LAURENCE LLEWELYN- BOWEN
ON HIS DESIGNS TO MAKE BRITAIN’S HOMES GREAT AGAIN WITH THE RETURN OF ‘CHANGING ROOMS’
With the revival of Changing Rooms on our screens, a new flagship store opening in the Cotswolds and a second grandchild joining the family brood, it’s no wonder Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is lying prostrate on a chaise longue, both exhausted and excited as he talks to hello!.
“I’m absolutely deflated by my own efforts,” says the unfailingly flamboyant interior designer. “The difference between prancing around in leather painting ceilings at 57 rather than 37 is very pronounced, I can tell you,”
Laurence lives in the Cotswolds with his family – wife Jackie, daughters Cecile and Hermione, son-in-law Dan Rajan, future son-in-law Drew Marriott and grandson Albion, five – but has just finished charging around the UK filming Changing Rooms.
The much-loved DIY series is back this week after 17 years away – perfect timing for a country coming out of a pandemic and crying out for colour, Laurence believes. “There’s a hunger for a decent home show that demonstrates how to add individuality and personality in decorating.
“People went into the first lockdown in the midst of a ‘greynaissance’,” he adds. “They were surrounded by grey, which at the time felt like a good idea, but where’s the fun and the joy?”
In contrast, he says, Changing Rooms will be “bright pink sofas and teal rugs.”
MOVING WITH THE TIMES
Joining him in the series are interior design couple Jordan Cluroe and Russell Whitehead, carpenter Tibby Singh and presenter Anna Richardson, leaving Laurence as the only original member of the show, a point that made him initially reluctant to take part.
“It did feel slightly retrograde. I thought: ‘Why do I want to get hot and hassled and sweaty and stressed?’”
However, the timing was perfect. While he’s usually crossing the globe on design ventures and TV shows, Laurence has been very much home-based over the past 18 months.
He also had fond memories of the “excitement and energy of it all”, even if filming conditions could be less than glamorous.
“I had a series of hampers sent because where we were staying didn’t have china, glass or cutlery,” he says. “Jackie kept sending me little mercy packages with Gentleman’s Relish or asparagus.
“Everyone was so snide to begin with, but within two or three nights they were jealous because I was the one with prosecco and my own pillows.”
Fans of Laurence’s sartorial style
‘The difference between prancing around painting ceilings at 57 rather than 37 is pronounced, I can tell you’
will be delighted to learn he will once more be wearing leather trousers for the show, if only for practical reasons: “Leather is the ultimate workwear. You can stretch and scratch it and wipe it clean. Jordan and Russell are such weaponised vegans, every time I squeaked passed them, smelling faintly of the back seat of a Bentley, they tutted,” he chortles.
AT YOUR SERVICE
Discussions about a second series have already started, but in the meantime, Laurence is focusing on his new premises in Cirencester, which will house the showroom for his interior design consultancy as well as sell homeware, gifts and soft furnishings, including exclusive, limited-edition fabric designs.
Based in an old police station, it is a “glamporium”, Laurence says, and very much a family affair: Jackie is chair, Dan is commercial director, Cecile is senior style consultant and Hermione is head of retail and client services – “She has a first-class degree in criminology, so shoplifters beware,” the designer warns.
Opening a high street store while many are closing might seem like “complete idiocy”, he adds: “But Cirencester is different in that it’s somewhere people want to visit. You can wander around, have a coffee – it’s an experience.”
The area is also bursting with celebrity residents, from David and Samantha Cameron to Elizabeth Hurley, the Beckhams and Kate Moss, all of whom Laurence hopes to attract along with the general public.
“I opened the door too quickly the other day and nearly knocked [actor] Jamie Dornan under a bus,” he says. “Someone claims they saw Camilla [the Duchess of Cornwall] drive past and slow down to look at our windows.
“We might have Jeremy Clarkson’s farm shop on the other side of the Cotswolds, but i f you want a particularly slinky experience where the proprietor won’t shout at you, come to our lovely things boutique!”
Devoted grandparents to Cecile’s and Dan’s son Albion, Laurence and Jackie are looking forward to the arrival of the couple’s second child – a girl – in October.
“We are so delighted. I can’t wait to welcome another Llewelyn-Bowen grandchild into our crazy menagerie,” he says.
“And a little girl will be the perfect antidote for Albion’s Spider- Man obsession, although with our unconventional genes, she’ll doubtless end up a fan of The Hulk.”
They are currently converting their garages into a home for the growing family, while Hermione and Drew are moving into the top floor of the main house ahead of their wedding in February, which has had to be postponed three times.
“The frock I designed has been sitting in its wrapper upstairs for a year,” Laurence says. “We’re on a quest to find a cathedral big enough for it.”
‘ People went into the fifirst lockdown surrounded by grey. Where’s the fun and the joy?’
Even the family’s pet spaniels Stella and Florence have their own home after Laurence designed the “World’s Best Dog House”, complete with a mezzanine floor, for the dog joint supplement brand YuMove.
Describing his family as a “dynasty”, both Laurence and Jackie are thrilled to have their daughters and their partners living with them.
“We had an empty nest for about 18 months,” he recalls. “Jackie and I were just rattling around with the butler – it was terrible.”
He credits his wife for maintaining the domestic equilibrium: “She is the incredibly glamorous glue that binds us all together. We are such a mafia and it all revolves around her ability to bring pleasure and heart to the family.”
With so many professional and personal projects on the go, is there anything else up Laurence’s frilly sleeve? “No!” he replies, looking aghast. “I’ve got enough on my plate, thank you very much.”