Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen believes in a colourful retirement. The TV star tells Jane McGowan why older doesn’t have to mean boring...
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, the flamboyant interior designer turned national treasure, is a man on a mission: to revolutionise retirement living.
The TV celebrity, who burst onto our screens amid a mountain of MDF in the 90s BBC hit Changing Rooms, has now teamed up with Rangeford Villages, an award-winning provider of luxury homes for the 60+ community. Appointed as design curator, Laurence was on hand recently to showcase his work as the group unveiled its latest location, Homewood Grove in Chertsey.
“Being very much an older person myself – I am revelling in rolling into my 60th year – I have always found it rather peculiar that there is this institutionalised approach to retirement living,” he says.
“It’s almost like, let’s not scare the old people, but let’s encase them in as much beige as possible and subdue them till we can quietly dispose of them.”
A view that the Cotswolds-based design guru regards as the “absolute antithesis” of what the next tranche of retirees stands for.
“We’re the generation that bunked off school to watch the Sex Pistols. We’re not going to go quietly,” he asserts.
It was when the company opened a new development in his village that Laurence first came across Rangeford.
“I just wandered in to have a look, and I was teasing them that it would just be another beige old people’s farm. But they soon put me right, explaining that their model was based more on boutique hotels and was very design-led.”
Laurence – who could never be accused of hiding his light beneath a bushel – immediately offered his services. It was the start of a partnership which, he says, has already proved “incredibly successful”.
He handpicks all fabrics, upholstery, furniture, artworks and accessories, many of which come from his own range. The aesthetic is based on his trademark “maximalist” outlook, boasting bright and bold colours, textures and patterns – an approach deliberately chosen, he says, to counteract the negativity which so often surrounds ageing.
“When it comes to the news about older people, it’s all Winter Fuel Payments and abject misery. There is a weird preconception that, beyond a certain age, everything is going to get worse. And that is just rubbish.
“It’s time to reconfigure the way we think about ageing; to expect that we will be fit for much longer and retain a good quality of life.”
Born in Kensington in 1965, Laurence is the oldest of three children. His brother Edward works in the City while his sister Frances is a doctor. In the past he has described himself as the “purple sheep” of the family, settling at an early age on a life in art and design, as creative pursuits were “all I was good at”.
Following a successful career selling flooring, Laurence set up his own design consultancy in 1989. A few years later he was persuaded to do a screen test by his wife Jacqui, a wedding planner and artist, for a new BBC show in which couples would decorate part of each other’s homes.
The format of putting ‘real’ people on TV was in its infancy back then, and Changing Rooms turned designers such as Linda Barker and Laurence into household names. It ran for 17 series spanning eight years, before being revived in 2021 by Channel 4.
Initially wary of the encore – especially of revisiting the hasty construction projects – Laurence soon came round. He even agreed to don once again the leather trousers synonymous with his persona.
“I said to the producers: ‘Of course I’m not going to do it – I’m a 57-year-old grandfather living in the Cotswolds…’ And the minute I said that was the minute I knew I had to do it, precisely for all the 57-year-old Cotswolds squires out there who thought their leather-trouser-wearing days were over.”
Sadly, with the genre now saturated, the allure of the big reveal – as neighbours react with horror at the transformation wrought to their living rooms by supposed friends – had faded somewhat, and the reboot was cancelled after just two series.
Undaunted, Laurence returned to our screens last year in Outrageous Homes with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, which saw him meet people from across the country who “value originality and decorate their homes without fear”.
He has also appeared on celebrity versions of quiz shows, winning more than £500,000 for South West London and Surrey children’s charity Shooting Star CHASE, of which both he and Jacqui are patrons.
But as the designer prepares for his 60th birthday this spring, he readily admits that he is looking forward to embracing the next phase of his life.
“On the whole my retirement is going very badly – I have never been so busy,” he quips. “I’ve stepped back from the nitty-gritty of running a design business though. My daughter Hermione is very much CEO of that and is doing an incredible job, as well as some amazing work with companies like Next.”
Instead, he’s using the extra time for more personal artistic projects.
“I’ve started painting again – I’ve got an exhibition at the Cotswold Contemporary art gallery in Burford – and I have just designed the costumes and sets for a production of The Three Musketeers at a theatre in Cirencester.
“I am doing things now that suit me creatively and can be more than just a balance sheet. Actually, I think that is what retirement should be about – freeing you to enjoy a level of creativity to which you previously had no access, as you were working too hard.”
Yet his passion for interior design is undimmed, while his message to homeowners remains one of encouragement to choose bravely and boldly, embracing the latest design trends.
“The new breed of influencer has completely changed the way interior design is disseminated,” he says. “Once, people only had books or magazines to inspire them, but now they can see the actual designers at work. It has made ‘taste’ far more subjective and creative – far more personality driven than it has ever been before.
“Your home is your most valuable asset, but it’s also an unquantifiable, emotional investment. Painting it all one colour, reducing it to a pasteurised product, makes it a place not for living in.”
We come to a halt. Laurence must break off from his musings on a restful retirement to attend to his grandchildren, one of whom has started throwing pieces of orange at her sibling.
“It’s that time of year,” he laughs. “Everyone else has a cold, so the ankle biters have been left with me. Demelza [she of the fruit throwing] is quite a rich flavour – as befits her name. Pure wilful glamour.”
I wonder where she gets it from?
Homewood Grove in Chertsey features 116 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments with 24/7 support services. Find out more at rangefordvillages.co.uk.
