen, noise from the washer and dryer could prove to be a problem.

Michel and Alison were agreed on aiming for hotel-coded luxury: “I want a suite, but Utah,” Michel said. Their bedroom’s dimensions didn’t promise that kind of expansiveness, so they stole one closet’s square footage (with the intention of paying it back with space from the bathroom). The white oak paneling they deployed so beautifully in the foyer carries along the now-generous bedroom walls, then steps up to a platformed sleeping area with a mist-enveloped mural. A dry bar and a floating shelf beside the lower seating area and a fireplace complete the all-in-one private retreat.

Divided by a hallway, the main suite’s two meager closets were initially downright depressing: “This makes me sad,” Michel noted. “We’ve gotta have a bigger closet. I don’t even mind if it’s shared if it’s much bigger!” By rededicating 30 square feet of the bathroom to a single and properly massive space, Alison and Michel created the custom-lit, floor-to-ceiling storage extravaganza prospective buyers would expect.

Michel and Alison relocated access to the main suite’s balcony with an arched iron door that centers their sumptuous, symmetrical design. Spectacular, Art Deco-inspired green stone tile transforms both the twin vanity areas (with slabs of even more green stone, naturally) and the illuminated-and-tasseled feature wall behind their 400-pound, freestanding tub (which depended on those arched French doors to get into the bathroom in the first place). The tile alone cost $7,000, so the team balanced their budget by installing luxury vinyl plank flooring underfoot.

With the French doors thrown open, the bath suite blends seamlessly into the balcony, where a tempered glass railing system shows off every bit of the spectacular view. The suite’s symmetry extends here with a pair of lantern-topped armchairs perched to make the most of sunrises and sunsets. “Our bathroom is a dream for anyone,” Alison said.

Divided by Design power couple Ray and Eilyn Jimenez made their way from Miami to Utah to render a verdict on Michel and Alison’s main suite: Could the veterans repeat their previous seasons’ victories in that all-important zone? “It was an amazing en suite,” Eilyn said. “I mean, the fireplace, the green tones, a step up into the bedroom … [and] the closet held spaces for what looked like 300 shoes! I appreciated that so much.” “You’re welcome,” Alison replied. That said, borrowing from the bath to accommodate that closet wasn’t what the judges considered an intuitive move. “The only thing we would have done differently was the bathroom didn’t feel very spacious,” Eilyn explained.

Surprise! The fourth week of competition wasn’t a full seven days of work, but a 48-hour sprint to complete the landing and second-floor bonus room. Michel hit the ground running with a plan to create original compositions. “When I see white walls like this, it already feels like a gallery. Immediately I think, ‘what kind of story can I tell here? What kind of value can we add, and what will separate our house from everybody else’s? And I’m also a painter, so I gotta make something for this space.” He and Alison outfitted their treads with the same white oak they used in the foyer, then used black metal handrails that extended the look of their window hardware. “It should be really clean, really simple, and that’s that.”

Challenged with designing around a pre-selected theme, Alison and Michel had to create … “Another office! Which we did not need, but the cool part is the downstairs office will be the adult office and the upstairs is going to be for the kiddies. [W]e don’t really have a sign of that in this house, so this actually is going to be a bonus,” Alison said. She knew that extensive hardscaping was her best chance at increasing value in this room, so she and Michel enveloped it in all-ages shelving and cabinetry. They couldn’t quite afford backing for their built-ins, so they painted the walls behind them to achieve that full custom-cabinetry look without the price tag. A pair of velvety, tone-on-tone sofas against the wall and a generous shared desk at the center of the room complete the bonus space.

One more twist: This week, the judging was coming from inside the house — as in each team scored their competition. The duo with the highest aggregate score won all of the $4,500 in prize money. Michel and Alison got props for added value, but their judges weren’t quite feeling the all-ages vibe. “Going in there I was like ‘oh my gosh they have all these built-ins, this is beautiful,’” Chelsea said, “but it felt more like a place where we would sit and work together rather than send our kids to do homework.” Jon, in turn, had a bit of tough love for the "leather" cabinetry color Michel favored: “The color in there kind of made me feel a little nauseous,” he confessed. “It was a weird brown to me!” This design undoubtedly boosted the team’s bottom line, but it didn’t boost their budget with prize money.

