Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen warns 'stop being so English' when it comes to growing old

Internationally-celebrated and mega successful interior design legend Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has been pondering growing old. Now he has hit 60 years of age, 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 says: "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 great in what you’ve got - I’m fine that I’m never going to be Apollo in a loincloth but Zeus in a suit is fine, it’s all about tailoring your mojo to reflect what you’ve actually got and that includes interior design."

Although mainly known for being one of the interior designers to feature in the popular TV show 'Changing Rooms', for over 30 years LLB has been creating beautiful interior designs, artwork, and home accessories to bring colour and pattern into people's homes and lives in a fight against bland beige and grim 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 who dared when it came to interior decoration. Stop being so English - the poor English don’t have anything 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 that they want to keep up to.

"Whenever I’ve done shows in Wales and shoots in Wales there’s always been a strong sense of wanting to do our own thing anyway but I do think there’s a climate-inspired character to decorating anyway - when you’re faced with a landscape that’s so fabulous but is usually wet and predominantly green with hints of grey you tend to want to bring more colour into your home anyway.

"We know this in terms of demographics via our sales of our collections - if I’ve got a collection of duvet covers for example we will sell shed loads of beige in London but by the time it gets to Cardiff the colour choice has gone way up on the dial."

But the desire to try new things in the realms of interior design should not diminish as you get old LLB proclaims; if anything it should get stronger and braver and, because by 60 you know yourself well, it should be 'more you'.

Laurence says: "Previous generations had this mind set that they were going to not buy a new sofa as ‘that sofa is going to see me out’ and that’s not the right mindset. You’re putting a sell-by date on yourself, actually you should be squeezing every last drop out of the lemon of life until the bell tolls as far as I’m concerned, there’s absolutely nothing right about preparing yourself 20 years before you actually go.

"This is something people have to be slightly bullied into because the route map for ageing we have inherited from previous generations is this kind to embrace oatmeal and bland and this idea that everything has to be accessible, but don’t treat yourself as a rotting bag of bones, don’t write yourself off, continue to be you. Please love the way you look, LLB the way your rooms look, make sure you are squeezing absolutely everything out of the time you’ve got left."

One of the major aspects of interior design that bugs LLB that seems to increase as we age is the continuation of adding more 'stuff' into our spaces. Although it is wonderful to surround ourselves with our memories and treasures, he says it should 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 braver with interiors and to feel happy about getting older from Laurence comes partially from the recent collaboration between his company LLB, now spearheaded by his daughter Hermione, and the luxury retirement brand Rangeford Villages, but the beautiful schemes that have been designed and curated for the retirement lifestyle company can easily be copied 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, artworks and accessories handpicked and sourced from Laurence’s own brand and patents.

Laurence explains: "Although I'm the design curator for this project Hermione has taken over as managing director of the company, and she’s been the one who has driven the aesthetic for Rangeford, it’s her take on the LLB legacy she’s inherited and I think it looks wonderful. It’s very patterned, it’s very swirly, the colours are nothing like as confrontational as people associate with me, even though there is an enormous amount of colour in them - you can imagine a life inside the design and being invigorated by the design."

The collaboration is a perfect fit for Laurence and the way he wants people to think about ageing, he says: "It is all about using design to make an experience, an atmosphere, a lifestyle that feels energised that isn’t a beige box, a tweedy patterned waiting room for God that makes us really tired and think there’s no point in doing anything, let’s not frighten the poor old dears with some colour, let’s not over-stimulate them!"

LLB also says it's not about downsizing but more like rightsizing and if that means there's a possibility of living within a retirement development then he says it should be as vibrant and exciting as life can be after 60, as well as not worrying about the practicalities of accessibility and assistance when needed.

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Laurence says: "The idea of being entombed in what was once your family home, where you brought your children up but they are no longer there and the staircase turning into an issue too, that is not what you’re supposed to 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 lovely 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 option. No more old people shuffling off to 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 am special and I am worth it, I deserve it."

All this thought about ageing that working with Rangeford Villages and hitting 60 has come with has Laurence thinking about one of his favourite quotes, he says: "Noel Coward said people get ageing absolutely wrong, the best way to treat ageing is to invite it in and pour it a cocktail - age on your terms, don’t age on somebody 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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