Shaynna Blaze

Shaynna Blaze (Sharon Ainsley)(born 2 April 1963) is an Australian interior designer, television personality, writer and former singer. She is best known for her work as a co-host on Selling Houses Australia (2008–2020) and a judge on The Block (2012–present). In 2021 she won Celebrity Apprentice Australia.

Early life
Born in Melbourne, Australia, Blaze credits her parents, Basil and Annette, as her inspiration. She became interested in interior design as a teenager, and earned a degree in design after completing high school and designed commercial interiors at Reece Plumbing.

She married her first husband, and they had two children. Following her divorce, she found it "hard to run a business as a single mum" and worked as a jazz singer for 10 years, singing in clubs while her parents babysat. Blaze returned to interior design after remarrying.

Television career
Blaze was working for herself and taking on residential design projects, until a 2007 advertisement in a design newsletter caught her eye. That ad led to her filming an audition tape which then led to her becoming a co-host on Selling Houses Australia, alongside real estate expert Andrew Winter and landscape designer Charlie Albone in 2008.

In 2012, she was hired as a judge on Channel 9's team renovation show, The Block.

She filmed a pilot episode for her own interior design series, Blank Canvas with Shaynna Blaze, which aired on The LifeStyle Channel in April 2013. In 2013 and 2014, Blaze won the ASTRA Award for Favourite Personality – Female, and she co-hosted the 2014 ceremony with Matt Shirvington.

Buying Blind was a one-season show that aired in 2018 in which Blaze and two other experts purchase houses for couples who have signed over their life savings and given a list of requirements for their dream home.

In March 2021, Blaze announced she would be leaving Selling Houses Australia due to a busy schedule.

Blaze competed in the fifth season of The Celebrity Apprentice Australia in 2021 and succeeded as the winner. Blaze helped to raise over $300k for her charity of choice, Voice of Change, which supports survivors of family violence.

In 2023, Blaze was revealed to be the "Bluebottle" on the fifth season of Network 10's The Masked Singer Australia. She was eliminated in episode 4 after her second performance.

Publications
In March 2013, Blaze released Design Your Home, an interior design book published by Penguin Books Australia. Her second book, Design with Colour and Style, was released on 25 March 2015.

Blaze occasionally writes design columns for Stellar Magazine, The Herald Sun and Grand Designs Magazine.

Special media
On 7 and 14 December 2015, a two-part TV special, Shaynna's World of Design, aired on LifeStyle Home. It saw Blaze create a range of interior lighting and travel the globe to gather design inspiration from each place she visited. She also shared her own ideas and design principles along the way, not just for interior lighting, but for everything in the home. In 2016, she hosted Deadline Design on LifeStyle Home.

Business career
Founded in 2005, Blank Canvas Interiors is Blaze's interior design company which is based in Hawthorn East, Victoria. Her approach to design is "functionality of the layout is number one, then I look at the quality and suitability of the fixtures and surfaces, then the colours and styling at the end. A bad design is bad design, no matter how pretty it is". Blaze is known for her ability to quickly and creatively know what could be changed in a floorplan, light and colour to improve a space.

Blaze is a brand ambassador for the Attic Group, Granite Transformations, and Taubmans paint.

Blaze has designed products for brands including Molmic, Urban Road, Harris Scarfe and One World Lighting.

Personal life
Blaze's father, Basil, a fitter and turner, died of a heart attack in 1998. After her mother died of Alzheimer's in 2016, Blaze was approached by an aged care developer to design a facility, which she accepted.

Blaze has a son, Jess Kenneally, and daughter, Carly Anne Kenneally, from her first marriage. She later married personal trainer Steve Vaughan, and was credited by her married name, Shaynna Blaze-Vaughan, in early seasons of Selling Houses Australia. After 18 years of marriage she separated from Vaughan in August 2018. They divorced in 2023.

Blaze once dreamed of being an air hostess, but at only 5 foot 3 inches (160 cm) tall, she was too short.

Blaze's hobbies include yoga, meditation, sketching, painting, reading and walking her pet border collie.

Blaze is an advocate for women, and a social justice campaigner who has supported a number of organisations tackling domestic violence in Australia. Blaze has MCd candlelight vigils for women and children lost to family violence and presented keynotes at International Women's Day events.

With her children Carly and Jess as writers and co-directors, Blaze was the executive producer of The Fort, a 2021 feature film about a woman's battle to escape her abusive marriage while attempting to shelter her son from the realities of domestic violence.

Music
On May 3 2024, Blaze released her debut single Warrior, Blaze said before releasing the album that appearing in The Masked Singer (Australian TV series) season 5 had reignited a passion to sing again after revealing she had given up singing to support her family.