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'Changing Rooms'' Master and Designer
« on: Nov 14th, 2003, 1:24pm » |
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'Changing Rooms'' Master and Designer Sails 'Changing Rooms'' Master and Designer Sails
(Friday, November 14 11:04 AM)
By Kate O'Hare
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Across the pond in the U.K., he's the master of all he surveys, but in Philadelphia, "Changing Rooms" host Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is just a foot soldier in the redecorating wars.
On Saturday, Nov. 15, at 9 p.m. ET, the flamboyant designer-turned-presenter takes over for carpenter "Handy" Andy Kane as the visiting Brit on TLC's "Trading Spaces" -- the U.S. adaptation of the BBC's "Changing Rooms" -- teaming with carpenter Carter Oosterhouse to redo a room in Pennsylvania.
"When I arrived in Philadelphia," says Llewelyn-Bowen, calling in from the London home he shares with his wife and two daughters, "everyone's saying, 'Welcome to the "Trading Spaces" family.' I said, 'For heaven's sake, I'm your great-great-great-great grandfather. I can remember the day when me, Linda [designer Linda Ryder Richardson] and Andy made the pilot and started all this.'
"It's a lovely feeling. The press we get from Brazil, Russia, Australia ... France, now. France was the last country in Europe to take 'Changing Rooms.' China is taking it, that's the big news. It is global domination."
"Trading Spaces" has been presenting a "British Invasion" all through November, with "Changing Rooms" visitors on the 9 p.m. ET episode each Saturday. It started with two weeks of Kane, followed by Llewelyn-Bowen and ending on Nov. 22 with Ryder Richardson.
In his 13 seasons as a designer on "Changing Rooms," the tall, raven-haired Llewelyn-Bowen has become known for theatrical, opulent rooms, from a red and zebra-striped living room to a bedroom lavished with murals of nudes in the style of artist Aubrey Beardsley.
Starting in September in the U.K. (and March in the U.S., on BBC America), Llewelyn-Bowen has given a more formal feel to "Changing Rooms" as its host, so it was a nice break to visit the Yank cousins.
"'Changing Rooms' has become quite orchestral," he says, "quite cultural, quite dignified in a way, and that's good. We've been going for eight years; it needs to reinvent to keep the momentum going.
"It needs to reflect the way that people feel about their houses -- and people are feeling a lot more sophisticated. We've gone through the instant makeover into much more literate design schemes.
"But doing 'Trading Spaces,' I felt as though I'd gone back to that sweaty rock 'n' roll feel to the program, that I didn't realize I was missing. It was so much more real. It was so much more dirty.
"On 'Changing Rooms,' we're very capable. It's a lot calmer, in a way. It was a fantastically invigorating experience."
After many years of the Cockney Kane's confrontational attitude (with which "Trading Spaces" designer Doug Wilson became very familiar in the Nov. 1 and 8 episodes), Llewelyn-Bowen enjoyed working with the more laid-back Oosterhouse.
"Carter, in many respects, is similar to Andy," he says, "except the fact that he was very charming and very nice. Andy is very grumpy. He's one of my oldest friends, and we get on enormously well, but he is very grumpy. He takes a lot of coaxing.
"It's so funny, the way he blusters at the designers. Actually, he's got quite a soft center, deep down."
Llewelyn-Bowen says he isn't extremely familiar with the work of his American counterparts, but he's seen the odd episode and is a fan of the controversial Hilda Santo-Tomas.
"Hildi's work is very interesting. I do like Hildi's work quite a lot. It's quite chancy, high-risk/high-return schemes. It's obviously quite telegenic to do that, to really push the boundaries.
"And I've seen some ravishing things that Doug's done."
When it's suggested that he and Wilson should try teaming up, Llewelyn-Bowen says, "We'll see what happens. There might be some kind of hideous design fruit salad between us."
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