“I WANT TO MAKE BRITAIN bright again”

Laurence Llewelyn-bowen on the decor trends for 2022 and why maximalism is the new mantra for country interiors

Happy new year, LLB! Talk us through the key trends for 2022…

There’s a revival of what was happening when I started in the industry: think chintz and swags and tails. Five years ago, rattan and crochet were the worst things you could think of. Now, they’re sexy. Pattern is the big thing, though. People are re-engaging with it because they found their grey bunkers difficult to be in during lockdown. With the right one, people can watch their walls like the television. It isn’t just some geometric thing made on a computer. When you get pattern right, it reads like a story.

You burst onto our screens in the 1990s. Are we more stylish as a nation now?

There’s no doubt about it. In the old days of Changing Rooms, we’d enter hideous, moribund spaces full of chip paper painted yellow with light fittings falling off the wall. People are more design-literate now but haven’t done anything for ten years and it looks it. There’s more emphasis on individuality today, too. In the Nineties, taste was perceived as something you conformed with. Now, people want their style to reflect their personality.

Is maximalism making a comeback?

We go through a cyclical obsession with understatement and overstatement and we’ve come out of the former. Maximalism is a rural concept. When you live in the country, as I do, there’s no space for minimalism: you’ve got firewood to store and the dogs are muddy (we have several spaniels). Maximalism is a house that lives around you rather than you having to live around it. There’s too much going on to have bare kitchen counters: too much happiness, love and fun. So, by all means, place the grandkids’ macaroni art next to a Victorian painting. All I want is for you to curate the clutter against a navy-blue wall.

How has your style evolved over the years?

My style is straightforward: it’s full-fat decorating, there’s nothing diet about it. I want to make Britain bright again, as we’re in the middle of a grey-naissance. Grey is a great structural colour, but by painting everything the same pale shade, you’re getting brutalism. You’ve got to have other colours, too. A mulberry wall, teal sofa or ochre cushion bring depth. I love peacock colour schemes at the moment – using blues, greens and purples together. People always associate me with purple, which is fine. Better than assuming I like beige…

Where do you shop?

I like Argos and Littlewoods, but I also love antiques. Prices are ridiculously cheap at the moment because no one wants haunted furniture. I personally want a chair someone died in, so long as the bodily fluids have been cleaned off. An Ikea dining table might cost

“People always associate me with purple, which is fine. Better than assuming I like beige”

£200, but you could get a wonderful Edwardian piece for that at an auction, which will last longer and look better. We British think we must be modern or traditional, but a blend is best.

Who are your favourite designers?

I’m a fan of pattern designer Emma Shipley, rug designer Wendy Morrison and interior designer Kit Kemp. Then there’s Lulu Lytle. As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing wrong with the Downing Street refurbishment – I just want to see it in Hello! But my overwhelming aesthetics are David Hicks [noted for bold colours and mixing antiques with modern furnishings] and, of course, William Morris – a fellow denizen of the Cotswolds.

Have you always been a fan of William Morris?

I can’t escape Bill. My childhood home was painted all white, and the only exuberance my mother permitted herself was William Morris. He aimed to make people’s lives look better. Sadly, he didn’t have digital printing as I do, so everything had to be laboriously woven, making it expensive and elitist. I trained as a fine artist and want to make pattern available to everyone. My wallpaper design, Suburban Jungle, was a direct reference to Strawberry Thief, but instead of strawberries and thieves, it’s leopards and ginger plants.

“Making the first day of the year a thoughtful, enjoyable experience is an act of optimism”

How do you deck the halls for Christmas?

We don’t have a tree. It’s all about garlands, as our Cotswolds farmhouse has low ceilings. I also avoid green and red colour schemes. Why would I want my living room to look like a set of traffic lights? And I find it difficult to get twinkly lights right in this new world of LED. For me, Christmas is about candlelight. We’re in danger of over-lighting it.

Will you host a New Year’s Eve soirée?

There’s something pessimistic about drinking madly on New Year’s Eve, and I can’t assimilate that quantity of booze anymore. So, instead of Bacchic overindulgence the night before, we focus on New Year’s Day, with a big lunch for family and friends. I love concentrating on the start rather than the end. Making the first day of the year a thoughtful, enjoyable experience is an act of optimism. It’s about reflecting forward. Better than the hangover from hell.

What’s in store for the year ahead?

Channel 4 has commissioned another series of Changing Rooms, so you’ll see much more of me in my leather trousers. And we recently opened an LLB showroom in Cirencester. We considered opening it in London, but to live and work here is important. Mr Clarkson and I bookend the Cotswolds with two very different retail offers. That’s what life is like here: muddy but silky, too. VISIT Laurence’s new showroom in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, to browse his latest homeware and furnishing designs (llewelyn-bowen.co.uk).