The Changing Rooms star says financial advisers told him they can guarantee his lifestyle for 20 years
As he celebrates his 61st birthday this month, interior design guru Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen acknowledges he’s “on a bit of a countdown clock”. Despite amassing substantial wealth through his appearances on programmes including Changing Rooms, DIY SOS and Celebrity Bear Hunt, Laurence concedes that financial concerns are beginning to creep in.
Laurence revealed: “There’s a moment when you sit down with all these financial advisers and they say: we can guarantee the kind of lifestyle you’ve got for 20 years. So basically, I’ve got to die at 81 or else I’m going to be in total Jane Austen penury.”
He looks back with nostalgia on the era when he would stroll through London’s exclusive Burlington Arcade following “a good lunch” and splash out freely on whatever took his fancy. Thankfully, Laurence notes, he “knocked off the shopping addiction in lockdown”.
Laurence acknowledges he’s historically been rather extravagant, investing “about a grand” in each of his tailored suits and purchasing his wife a hat from prestigious milliner Stephen Jones “just because it was Tuesday”.
Educated as a fine artist, Laurence held various positions at upmarket retailers including Liberty, Harvey Nichols and Harrods – where he “sold Monty Don’s jewellery before he reincarnated himself as a gardener”. However, Laurence reveals his talent for interior design then paved the way for a profitable career “doing the most extraordinarily intricate things to very wealthy ladies’ boudoirs in Knightsbridge”
In 1996, his rising reputation as an interior designer resulted in an offer from the BBC and Laurence unexpectedly became a television personality.
Whilst Laurence and Changing Rooms co-stars Carol Smillie and “Handy” Andy Kane became recognisable television faces throughout the show’s eight-year run, they discovered that fame and fortune don’t necessarily go hand in hand. He told The Times: “My earnings went through the floor. You got paid virtually nothing and were put in a minicab after making the most-watched programme on BBC1.”
Simultaneously, he notes, commissions for his interior design business started to diminish because his aristocratic clients didn’t want to be linked with a television reality show.
Shrewd property investments have supported Laurence and his wife Jackie over the years and they now reside in a 17th-century manor house in the Cotswolds with their daughters, Cecile and Hermione, and four grandchildren.
An inheritance enabled Laurence to get onto the property ladder when he was 24 but, he acknowledges, he made a net loss when he sold his first flat.
The second property he purchased with Jackie, an “ugly” bungalow in South-east London generated them a substantial profit of over £270,000 when they sold it, as did their subsequent investment in Greenwich. The Gloucestershire property has more than doubled in value since Laurence and Jackie took up residence, and their second home in Cornwall has also experienced a significant appreciation since they purchased it.
However, Laurence concedes that the era of substantial property profits is over, stating: “We’re the last generation to be able to say that. Nobody else is going to be able to make those enormous leaps in the property market.”