CHANGING Rooms fans couldn’t believe their eyes tonight as the show made an epic return to telly with bonkers designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.
The Channel 4 show astounded viewers after 17 years away with two makeovers that were branded “the stuff of nightmares”.
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Leather-clad TV legend Laurence, 56, was let loose in florist Claire’s sea of beige living room and said he wanted to transform it into an Indian pleasure palace.
When she saw the room – with peacock and flamingo-themed walls, a swing seat, and a door covered in a giant sticker of Laurence’s face – she screamed “oh my god”.
Host Anna Richardson was on hand to comfort Claire who said she liked the room once her eyes had adjusted to the splashes of pink – her least favourite colour.
Meanwhile across the street, show newcomers Russell Whitehead and Jordan Cluroe stripped the drab decor in postwoman Lisa’s cluttered, neutral bedroom.
They covered the walls in pink and purple paint saying they wanted to transform it into a drag queen’s boudoir.
Lisa asked for a feature wall but was given a metre of blonde hair art extensions stuck to a frame.
Seeing her new room she said: “It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that I would never think of putting hair on a wall.”
People at home were also amazed by what they saw and shared their hilarious reactions on Twitter.
One said: “Colour overload and an actual hair wall. Wow I’ve just been transported back to the 90s – love the nostalgia, just not the rooms 😱”
Another wrote: “As if I ever doubted the return of #ChangingRooms, it delivered framed hair extensions and the most uncomfortable looking suspended chair swing. Iconic.”
And one more wrote: “Not sure on the Hair Wall was a bit like a murderers trophy wall 😬”
Laurence also told The Sun if Channel 4 had asked him to tone down his lavish designs he would have walked away from the rebooted show.
He said: “If I’d done a design for a room and they’d said, ‘I think they’ll be upset, do you mind if we don’t do that?’ that’s when I would’ve had my diva moment.”
In the show’s Nineties heyday, Laurence won plenty of plaudits for his daring designs.
But his edgy creations and garish colour schemes didn’t always go down well with those who had to live with them.
In 1998, he left a woman in tears after transforming her costly extension into a plumcoloured Queen Anne dining room.
He later filled a couple’s living room with animal-print stencils and a red carpet which the livid pair dubbed a “wh**e’s palace”.
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