Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen warns to ‘stop being so English’ when it comes to getting old

The internationally celebrated and mega successful interior design legend Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has considered getting old. Now turning 60, he is even more passionate about advising people to be brave, be themselves and do what they love, especially when it comes to surrounding themselves with design at home as well as fashion.

Speaking to WalesOnline, Laurence said: “What we all need to get our heads around is that we’re never going to look young again, so don’t try to look young, try to look good in it , you have – I’m fine with the fact that I’ll never be Apollo in a loin cloth but Zeus in a suit is fine, it’s about tailoring your mojo to reflect what you actually have and that includes interior design .”

Although mainly known for being one of the interior designers featured in the hit TV show ‘Changing Rooms’, for over 30 years LLB has been creating beautiful interior designs, artwork and home accessories to bring color and pattern into people’s homes and life in a struggle against bland beige and gloomy greyness.

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Laurence says, “My personal feeling about interiors is that you should actually get out of your lane. Why keep flirting with bland, why have ‘delusions of blanduer’? Let’s out ourselves in Wales as the nation that dared when it came to interior design. Stop being so English – the poor English have nothing like our passion, our imagination, our Celtic ability to be a little bit different, the English are obsessed with beige and keeping up with the Joneses – let’s be the Joneses! Let’s be the Joneses they want to keep up with.

“When I’ve done shows in Wales and recorded in Wales, there’s always been a strong sense of wanting to do our own thing anyway, but I still think there’s a climate-inspired nature to decorating – when you’re faced with a landscape that is so fabulous but is usually wet and mostly green with hints of grey, you tend to want to bring more color into your home anyway.

“We know that in terms of demographics through our sales of our collections – for example, if I have a collection of duvet covers, we’ll sell lots of beige in London, but when it gets to Cardiff The color choice has gone way up on the dial.”

But the desire to try new things in the realms of decor should not diminish when you get old LLB proclaims; if anything, it should become stronger and braver, and because at 60 you know yourself well, it should be ‘more you’.

Laurence says: “Previous generations had the attitude that they wouldn’t buy a new sofa because ‘that sofa will look like me’ and that’s not the right mindset. You’re putting a sell-by date on yourself, in fact you should be pushing every last drop in life’s lemon until the bell rings for me there is absolutely nothing wrong with preparing yourself 20 years before you actually go.

“This is something that people have to be kind of bullied into because the road map for aging that we’ve inherited from previous generations is to embrace oatmeal and blandness and this idea that everything should be available but you shouldn’t treat yourself like a rotting bag of bones, don’t write yourself off, keep being you. Please love the way you look, LLB the way your rooms look, make sure you squeeze absolutely everything out of the time you have left.”

One of the main aspects of interior design that disrupts LLB that seems to increase as we age is the continuation of adding more ‘stuff’ to our spaces. While it’s wonderful to surround ourselves with our memories and treasures, he says it needs to be curated and thoughtfully placed, not just thrown together in a chaotic style that Laurence calls ‘cat lady clutter’.

The call to arms to be bolder with interiors and to feel happy about aging comes partly from the recent collaboration between his company LLB, now led by his daughter Hermione, and luxury retirement brand Rangeford Villages, but the beautiful schemes that has been designed and curated for the retirement lifestyle company, can easily be replicated in a Welsh home.

LLB’s passion for design innovation aligns perfectly with Rangeford’s vision to redefine retirement living via this ground-breaking and exciting partnership using fabrics, upholstery, furniture, artwork and accessories hand-picked and sourced from Laurence’s own brand and patents.

Laurence explains: “Although I am the design curator for this project, Hermione has taken over as managing director of the company and she has been the one who has driven the aesthetic for Rangeford, it is her take on the LLB legacy she has inherited and I think it looks wonderful. It’s very patterned, it’s very swirly, the colors are not as confrontational as people associate with me, although there is a huge amount of color in them – you can imagine a life inside the design and be refreshed by the design.”

The collaboration is a perfect fit for Laurence and the way he wants people to think about ageing, he says: “It’s about using design to create an experience, an atmosphere, a lifestyle that feels energetic, that isn’t a beige box, a tweedy patterned waiting room for God that makes us really tired and think it’s no use doing anything, let’s not frighten the poor old dears with some colour, let’s not overstimulate them!”

LLB also says that it is not about cuts, but more about entitlement sizes, and if it means that there is an opportunity to live in a pension development, then he says that it must be as vibrant and exciting as life can be after 60, as well as not worrying about the practicalities. availability and assistance when needed.

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Laurence says: “The idea of ​​being buried in what was once your family home, where you brought up your children, but they are no longer thereIf the stairs become a problem too, that’s not what you should be doing with your life. We live longer, the more social we are, the more contact we have with people, the more stimulated we are by other people.

“And I think it’s great that so many people want to talk to me about this venture, because suddenly there’s an optimistic story about growing old, suddenly there’s something to look forward to, suddenly there’s an opportunity. Not more old people moving out in the library, no – it’s Monday morning, I’m going to have a gin and tonic with my friends because I can, because I’ve worked hard in life and I’m special and I’m worth it, I deserve it.”

All this thinking about ageing, which working with Rangeford Villages and reaching 60 has brought, has made Laurence think of one of his favorite quotes, he says: “Noel Coward said that people age all wrong, the best way to treat aging is to invite it in. and pour it a cocktail – age on your terms, don’t age on someone else’s terms. Why are we obsessed with being young? I hated being young, I was hideous when I was young, I was boring, and most people are. Stop worrying about how old you look and start worrying about how sensational you look.”

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