House Rules judge Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen shares top five renovation tips

With a career spanning more than three decades, it takes a lot to impress Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.

And it’s none other than Australia that has the larger-than-life British design guru excited.

“I’m incredibly interested in the way that Australia’s aesthetic will evolve,” Bowen says by phone from Sydney.

“I do genuinely believe that there is so much here that works so well. Obviously the energy, the youth of the nation but also this extraordinary relationship between you, a very Western nation, and the East. The relationship between the old and the new is also very interesting.”

In fact, says the 54-year-old, the next big global design movement may just come from Down Under.

“The next renaissance has got to come from somewhere — there's no reason why it shouldn’t come from Australia,” he says.

“In 13th century Florence there was a lot that was very similar. It was about a young, dynamic, vigorous mercantile nation that had an enormous amount of natural resources and a lot of chutzpah — let’s start playing that game.

“Let’s raise the bar.”

Bowen, who is currently in the midst of his third season as a judge on reality renovating series House Rules, says the work of local designers such as fashionista Camilla Franks and late wallpaper icon Florence Broadhurst is helping to put Australian design firmly in the international spotlight.

“Fashion designers like Camilla are really taking Europe by storm,” he says.

“I think interior designers like Catherine Martin and the work that she does with Baz Luhrmann have got people to really sit up and look differently at Australia.

“It is also very much always, always grounded in nature and if there’s one thing that Australia has got in abundance it is nature, and a huge engagement and respect for nature as well, which I think is important.

“So I think it’s a very, very exciting time.”

London-born Bowen is well placed to comment on the Aussie aesthetic. As well as his work on House Rules he has also served as judge and host on Seven’s Instant Hotel, roles that have given him a firsthand look at the way we build, decorate and live in our homes.

And on this latest season of House Rules he’s seen more diversity than ever, from a rustic 1800s cottage in New South Wales’ Southern Tablelands to a 1950s Melbourne weatherboard to a sprawling property in WA’s South West.

“One of the big things that I love about this season is that we’re really dealing with such incredibly different, very, very diverse locations,” Bowen says.

“There’s always a bit of a risk with these shows that there’s just one cookie-cutter suburban box after another but, with (House Rules), I find it so exciting that we are going from Victorian Melbourne to something very, very contemporary in Sydney or to WA with the coast — all of these places are such an extraordinarily powerful evocation of the different facets of Australiana.

“And this is what’s really excited me about what we’re doing.”

When it comes to casting his eye over the contestants’ work Bowen — who is joined on the judging panel by veteran judge Wendy Moore and new addition Jamie Durie — is guided by one principle.

“I am who I am,” he says. “I’m not going to pretend to fit in. I’m going to tell you like it is.

“And actually I think that that’s something that comes from 25 years’ experience in television ... (and) ... from an enormous amount of respect. I respect the audience that watch my programs enormously. I don’t want to sugar-coat it.”

Known for his quick wit and acerbic opinions, the one thing that makes Bowen shudder is not a less-than-stylish sofa or an unpalatable piece of art — but a design snob.

“This is something that I’ll always fight against,” he says.

“I think when I started on House Rules, people were quite surprised by that. I think they felt that I’d be coming over here with my snooty Pommy ways, looking down my nose at the way that Australia did things, which I’ve never been at all.”

Bowen, who earned a degree in classical fine art at the prestigious Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, now splits his time between his interior design practice, product ranges — including wallpaper, home fragrance and bed linen collections — and his various television commitments.

His TV resume has ranged from BBC’s DIY SOS and cult UK series Changing Rooms to hugely popular Asian reality series The Apartment (on which Durie also stars). He also has a number of new projects in the works including Amazon series Laurence of Suburbia.

“I always very much enjoy the fact that so many people and now so many people all over the world want to buy my design,” he says. “I try always to be very undidactic about what’s right or wrong.

“I want to get people to understand what’s right for them by seeing what’s right for other people or what’s wrong for other people.

“I never really make judgments about taste. I never walk in and say ‘I don’t like that it ...’

“I think that’s irrelevant whether I like it or not. I will tell you whether it’s actually successful as what it is ... I leave you to then decide whether it’s successful or not.”

Wherever he is in the world and whatever project is occupying his attention, Bowen says his family is a vital part of team LLB, including his son-in-law Dan, who “almost entirely” runs the interior design practice, and his wife Jackie, with whom he has two daughters.

“I’m incredibly grateful to Jackie, who runs the empire,” Bowen says.

“She does an extraordinary job.”

Laurence Llewelyn- Bowen’s top five renovating tips

1. Be yourself

This is your one opportunity to control your environment.

We live lives that are so full of responsibility but so scant on control — at least at home let your hair down.

If you’ve always wanted to be Cleopatra in your bathroom, bloody well do it.

There is no such thing as good taste or bad taste.

It’s your taste.

2. Discover colour

I think one of the things that people get confused about (is) people like the idea of using nature as a starting point for home decorating — great but, actually, nature isn’t beige.

When nature is beige it’s because it’s dead. And actually somewhere like Australia nature is veridian and cerulean, it’s flamingo pink, the skies are the colour of sapphires.

Nature when you look out of your window is extraordinarily beautiful. The nature that surrounds you in Australia is vibrant and exciting and juicy and sexy. Don’t ever feel that you can't have that at home.

3. The dark side

There’s often areas that don’t get much natural light and then areas that get an enormous amount of natural light.

If you think about a traditional house, the older bit at the front often has quite small windows and doesn't let a lot of light in because it’s about not having to use the air-conditioning and stuff like that.

But then of course everyone’s put on a big modern extension at the back that’s all glass.

Now what you’ve got there is an issue where you’ve got one space with too much light that makes the space with too little light feel very, very dark.

There’s a very simple antidote to that, which is make sure that you keep the colours light in the dark space but the colours dark in the light space.

It’s as simple as white walls in the old bit and then dark grey walls in the new bit, and genuinely if you just do that one thing, you’ll find that it balances itself out much much better.

4. Prints charming

Colour is wonderful because it enhances your mood but pattern tells a story.

Everybody wears pattern — bring pattern into your home. It’s something that brings another layer of romance. Pattern can take you anywhere.

A paisley pattern is exotic, a geometric pattern is Georgian, it’s elegant, it’s balance. A floral pattern brings nature in but also has very flirty, sexy connotations. Never, ever deny yourself anything.

5. Raise a glass

The one thing that you should always make sure that you have as part of your interior design armoury, the one thing that will make the absolute difference to how successful your rooms are, is gin.

That’s what it’s for. Always have a glass of gin.