“I can’t bear them”: The one piece of furniture House Rules judge Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen hates
As House Rules’ judge Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen reaches his third year as a judge on the renovation reality show, the English interior designer has seen it all.
As he’s known on the show for his cutting honesty, there’s always one piece of furniture that he’s stayed mum about.
However, he’s had enough. Llewelyn-Bowen, 54, has admitted that he hates coffee tables.
In his 17th century country manor, you won’t find one in sight.
“I don’t use coffee tables at all,” he explained to The New Daily.
“I can’t bear them. They end up being repositories of stuff because they’re there.”
“A coffee table ends up being this big pile of schizzle in the middle of a sitting room. It’s irrelevant. Useless. Why bother?”
For those of you who enjoy your coffee tables, don’t stress. There are ways to revamp your home without spending a bomb on new furniture.
The House Rules judge suggests piling all your furniture in the middle of the room and then “play around and see what sticks and what gets thrown out.”
“Be decisive. Rooms can end up stagnating slightly, but one mistake is this obsession with the total renovation,” he suggests.
“The total makeover is not necessarily always the best thing to do at all. Something in between moving stuff around and the makeover … having a big rethink is a very good way of doing it.”
However, if you think his home is devoid of life, that’s where you’d be wrong.
“It’s not about a contrived, controlled design experience, it’s much more easygoing,” he explains.
“You can be way too house proud. When you take out all the germs, your house stops being a living organism.”
As Llewelyn-Bowen lives in Gloucestershire in the UK, he has a very famous neighbour “just around the corner”.
Who is it? The Duchess of Cornwall.
“I love Camilla. The first time I ever got introduced she was holding my hand, and looked me up and down and went, ‘He-llo.’ It was like a Carry On film,” he said with excitement.