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‘Sex is big in the bedroom again,’ flamboyant interior designer and TV personality, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen, announced to What Mortgage at this year’s Ideal Homes Show at Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre. Rebekah Commane reports
The erotic, best-seller ’Fifty Shades of Grey’ has had an influence on interior furnishings, according to the former Changing Rooms presenter, who insists that opulence is key, with luxurious curtains, deep carpets and decadent chandeliers making a comeback.
Forget the mantra that’s been driven into us for decades – to decorate your home in neutrals so that others can imagine how it would look with their own stamp on it. That’s no way to live, Llewelyn Bowen advises. Instead love your home and make it a place you want to come back to, allowing your own personal tastes to shine through. When you’re selling on your property, the love you put into it will have a positive impact on potential buyers, he believes.
Deciding how to decorate your home is akin to joining a dating agency and looking for a partner. It might be an unusual metaphor but if the design pro’s impressive resume is to be considered, the man should be listened to.
“It’s a bit like a dating agency these days,” he says, referring to choosing your home decor. “And when you’re looking for a partner you don’t want something neutral at all; you want something that fits your own take on life.
“Your tastes may not appeal to absolutely everyone when it comes to your home, but chances are it will induce love from three out of ten. People are happy to spend money on a house now because they love it, not because they quite like it. Don’t be frightened of being a little bit emphatic, you don’t have to occupy that neutral, no-taste space”, he told What Mortgage.
“Speaking to a lot of estate agents, neutrals are not how it works anymore.
When the property market was hard people would hunt to see eight, nine, 10 places and it made sense for everything to be the same, to be neutralised, now it doesn’t; don’t do it. It was never a nice experience to occupy a space like that, and the minute people move in they do their own thing anyway.
“It’s really important you focus on living in your space rather than selling your house.”
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