Sydney architect Joe Snell replaced as a judge by Brit Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on House Rules

EVEN a successful renovation show like House Rulescan do with a makeover and it comes with a personality revamp too.

EXCLUSIVE

Even a successful renovation show like House Rules could do with a makeover, with Channel 7 axing Sydney architect Joe Snell as a judge and replacing him with eccentric British interiors designer and TV personality, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.

And what a personality he is, with the former Changing Rooms star telling Australians they should show their homes so much love we should “lick your walls.”

The flamboyant married father of two, who joined returning judge Wendy Moore, mentor Carolyn Burns-McCrave and local architecture expert, Drew Heath in filming season five, argues the home should be an emotional investment, as well as a financial one.

House Rules new judge Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. Picture: Channel Seven

“It’s something you should never take for granted. You should always lick your walls, you should always worship where you live and buy your house presents. You’ve got to treat your house as if you’re having an affair with it. Take it out for dinner. Buy it pretty things, flirt with it, really celebrate it.”

Llewelyn-Bowen, who co-stars on Asian television’s The Apartment with Jamie Durie, knows his eccentric presenting style will polarise viewers in the same way other UK judges do.

“Obviously, I come from this very UK school of Simon Cowell, Gordon Ramsay, middle-aged fellows who should know better and have been unleashed on the planet to basically tell people off in a rather worrying way,” he said.

Having travelled the country filming the new season, to be hosted again by Joh Griggs, the British design star heaped praise on our sense of humour, but challenged locals to experiment with interiors and especially, colour and texture.

“If the new Renaissance is going to start anywhere, I’m beginning to think it should be Australia. My passion is to really be an aesthetic midwife now for the Australian domestic interior and say, “Come on guys, let’s really let rip. Let’s go further than you’ve
ever gone before … turn your interiors into a background for sex, for rock ’n’ roll, for chocolate, for all of the things that really rock your world.”

Wendy Moore with Joe Snell. Picture: News Corp

He said his unorthodox opinions would ruffle feathers, claiming he’s been signed on to push the boundaries and call out bad design when he sees it.

“The idea is to really have a judging panel with quite an enormous amount of insightful authority. To a degree, it’s no more Mr Nice Guy … so ‘come on everybody, let’s work out how do you make the perfect Australian interior.’

“I feel enormously honoured to be included in that, although I was teasing Wendy (Moore) and saying she’s now surrounded by Drew, who’s a bit of a Peter Pan and I’m Captain Hook. She is literally Wendy Darling, caught between two naughty lost boys.”

Dressed in a wallpaper print suit, his personal style will draw comparison with MasterChef’s Matt Preston, another expat Englishman who put the cravat back on the fashion map here.

While Llewelyn-Bowen was not across Preston’s work or look, he boldly challenged the foodie star to “have a dandy off. A fop off. You could sell tickets.”

The new season of House Rules is expected to air later this year on Seven.

Email: [e-mail]

Twitter: @byrnesh