Love Island is back for its 11th season with a brand new lineup of singletons hoping to find love and win £50,000 in the process.
Along with brand new islanders and a presenting shakeup for its spinoff series and podcast, the show is also back with its boldest villa glowup to date.
The villa, which is tucked away off a dirt road in a remote area in the east of Majorca, is set against a sprawling landscape of mountains and greenery.
It’s where our couples will get to know each other in the hopes of making a connection– and some major changes have been implemented to ensure it is the “sexiest” season yet.
Bigger and brighter spaces
The villa’s new Miami-inspired look includes an even brighter colour scheme, and a major twist to its usual format with a Hideaway open around the clock with “no invite needed”.
Other changes include a moat around the fire pit, a special chill-out area with secret beds, a new dressing room, and a far more spacious bedroom than previous contestants were used to.
One of the first changes fans will notice is that the large chrome heart seen on the wooden walkway, where the contestants and Jama make their entrance, has been replaced by three larger ones.
This year’s villa is the brightest yet with sections decorated in one bright colour rather than multiple. The kitchen is neon blue, while the adjacent seating area is bright yellow, the dressing room is orange, and the bathroom is a bright green.
The show’s creative director Mike Spencer believes that painting the decking a bright neon blue has allowed the colours to pop even more than before.
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“You can see we’ve tried to create these zones so everyone and everything has a place,” Spencer told The Sun. “Miami, really cool, really quirky, we wanted to create an Instagrammable villa.”
In addition to the outdoor seating area, the new layout also includes a baby pink-themed chill-out zone with secret beds.
The bright orange dressing room is now much bigger than before and set out on the ground floor next to the bedrooms, which are also far more spacious than previous seasons.
The additional space has apparently been achieved by removing giant storage boxes placed at the foot of the islander’s beds. More beds have also been added to a spare upstairs room to allow contestants the option to stir trouble by “bed swapping”.
Host Maya feels that the space seems to have doubled in size.
“You could fart down one end and they wouldn’t hear it down the other,” she told The Sun. “It’s a bit more spread out. It feels breezier.”
Some of the colours of the exterior furniture have been refreshed too, with a line of bright yellow sun loungers surrounding the pool and three yellow bean bags (as opposed to the “cursed” and lonely one).
Major changes to The Hideaway
One of the biggest twists to this year’s season comes with one of the villa’s core fixtures: The Hideaway. The secret bedroom complete a with hot tub is usually reserved for couples only – normally those who have the strongest connection– allowing them to spend a night away from the prying eyes of fellow islanders.
But this year, The Hideaway will be open to non-couples only with “no invite needed” as a sign outside the door reads.
“It’s now No Invite Needed. So it could be the sexiest series ever!” said Spencer, who is also executive producer of the series.
“I think the series is really sexy anyway but we’ll always take more. We want it to be fun. Young, sexy, single people come abroad and hopefully find love.”
The newly decorated room is expected to stir trouble with Spencer saying it was time the show changed its format.
“It’s going to be organic and natural, it might not be a useful space but I think it was fair to change it up a little bit for series 11. It’s been a staple for so long it’s good to change things up a bit.”
It seems that plot has been at the centre of the new villa design, as Spencer added: “If you were in a couple, you could technically go in with someone else. It’s going to be chaos!”
The walls throughout have also been adorned with neon signs and stencil designs of classic Love Island quotes and pop cultural phrases like “spill the tea” and “eat, sleep, crack on, repeat”.
Significant additions in every area of the villa – kept hidden from viewers – are the many cameras tucked away in bushes, corners and hanging over the beds.
Love Island has once again partnered with eBay as its series sponsor to help “fight against fast fashion” by stocking the islanders’ wardrobe with pre-loved clothing from the site.
Lastly, the fire pit, the set of all drama and dumpings, has been redesigned complete with a moat.
“We’re up for anything, we’re up for changes,” said Spencer. “There’s so many dating shows on TV and there’s a real reason we’re in season 11 and not be afraid to do something different.”
Love Island starts on Monday 3 June at 9pm on ITV1, ITV2 and ITVX. Episodes thereafter will continue on ITV2 and ITVX.