The fifth week took Alison and Michel and their competitors down two floors to their homes’ first levels, where they were charged with both building fully-functional second kitchens and dreaming up buyer-friendly purposes for unfinished spaces. This team never saw a blank canvas they didn’t welcome, of course — even a 1,300-square-foot one. Bearing in mind that the living room upstairs wasn’t the largest, they created a casual, comfortable gathering space for getting cozy and watching television. Faux beams and a trio of the arches they created on the main floor give the room a pleasing sense of symmetry. Even better, there’s now more than enough seating to properly entertain a substantial group.

When it came time to dream up that second kitchen, Alison and Michel knew it was time to revisit their favorite palette. This time, they invested $2,310 in a spectacular, soldier-stacked Zellige tile that carries from their countertop to the ceiling and wraps around the lozenge-shaped island. “I love that we’re continuing the green from the rest of the house down here, too,” Michel said. “And we could have chosen any style of subway [tile], but this one feels a little bit more imperfect [and] you celebrate it. It’s definitely handmade and hand-molded, so it feels that much more authentic. A little bit more warm, a little bit more worn.” Pistachio paint for the range hood and cabinetry adds an additional dimension to their color story, and the barstools’ arched backs echo both the island’s silhouette and the installation across the room.

For the unfinished space, Alison recalled the two-lane bowling alley Mika and Brian Kleinschmidt packed into their Season-2-winning house. She decided it was time to swing for the fences … with a pickleball paddle. “My Season 2 house I was so proud of — but the lower level was a little bit of an afterthought,” she explained. “This space is perfect for pickleball!” She went all in on wellness, tucking a cedar-lined sauna and a cold-plunge tub on either side of a custom pickleball mural by Sril, a Salt-Lake-City-based artist who’s created works for the Utah Jazz and Post Malone. “I mean, if a bowling alley wins, this is going to win!”

Kim Myles, Design Star’s Season 2 winner and a Battle on the Mountain mentor, found Alison and Michel’s ground-floor kitchen utterly delectable. “This [island] is speaking to my heart, being rounded and curved on the top — I mean first of all, great choice,” she said. “This kitchen is giving me value added, the pill-shaped island, the tile that’s the backsplash all the way up to the ceiling — this is everything, this is done, no notes.” When it came to the three-zone wellness space, on the other hand, “the pickleball, the cold plunge, the crazy amazing surrealist mural and the sauna, I am not sure how well all of this plays together,” she said. “I like the intention to do something completely different, completely unique, but this is a lot!”

Ty surprised the competitors with a sorely-needed budget boost for their sixth week on the block. In recognition of the truly unprecedented outdoor spaces they’d be transforming, each team received a one-time infusion of $50,000. Alison and Michel committed some of those funds to swathing their patio in cedar. White oak transforms their interior, but fragrant planks underfoot, around their columns and soaring overhead create an immersive anteroom for their backyard.

“Cedar is perfect for this climate. It’s great with ice and super cold temperatures," Michel said. "That durability is really important when it comes to long term value. As rustic as the cedar material is, it looks like an incredibly refined installation. There’s something about it coming from the floor, up the post and onto the ceiling that feels really customized[.]" Barely-there glass panels with crisp black borders echo the look of the arched French doors leading out from the living room.

Alison and Michel made the most of their materials once again in constructing a faceted bench for the fire pit that anchors their backyard. Pale pavers extend underfoot just far enough to create a smooth expanse beneath the contemporary fire bowl itself. Beyond it, white stones extend to the edges of the property. Knowing the panoramic views of the Utah landscape are the space’s most showstopping natural asset, the designers opted for minimalistic landscaping that enhances the environment rather than competes with it.

The one exception to the yard’s minimalism had the potential to win the block all by itself. Knowing added interior space was as good as money in the bank, Alison convinced Michel to spend their money on an ultra-contemporary, self-contained casita that added two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bath to their home’s bottom line. “These containers — they’re all over, right?” she reasoned. “They’re not super-crazy expensive.” Calling in every favor she’d banked from when she lived in the area, Alison was able to make her dream a reality.

“We now have two bedrooms, one bathroom, this is a kitchen with air conditioning and heating and plumbing and everything’s pre-installed so all we have to do is stage it!” Michel marveled. He and Alison strove for the same rustic refinement they developed in their main house, outfitting the casita with neutral, quiet luxuries that complemented the views from its many windows. The accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, is perfect for guests who need a bit of extra space to themselves (and features like it are growing more popular every year).

