As the autumn season sets in, generating its glorious palette of cosy colours, many of us are again inspired to update, elevate and revamp our homes. With more British homes containing an LLB product than any other designer brand, look no further than the legendary Laurence for inspiration! As an eminent authority on design, Laurence has a cult following around the globe. A familiar face of interior design for Littlewoods and a self-styled “homestyle consultant”, the dandy designer frequently serves as a highly-respected judge on top TV design shows. 

So, what, for Laurence, makes a ‘beautiful home’? “A beautiful home is a home oozing personality…” he tells me. “There’s nothing more uncomfortable than a space decorated by someone in a way that they feel it ought to be decorated. I hate ‘telephone voice’ interiors that come across all posh and end up feeling deeply unfriendly and really rather cold. Using beige doesn’t help… Rooms are at their best when they have chatty conversations with their occupants; when they’re full of references to the people that live in them, full of memories, and, most importantly, full of gin – never underestimate the importance of a well-stocked drinks tray!” he laughs. 

LLB style

A man of distinctive style, he savours breaking the rules with his designs… Among his private design commissions, a total rule-breaking, but taste-making, revamp of a new-build house for a client who wanted Hollywood regency with the wow factor became a firm favourite. “We played with scale and colour to make each of the rooms feel twice as grand and three times as large. My design practice has seen me using all of my love for James Bond villains to inspire some truly epic interiors, including a master suite based on the inside of a beretta gun barrel. It’s all pretty insane and the client loves the fact he can drive his orange Aston Martin into his bespoke office space and leave it there like its furniture.”

Exuding elegance and sophistication, alongside his unique designs, this discerning British gentleman’s dressing style also makes him stand out from the rest, with his sensational suits, flouncy regency shirts and fancy frock coats from the likes of luxury tailors Victor York in Singapore and high-end tailors on London’s Savile Row, which he then turns into bespoke pieces. “I never dress for anyone other than me.”

Laurence’s showy style is reflected in his wardrobe. He has donated a few personalised pieces, including a two-piece Victor York suit and dress shirt, William Hunt silk dinner jacket plus a suit in Laura Ashley fabric (famously sported on Changing Rooms), to charities such as Shooting Star Children’s Hospices, for which Laurence and his glamorous wife Jackie have been stalwart patrons since 2003. 

Success secrets

The secrets to his sensational success and longevity in the interiors industry? “No natural predators. And the fact that I’ve always been, and will always be, me,” he reveals to me. 

His business is very much a family affair, operating smoothly under the gently-guiding hand of his hugely-creative other half Jackie, his “Queen” and “muse”. “I’ve got a great team in the design office, including my son-in-law Dan, who runs it, and daughter Hermione, who administrates the sites,” Laurence explains. “We’re always on the lookout for interesting, quirky projects and clients who want something special… and to have a laugh doing it!” 

“Jackie always teases me that I have to go a long, long way on the planet these days to be famous… But I do find it interesting that so many international television broadcasters feel it is so very important to have a British accent judging the home style of their contestants in their local territories. It just goes to show that as far as the world is concerned, the way we British live is very much their ideal, and that our particular brand of highly-individual decorating and occasionally-suppressed nostalgia is absolutely how so many people all over the globe would love to configure the space they come home to.”

Rebooting Changing Rooms 

Twenty five years on from when the TV show which turned velvet-and-purple-loving Laurence into a creative superstar first hit our screens, the in-demand designer continues to make waves in the design world. With showstopping concepts ensuring establishments are sexy and luxurious, he’s still shocking and inspiring the nation through his elegantly-executed, elaborate overhauls and outlandish OTT creations.

And after a 17-year break, Changing Rooms is back on the box, with Laurence returning to his ‘feather-ruffling’ role as extravagant designer extraordinaire in the cult interior design show, delivering interiors inspo in spades, with a 2021 twist…

“It was such an iconic series!” says Laurence. “Along with being about the transformation of a room through a makeover, it was also about the panto, the casting, the energy and the reality… And, of course, purple!”

Paint Brushes at the ready!

