Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on being bold with your curtains

TV presenter and inside designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is famed for his daring and flamboyant residence decor type, and if, like me, you have all the time wished to be braver along with your window dressing selections, then he has a number of reality bombs which may lastly show you how to make the leap and go for that sample you have been tempted by.

‘Calm down and drink gin, cease overthinking it. Cease taking it so severely,’ says Laurence once I caught up with him to debate his new assortment of materials, curtains and blinds with Terry’s.

The Home Llewelyn-Bowen Legacy Assortment at Terry’s consists of 79 items showcasing 11 prints from the Llewelyn-Bowen archives, a ‘best hits’ which were recoloured and scaled to work in a contemporary residence. The patterns, reminiscent of Menagerie Artois (seen above) and Gwendoline (under), are as daring and opulent as you’d count on from the previous Altering Rooms star, however proper now seems like the right time for these wealthy and timeless patterns.

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Within the final yr, daring and exquisite patterns on furnishings, rugs and bedding have taken off. Simply take Habitat’s sellout Morris & Co armchair or John Lewis’ assortment with Sanderson. Laurence’s vibrant and dramatic assortment, which seems like a luxe tackle William Morris with successful of Biba classic glamour, suits proper in.

Nevertheless, whereas many people (myself included) are completely happy to be daring with the odd piece of accent furnishings, there may be nonetheless a worry round being daring along with your front room curtain concepts. Nevertheless, in accordance with Laurence, that is truly the very best place to be daring and adventurous along with your design.

‘That persevering with debate about characteristic partitions and patterns partitions? It is truly the curtains. They have been staring us within the face right through. That is precisely the very best place to place your block of sample, that wall that it is advisable to furnish with cloth,’ he says.

However how do you get it proper and cease a patterned pair of curtains from wanting too busy in a room? That’s the place Laurence dropped certainly one of his many truthbombs. We’re all serious about curtains the fallacious approach; we see them as one thing that ought to mix in, as an alternative of a possibility to sneak in visible curiosity that’s tucked away through the day and unleashed whenever you shut them at night time.

‘Cease worrying about it being busy or taking on the area. Truly, that is a very moderately beautiful factor. I believe notably now, the place we’re on the lookout for our properties to be a distraction, to be way more nourishing and extra fascinating. Successful of sample in an area is precisely what it wants,’ he says.

‘Fall in love with stuff. Do not simply have one thing as a result of it is good or it suits, or all people else is doing it, even have issues that you simply want.’

After I ask whether or not folks get too caught up in what colors go collectively, he shortly factors out that the thought of issues ‘going collectively’ in interiors is not a factor anymore.

‘Excessive-end adorning is de facto proving in the intervening time that there is no such thing as a such factor as ‘go’. ‘Go’ has lengthy gone, the concept you are selecting out the identical colors and also you’re shifting the identical components from one factor to a different, that does not work. It is all about storytelling. It is all about character.’

‘It is all about your response to issues, and sure, it takes confidence, and that is one thing that it is advisable to belief your self with, however whenever you take that threat and it pays off, you have bought one thing so joyful for you,’ he provides.

‘You realize it is notably joyful when all people else comes round and goes ‘oh, my god, that is hideous’. That completely reaffirms how private what you have finished is. You must truly exit of your option to piss off property brokers and your mother-in-law so far as I am involved,’ he quips.

I believe we may all afford to be a bit of extra Laurence when taking dangers with our design selections. Will you be taking his recommendation?