Laurence's magnolia makeover (well, he has got a £1.6m house to sell): Llewelyn-Bowen gets rid of his garish decor after failing to find a buyer for six-bedroom Cotswold farmhouse
- Flamboyant interior designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen failed to find a buyer for his £1.6million home for a year
- He has had to swallow his pride and redecorate the garishly-painted Cotswold farmhouse so he can sell up
- The six-bedroom, grade 2 listed home used to be a riot of clashing prints and brightly-patterned wallpaper
- Now the 16th century manor has been painted a bland but inoffensive shade of what looks like magnolia
He once joked that his only phobias were magnolia paint and woodchip wallpaper.
But it appears that famously flamboyant interior designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has had to swallow his pride after his garishly-decorated Cotswolds farmhouse failed to find a buyer in more than a year.
While the hated woodchip is nowhere to be seen, the walls have now been painted a bland but inoffensive shade of what looks suspiciously like magnolia.
Garish prints: Laurence and Jackie Llewelyn-Bowen at their former family home, which has been toned down in their attempts to find a buyer
Ornate: Dark colours and heavy furnishings gave the drawing room a baroque feel but it was not tempting anyone to make an offer
Modern: Now the Llewelyn-Bowens have stripped back the furniture and have given the room a lick of magnolia paint to open up space
The couple's Cotswolds farmhouse failed to find a buyer in more than a year, but the makeover may help sell the £1.6million home
Meanwhile the price of the father-of-two’s former family home near Cirencester, Gloucestershire has also been dropped by more than £150,000 to £1.59million.
Llewelyn-Bowen, 50, rose to fame with the BBC1 home improvement show Changing Rooms in the late 1990s, in which his unmistakeable handiwork did not always meet with the client’s approval.
Famously, he once decorated a room entirely in animal print to which the shocked homeowners responded by calling it ‘a tart’s boudoir’.
His own six-bedroom house is an elegant, grade 2 listed 16th century farmhouse, but the interior – a riot of clashing prints and brightly-patterned wallpaper – is certainly not to everybody’s tastes, and has led to it being dubbed ‘Poshington Manor’.
Before: The price of the father-of-two’s former family home near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, has also been dropped by more than £150,000 to £1.59million
White and bright: The kitchen and dining area now has a much more modern feel, making the room seem far more spacious
The walls of the six-bedroom house have been painted a bland but inoffensive shade of what looks suspiciously like magnolia
Before the makeover (pictured), a riot of clashing prints and brightly-patterned wallpaper led to the home being dubbed 'Poshington Manor'
Designer: Llewelyn-Bowen, 50, rose to fame with the BBC1 home improvement show Changing Rooms in the late 1990s
The grade 2 listed 16th century farmhouse is on the market for a cool £1.6million and has been on the market for more than a year
Yesterday he admitted that after several prospective purchasers pulled out ‘at the 11th hour’ due to ‘the shifting sands of government policy’ he had opted to whitewash the interior – although he insisted it wasn’t because buyers did not share his trademark style.
‘Devoid of furniture, our house looked a tad tired and scruffy,’ he explained in the Sunday Times. ‘And we discovered incidents of “I hate Dad and Mum” graffiti and puppy chew-marks.’
He added: ‘My long-held faith in selling your home with LLB character and design personality intact remains unbroken.’
Llewelyn-Bowen, who is now working on a 10,000 sq ft barn conversion nearby along with his wife, Jackie, and daughters Cecile and Hermione, said his advice for fellow vendors was that first impressions mattered far more than individual taste.
‘If you want to attract the right sort of buyer, make sure the property looks as good as possible,’ he added.
In a 2007 magazine profile, Llewelyn-Bowen said his twin phobias were ‘magnolia and woodchip wallpaper’.
Explaining how he had received such bizarre briefs from clients that there was little which could now shock him, he added: ‘I think the most outlandish thing they’ve ever asked me to do is paint a room magnolia.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3006843/Laurence-s-magnolia-makeover-got-1-6m-house-sell-Llewelyn-Bowen-gets-rid-clashing-colours-failing-buyer-year.html#ixzz3VCY8xio8
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