Captivating his audience with his style and trademark jewel colours, sumptuous fabrics and a historical reference or two (with both interiors AND his fab outfits), the interiors guru first burst onto our screens in 1996 in the BBC’s landmark lifestyle concept show, co-presenting with Linda Barker, Carol Smillie, Anna Ryder Richardson and ‘Handy’ Andy Kane. The classic game-changing home improvement programme turned its resident maximalist Laurence and his crafty colleagues into household names overnight.

“When we started the show back in the mid-90s, nobody dared to decorate out of their comfort style,” Laurence explains. “Our show brought interior design down from its ‘posh’ pedestal, inspiring everyone to pick up their paintbrushes and get arty in their own abode.”

Fun, fast-paced and full of drama, the 90s show revolutionised home decoration, with being creative with colour and design becoming the nation’s favourite weekend pastime. 

The unprecedented home makeover series exploded viewers’ interest in interior design and DIY, and BOOM… Britain was bitten by the home improvement bug! 

The original ‘Changing Rooms’ ran until 2004, with the series, and this much-loved personality’se minently-elegant looks, revived on Channel 4 this September. Brought back to our screens on the very day marking the 25th anniversary of the first-ever show, Laurence reveals that still loves pushing people out of their comfort zone, and revels in the fact that he’s different. 

“I love that people’s expectations when I walk into the room, they know that it’s going to be taken somewhere they would never take it to themselves,” he says. “In the early days, the first series, it was absolutely extraordinary… ‘Changing Rooms’ was the first real proper reality show… the first time that everything was kept in, even it didn’t work. It was the debut of what you saw on TV that was happening to real people, the first-ever kind of reality show where that was allowed to happen.” 

Laurence admits he wasn’t keen, initially, on starring on TV. “I remember the first couple of very negative responses, when we were just starting out and my children were very young. This was before social media, but I received LOTS of letters from people writing in to say, ‘Well, they might not have liked it, but I did!’” 

He reveals that made him realise that taste is “absolutely subjective”. To each his own, as they say! “So I thought, in that case, I’m going to go on TV to encourage people to do it THEIR way, to just have a go and have some fun along the way.”

Brightening Britain

With the original ‘Changing Rooms’ launching an interiors craze, early influencer LLB has single-handedly had THE most influence over the home in the last 40 years. 

On a mission to “make Britain bright again”, and “remove beige from the nation’s palette”, the quintessentially-English designer has found his new special space on our screens, this time in partnership with Dulux, and hosted by Anna Richardson. 

The TV legend says he took a lot of coaxing out of the stable to strut his design stuff again in the new upcycled series of the uplifting show. “Because I felt so old! But the minute we started, I literally REARED up and wanted to be part of it again… I love the fantastic sense of camaraderie it brings, the collaborative building together…”

The ‘Changing Rooms’ reboot offers an up-to-date source of decorating inspiration, each episode bringing interior design trends and painting techniques for viewers to try at home. From craft effects and colour blocking, to murals and taking Dulux Simply Refresh and Dulux Heritage colours for a spin, the ultimate décor ‘It Gang’ team deliver a fresh lick of paint and design inspo as they go.

With the ‘controversial’ original series seeing more than its fair share of DIY disasters – who can forget that infamous teapot moment with Linda?!! – Laurence says this all plays a part in the joy of the show. “It’s all about the experience of what people are doing… I’ve been doing this all over the world, and it’s always been so manicured and choreographed and everything goes right, but ‘Changing Rooms’ is SO rock’n’roll, SO naughty, SO dirty, that actually if the paint doesn’t dry or the teapots break, that’s at the centre of the show.”

With fans longing for it to come back, he says there’s so much attached to the show. “It is the most extraordinary series… I’ve never seen reactions like it.” The recycled series sees room revampers given an extended timescale of two days to overhaul the space. “Which still gives us that element of challenge,” he says, and it’s very much ‘in the moment’, with viewers enjoying the evolution, which is among the materials that make the show work.

Ringleading the ‘Changing Rooms’ challenges, Laurence is joined by “joyful minimalist” creatives Jordan Cluroe and Russell Whitehead of 2LG Studio, along with fun’n’resourceful carpenter and joiner Tibby Singh, together creating incredible makeovers and bringing modern-day homeowners’ designs to life.

