What do you have to do to shock Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, the undisputed king of wild and adventurous interior design, with your choice of décor? Well nothing, because he says he is truly unshockable. However, Laurence is hoping that his new Channel 4 series 'Outrageous Homes' will completely shock and outrage you by featuring some of the most eccentric and incredible designs hiding behind some people's totally normal front door.
Laurence says: "I’m not going to lie, anyone who has seen my work would say I’m unlikely to be shocked but when we were compiling the show what kind of took us all by surprise was how eloquent people were about their eccentricity, how powerful they were, and how honest. They were open and quick to tell their truths about how they wanted something that other people didn’t want but that is fine for them."
Almost every week in the late 1990s LLB was on our television screens in the series 'Changing Rooms' constantly shocking unprepared homeowners with the reveal of the new décor in their chosen room that had received a soaking in Laurence's interiors magic dust. For more property stories sent to your inbox twice a week sign up to the property newsletter here.
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Some of Laurence's 'Changing Rooms' designs were so far removed from the participants' bland and boring décor choice that viewers eagerly awaited the homeowners' chins to crash to the floor when they opened their eyes to see a full-on LLB upgrade. Since then Laurence has worked across the world, as well as in the UK, on a variety of shows including a reboot of Changing Rooms, and created ranges of home accessories and furniture for some of the biggest brands.
But now LLB's new show 'Outrageous Homes' takes this element of 'Changing Rooms' surprise and super-sizes it, elevating it to a level that is so far from most people’s comfort zone and imagination capabilities that some viewers are probably going to hate some of the homes featured on the show - and LLB hopes they do.
"You can see Outrageous Homes as the kind of interiors version of Naked Attraction, it’s shocking and you’re going to see all sorts of interior design dangly bits you never thought you’d see. You should be outraged because these aren’t your homes, this isn’t where you live, you should be shouting ‘oh I hate that!’ and you should hate that because it’s not you - it’s them (the show participants) and isn’t that marvellous, because they will probably be outraged by your beige!"
One thing that has shocked Laurence, however, are not the homes featured on the show that include a Treasure Island house and one covered in mosaics, but the homeowners themselves. He says: "When we started thinking about the show my concept was it would be just 'wow that’s unusual', but I’d forgotten how ridiculously eccentric we all are and that we’re terribly good at hiding it behind a very conventional exterior.
"You can be walking down a very ordinary suburban street, with identical houses and the same set of net curtains but actually each one could be a pulsating, ululating hot bed of a personality, and sometimes even extraordinary eccentricity."
As Laurence reels off some of the jaw-dropping homes that wait to shock viewers it's hard not to feel truly intrigued at how some people have been brave to not only make their bonkers designs into reality, but to share it with the nation too.
Laurence says: "So we’ve found everything from a complete shrine to the 1970s to 14th century Transylvanian goths, to a subterranean Venetian palazzo. We had an absolutely perfect recreation of a 1910 shopkeeper's house, we had a house that was turned completely into a massive fish tank. We are all absolutely bat poo bonkers and Outrageous Homes was a fabulous opportunity to make a programme that was a celebration of that.
"We decided very early on to make it feel as much like the TV show Eurotrash as possible so there’s no explanations of property values or how people of done stuff or why people have done stuff - this is just a total celebration of the fact that wherever you are you’ll meet some crazy people who have done some crazy stuff, and thank goodness for that!"
But in this age of social media when it is easy for people to openly but anonymously express their views and broadcast their feelings, sometimes in the strongest and not kindest of ways, are the participants ready for any backlash? LLB has some advice for them, and anyone who wants to create a home that works for them but other people will really hate, just don't worry and be brave and do it anyway.
LLB says: "The people on the show are the ballsy definition of brave, taking on the world, and they are happy with who they are. Having built a career over the last 30 years based on not caring what people say about me, it makes your life much happier. At 60 I feel terribly content at who I am. I've had people say the most awful things about me for the last 30 years and it’s only made me worse! If you’re going to slag me off it’s only going to make me worse!"
Having made TV programmes all over the world and seen how interiors change and how location is a huge factor, LLB is confident is saying that Welsh interiors are regularly more distinctive and different than other areas of the UK, with a lot more colour and pattern and less obsessed with the idea of modernism, so maybe your home is, or will soon become, so outrageous that you might want it to be considered for series two of his new show?
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's show Outrageous Homes airs on Channel 4 on Thursday June 20 at 10pm and is available to catch up via the channel's streaming service. For more property and renovation stories join our Amazing Welsh Homes Facebook group here. Plus the latest edition of the award-winning Amazing Welsh Homes magazine is out now, buy online here.
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