Inside Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen’s unconventional household house

While Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has revealed he is slowly edging towards retirement, his life in the Cotswolds is anything but quiet. 

The interior designer, 59, has a new reality show in the works documenting life at his Cotswolds manor house – where he lives with his wife Jackie, their two grown-up daughters, Hermione, 25, and Cecile, 28, and their husbands Dan and Drew – as well as their four grandchildren, Albion, 7, Demelza, 2, Romily, 1, and Eleanora, 6 months.

Laurence said the decision for the unconventional set-up was made he and his wife ‘were rattling around the house like dried peas in a luxury tin’. 

But the six bedroom property is having to be adapted to cater for the 10 of them. 

Manor Bowen has been split with Cecile living in a converted garage so they each have their own living quarters and ‘complete autonomy’.

Speaking on the My Dirty Laundry podcast, Laurence said he thinks living with your entire family is ‘something more people should be doing’ and doesn’t mind his lavish interiors now be filled with children’s toys. 

‘We certainly aren’t sliding into our sixtieth year with boredom calling. We want to use our time wisely and valuably. The way you design your world helps the way you feel,’ he said. 

‘We have our big manor house filled with children and pieces of brightly coloured plastic and Peppa Pig again.

‘I think its something that more and more people should be doing, for us boomers generation we’re all sort of surprised we’ve made it to sixty . I think everyone thought we would live fast and die young rather than live very, very slowly and die really quite old.

‘It’s big and very iconic at Chateau LL-B. We are having lots of work on the house.’

The TV personality said the family also work together at their design shop and showroom in Cirencester – with the business undergoing a ‘Succession-style takeover’. 

‘My daughter Hermione is looking at pushing business forward. I am looking forward to retirement.’

Of his new show, he said: ‘We did quite a successful show when we first moved here to the country. Manor Bowen was quite a thing back in 2008. 

‘This is something people will enjoy as a bit of an update. Here we are still in the same house. We’re looking at doing all sorts of work to reconfigure the way we live so the three households have our own space  in what can be described as a little house on the prairie or more like a cult.’

Laurence revealed the family gather at his and Jackie’s living quarters at 5pm where they spend time together but ‘dematerialise when there’s clearing up to do’ so he and his wife do the washing up. 

He told The Sunday Times this week: ‘After all those years waking up dreading the hangover, the early flight or the phone call from the bank, Jackie and I have not just our ducklings but their ducklings under the same roof.

‘A hundred and fifty years ago, no one left home and it very much works for us. ‘ 

He added: ‘Family life is extraordinarily dense, fabulously irritating but somehow beautiful.’

Laurence’s role in the household now consists of being the guy who wanders into the background of the camera on zoom meetings and is rolled out to cut ribbons or make TV appearances, he added.

Speaking about his family life to MailOnline in 2022, Laurence said: ‘Lockdown really proved to us how much we wanted to be together.’ 

Apart from Cecile, who’s a novelist, they all work in the family interiors business under the LLB brand name.

‘It’s the best way of doing things,’ Laurence said. ‘This is what used to happen.

‘In the modern age people decided that children have to leave and move as far away as possible and create a new life. But before that you stayed together and got involved in the family business – you’d work together on the farm or in the shop – and that’s what we do.

‘We’re very lucky we’ve got space to make it work, and it does work extremely well. Jackie and I see our grandchildren every day and we adore that. There are thousands of grandparents out there who are bitterly upset and lonely because they never get to see their grandchildren.

‘Meanwhile, there are tens of thousands of parents who feel they simply can’t cope with their lives and jobs because they have no childcare or support. But if more people did what we’re doing, both of those issues would be completely sorted.

‘If people got on with their lives rather than always trying to move up the property ladder, they might be happier. Lockdown showed that people can work from home and I think more people should use that as an opportunity to make their lives better.

‘For us, lockdown showed us what we were already doing was working. The most important thing is to be happy. It’s much more important than moving up the property ladder.’

Jackie is chairwoman of the LLB company, and the boss at home, says Laurence. She does the bulk of the cooking, and they try to all have dinner together as often as they can. 

‘There’s enough space, so we aren’t living on top of each other. Often we’ll have a drink in the evenings and we try to have reasonably formal occasions. 

‘We have a good old-fashioned gong because I can’t bear the idea of texting people to tell them to come to dinner. We take eating together very seriously – it’s an important part of living together.’

Often they will travel to work – the LLB offices are in nearby Cirencester – together. ‘We live above the shop and work in the shop.

 People say, ‘I couldn’t work with my mum, we’d be arguing,’ but I think that’s what happens if you only see each other three times a year. When you see someone every day you resolve friction as you go along. 

‘It isn’t allowed to build up. Working with family means I can trust them. They aren’t afraid to say no to me. I want their honesty.’