From coaching Clara Amfo as she painted a feature arch in her living room, to revealing the Dulux Colour of the Year every autumn, the show’s resident paint expert, Marianne Shillingford (Dulux’s Creative Director and in-house “Dr Dulux”) is a master of colour and at “unpicking decorating techniques that look complex and impressive and making them easy for everyone to have a go”. She’s teamed up with the Dulux dream team’s select decorators Steph Howles, Mike Katembela, Emma Gill and Georgie Baker, all busy bringing the designers’ wildest décor fantasies to life through their resourcefulness, hard graft and plentiful litres of paint.

Grey-naissance & a lockdown craft revival

As we finally emerge from that forced entrapment, Laurence is now busy making Britain brighter again. “We’re right in the midst of this grey-naissance comfort zone, and this is the show we now need after such a difficult 18 months, inspiring us to express ourselves with our own interiors and have a total ball in the process!”

Deep blush pink, lavender and turquoise… Colour and detail, statement furniture in curvy, organic shapes, plus playful paint effects in lively shades, the show showcases theatrical drama with a design style oozing empowerment, kindness and pride, creating homes that lift spirits. 

Having formulated a career based on his creativity, he’s happy to witness the mass resurgence of age-old crafts. “There’s been a huge renaissance in creativity and I think people have got hooked on cooking, needlework and other crafts again.”

Judging Laurence 

The phenomenally-popular ‘Changing Rooms’ series led to copious copycats on other channels, with show-after-show copying its formidable format. Having shot to fame, multi-talented Laurence starred in a string of highly-successful home makeover series, notably ‘DIY: SOS’, in which he still stars today. There’s also been ‘Homefront’, Laurence’s own spin-off series, ‘Fantasy Rooms’, and he co-presented the Irish TV3 lifestyle program ‘Showhouse Showdown’ with fellow interior designer Neville Knott.

A judge on shows such as Fearne Cotton’s ‘Interior Design Masters 2020’, his super-stylish authority on design has also made him a high-profile mainstay in Asia and Australia, where having spread some LLB love down under, ‘The Apartment’ puts its phenomenal success down to LLB’s role as the reality show’s razor-sharp head judge. He’s been winning over Australian audiences with his witty critiques of contestants’ renovations in ‘House Rules’, too, and also enjoyed adjudicating alongside former editor-in-chief of Australian Vogue, Juliet Ashworth in Australia’s ‘Instant Hotel’, bringing a very British way of design style and living to the rest of the world.

To The Manor Bowen

His own beautiful home is a 17th-century manor house in the Cotswolds, formerly occupied by Quakerism co-founder John Roberts. In 2007, Laurence, his family and his historic ‘haunted’ house were portrayed in the Living TV series ‘To the Manor Bowen’, sharing their exciting exploits surrounding settling down in Siddington, and depicting their rural idyll ecstasies and gin-soaked despairs documented in an entertaining, colourful fly-on-the-wall show. 

“It was good to move to a new area and it being so high-profile, because there was no escaping from it… we just had to get on with it!” explains Laurence, who moved his family from their former London home to the countryside close to Cirencester. “I don’t think we’d have done quite so much to the house initially, so it condensed our experience of moving to the Cotswolds into something a little sharper, and it was such a huge hit all over the world.” 

A springboard for many a creative, William Morris (whose richness to his pattern-making has influenced Laurance), CR Ashbee, the Guild of Handicrafts, and many others hail from here too. 

“The film crew became part of the family. As for the ghosts, I think we overdecorated and scared them away with the wallpapers!” says the celebrity designer in his fabulously-irreverent style.

Laurence in lockdown

He also reveals that having his family living with them, and embracing the joys of being grandparents, helped him and Jackie through the lockdowns, during which he delighted in the pause on his extensive travels to spend more time with his family. 

“Although it sounds so glamorous dividing my time between filming commitments in Australia, Asia and the UK, I get very nostalgic for Britain and the British countryside in particular,” he explains to me. “Ultimately, all this travel takes me away form the family, which is always hard.”

He says he felt lucky in lockdown to have quality time with them. “I made it back from filming in Australia just in time. Both our daughters were back at home with their partners and the joy of our life, Grandson LLB – Albion. We were very much reviving the old-fashioned notion of homestead living where all the generations hang out together and help each other whilst having as much fun as possible. It really is a great way of living.”

The House of Laurence

Boasting a best-selling paint range, along with bed linen, kitchenware, carpets