A television show called Laurence’s Extraordinary Ordinary Houses has recently been aired on BBC Wales.
The programme places an emphasis on preserving the original character of the buildings it covers, with makeovers intended to keep the histories of the houses intact.
This more tentative approach could have a knock-on effect with home renovations in Cheshire and the way in which they are carried out.
Speaking recently to Wales Online, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has commented:
“Rather than creating a pasteurised one-size-fits-all 21st-century makeover, let’s do something that has a lot more depth and a lot more subtlety and a very specific reference back to the date of the building.”
Llewelyn-Bowen, known for presenting the popular BBC show Changing Rooms, has been looking at how to make old cottages suitable for the requirements of modern citizens. In particular, he has focused some of his attention on a building in a village called Butetown, which is situated in Rhymney Valley, southeast Wales.
The DIY expert has said that he does not have a rose-tinted view of the past. He has explained how using the original features of a home should not mean accepting inferior living conditions. Llewelyn-Bowen has explicitly mentioned typical health problems that were worsened by bad housing in history.
The long-haired presenter has confessed that the programme involved changing his own mind-set slightly. He had been used to doing interior design in prestigious locations. In addition, he had also done some really modern work in nations that, he believes, make the United Kingdom look outdated.