The week’s guest judges — sister act and the block's reigning champions, Lyndsay Lamb and Leslie Davis of Unsellable Houses — were suckers for Alison and Michel’s gorgeous materials and the artistic ways they put them to use. “Cedar is definitely where my eyes were drawn ... and then to bring it here with the hot tub!” Leslie exclaimed. The shipping-container addition, on the other hand, was a bit more controversial. “Would you say this is enough of a value add that you personally would look at a container home from your home every day?” Leslie asked. “I love the idea of having this. I don’t love the idea of looking at it in my backyard,” Lyndsay conceded. If the ADU was to be a mic drop, it’d have to wait for the final appraisal to make its impact.

In their final week on the block, Michel and Alison faced one more second-floor bedroom — and decided it had no business being a bedroom at all. “I would love to work out up here,” Michel said. “Legitimately, the natural light, fresh air — this feels good!” Alison adored that idea, and they were off and running (or lifting, or posing). Massive, multi-slider doors offer uninterrupted access to the attached balcony’s 180-degree mountainscapes; the same cedar panels Alison and Michel used on the home’s exterior, in turn, give the walls a rustic feel. Michel invested $1,500 in wallpaper for the upper portion of the walls and ceiling, then second-guessed himself and replaced it with black paint. “It’s detracting from the rest of the design,” he said. “There’s so much value and richness in the wood that I think the paper was just extra.”

A wall-spanning mirror doubles the room’s views and makes the most of its not-so-generous proportions, and the cedar panels Michel installed around it take on the look of an inlaid-wood frame; how’s that for a customized workout? A black, tambour-faced credenza, in turn, provides storage for additional equipment and post-fitness refreshments.

Mimicking the all-enveloping look of the cedar siding that carried across the entirety of their back patio, Michel and Alison extended the wall-to-wall planks from the gym’s interior to its balcony (and suspended a heavy punch bag from the ceiling; why not?). It’s the perfect spot for practices of all kinds, of course. “I would bring my yoga mat out here,” Alison said.

Alison and Michel also spent their final days on the block finishing up the exterior work they’d initiated upon their arrival at the beginning of the competition. They covered the majority of their home with vertical cedar planks, then surrounded the area around the front door with pale stone. “I want to see that contrast,” Michel said. They then decided to center a round window in that stone face: “It feels modern, and I know no other team is going to do that,” he added. Two rows of square pavers set in pale pea gravel create a boxwood-lined path to the front door, extending the effect of the stone set in cedar.

Front-door selection time: “This is the big show,” Alison argued. “Let’s get them from the minute they walk up. So, what if the front door becomes this huge moment? And when I say ‘huge’ I mean a huge door, but we change the look of it [by] doing Shou Sugi Ban [a Japanese wood-preservation technique that involves charring with fire].” She couldn’t afford to purchase an already-processed door, but she could char one herself. “The appraisers are going to look at this and lose their minds. They’re going to know it’s custom and so valuable. This is a veteran move again!”

Alison and Michel’s many veteran moves got a veteran walk-through, as Property Brother Jonathan Scott came to the block for the second year in a row to give the homes one last look. (After taking a walk-through with Ty, he joined three local appraisers to find out how they totaled up the homes’ values.) “I think you guys probably expected a lot out of [this team]. I know I did,” he told their competitors. “We walked in and — you delivered,” he told Alison and Michel. “I don’t want to cause any drama on the block, but I think your main suite may have been the best. It was really, really well done!” He was also in favor of the controversial container-casita: “I thought that was a really clever idea and you tucked it back so nicely that it framed the back of the yard, so that was really well done.”

We’re calling it now: Jonathan Knight is buying Alison and Michel’s home, even though the upstairs homework space’s paint made him “a little nauseous” after the 48-hour challenge. “I’m actually a little speechless right now,” he said in the kitchen. “This is absolutely gorgeous. I love the stone. I love the backsplash. I love the hood.” He cut to the chase: “I’m moving into this house!” The seemingly-neverending closet in the main suite dazzled Chelsea, whose initial reaction is unprintable, and Tristyn, who joined her in a “What?!” “It’s just a whole experience in here,” Tristyn said.

Of course, Rock the Block is measured in final appraisal value, not exclamations. This time around, the winning home rang in at $1.4 million, which represented a $350,000 gain and edged out the runners-up by $35,000. The block’s newest champions are … Alison and Michel! “This is such a proud moment,” Michel said. “I mean, I’m really feeling gratitude, because it was hard the first time around, [and] this time around I thought it was going to kill me, because the competition was amazing! So, being able to call myself the first-ever two-time Rock the Block champion? I’m a lucky guy."

“I’m never emotional!” Alison said as she teared up.