The one lesson I’ve learned from life

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen

Laurence LLeweLyn-Bowen, 54, rose to fame on the BBc’s interior design show changing rooms. He lives in a 17th-century manor house in Siddington, Gloucestershire, with his wife Jackie, and their two daughters, cecile, 24, and Hermione, 21. They are grandparents to cecile’s two-year-old son albion.

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS GOOD TASTE

One of the biggest epiphanies I ever had was very public. It was that moment on Changing Rooms in the nineties when one of the ladies opened her eyes and was absolutely appalled by what I’d done to her living room.

Suddenly, the show hit the headlines. I recall it was a complicated time — my wife Jackie was pregnant. I was not expecting this cataclysmic disapproval.

People were saying: ‘How could you do that to someone? How could you take their poor, innocent living room and Queen Anne-ify it?’.

There was something in the back of my mind saying, ‘Well, she did ask for it. It was literally what she wanted’. But I felt that I couldn’t say that.

I spent four or five days trying to weather the storm. Jackie said a string of expletives — but she was going into labour. Yet when the show went out, people got in touch to say, ‘Actually, I really like that, and I don’t understand why she didn’t like it’.

It was the moment in my life when I realised there’s no such thing as good taste — or bad taste. It’s ‘your taste’ and ‘my taste’, and I had to accept that.

To get taste right is to be as expressive and as individualistic as you can be, rather than hiding behind the beige. This does mean that you’re opening yourself up to potential criticism.

That public humiliation has made me Teflon- coated, which is just as well because when you become famous, everyone has an opinion.

It has allowed me to feel more confident and be much more resilient. It gave me the ability to make a decision and stick to it — even if it’s really difficult.

It has made everything I’ve done since easier. It helped me to focus on the important element of what I’m doing, and not be worried about what other people think. And for that, I’m for ever grateful to Changing Rooms, and to the Changing Rooms audience for being so horrid to me.

Laurence of Suburbia is available to watch on amazon Prime Video