Laurence Llewelyn Bowen says push your taste boundaries to find a decorating style you love
THIS design maverick says if you test your design boundaries, you’ll find a decorating style you’ll love living with for life.
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LAURENCE Llewelyn Bowen is making himself at home. Since joining the judging team on Channel 7’s reality design show House Rules last year, he has fallen for all things Australian.
“(My wife) Jackie was commenting about being snowed in again and I was annoying her by talking about the perpetual sunshine here,” Laurence says. “I am exploring how I can bring my business here because I really enjoy being here so much.”
The British interior designer best known for his flamboyant style is also enamoured by the range of children’s clothes available locally, which he is snapping up for his grandson, Albion, born in 2016.
“My grandson relies on me for dressing him in boy’s clothes because they are so much better here,” he says.
Laurence has also just released his latest wallpaper range for Graham & Brown, which draws on neoclassic themes for inspiration.
He says as Australians, we should be valuing our own heritage more.
“You have 200 years of lovely things that you should be more impressed by,” he says. “It’s too easy to roll around in the pastures of Mid-Century design but I am so inspired by buildings in some of your public areas and by Australian homesteads.”
FINDING YOUR LIMITS
Style will also be back on the agenda when House Rules returns next Monday night.
Laurence is a keen advocate for channelling your personal style guide rather than following the crowd.
“There is an in-built longevity in getting it right. If you choose to focus on fads or fashions or following trends and there will be another along in a couple of months,” he says. “It’s about creating your own style through exploration and by taking risks.
“You have to push your taste to its absolute limits to understand the ones that are hard wired into your thinking.”
While it can lead to exceptionally beautiful spaces, Laurence says it can be equally disastrous at times, as evidenced by an episode this season.
“There was such a passionate defence of something that one team had done which was especially revolting and they had to be punished — but they almost got away with it because of their commitment,” he says.
Still, pushing the design envelope is preferable to the alternative, Laurence says.
“This season’s teams seem much more confident in taking risks rather than being drawn to delusions of blandeur.”
Indeed, the stakes are higher this year, with teams preparing a house for auction for the first time. Expect differences of opinion, including among the judges.
“There are so many new twists and turns — it’s something people are really going to enjoy,” Laurence says.
“I hope this is the season that will really get people engaged in decorating.”