More More More: Making Maximalism Work in Your Home and Life

by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen

Let master of Maximalism Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen tell you how to create and curate a space that you can truly love spending time in.

Changing Rooms’ flamboyant lead designer has made a great living out of being himself, having spent his entire career encouraging people to reject decorative modesty. More More More is a rejection of so-called “good taste” that leaves people being so in control of their own home that even life feels out of place within it, and instead celebrates exuberance, lavish living, and individuality. It’s all about giving yourself the confidence you lack by curating your own perfect haven of chaos, so that you can live and love your stuff – in surroundings that are anything but beige!

With this book, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen will not only explain how to adopt maximalism in the home, but promises to change your outlook on living happily in it. Structured within a complete timeline of maximalism, there’s something for everyone to love!

Dive into this decor book to discover a whirlwind of topics,  

- The Principles of Layering 
- Asymetry - A Tricky Balancing Act
- Using Pattern like a pro 
- Storage - to store or not to store
- Collecting vs. Aqcuiring 
 
More More More is overflowing with Laurence's signature style, exuberance and a lifetime's experience in lavish living and take-no-prisoners individuality. Part narrative treatise, part visual celebration of Maximalism through the ages, it is rich in history, anecdotes and quite a few rules, most of which are to be broken!. Having spent his entire career encouraging people to reject decorative modesty, he will not only inform the reader how to embrace Maximalism in their home, but promises to change how they live within it. 

Minimalists beware!

A must-have home decor book for Fans of Laurence Llewlyn-Bowen, a new generation of home-owners and renters who want to rebel against the mass-market principles from minimalist as well as those trying to create a healthy work-life environment. Doubling up as the perfect coffee-table book, More More More is sure to delight.

Genres: Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

Published September 20, 2022

About the author

Laurence is a well known English Designer and TV and Media presenter.

He has had several tv shows detailing home renovation/decoration along with his wife Jackie, and 2 daughters.

Reviews

[Erica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is very pontificatey.

Pontificatey is not a word but it feels quite maximalist so I'm using it in this review.

That's sort of how this books works, actually. Maximalist in words, not all of which are legit.

I did enjoy the introduction. It felt cheeky and fun, a tongue-in-cheek poke at the worship of griege and the cult of Marie Kondo and her decluttering advice.
The funny thing about this author and Marie Kondo is that their advice for deciding which items to employ in your surroundings is quite similar.
Kondo asks you lay hands upon your item and ask if it brings you joy.
Llewelyn-Bowen has you look at an item and ask, "Do I like you?"
And from there, the results vary but a maximalist could easily Kondo their surroundings and remain maximal.

After the introduction, however, this turns into a very long, rambling, pontificatey thought piece on the musts of filling your environment with ALL THE THINGS! in order to combat the current trend of neutral colors + clean lines + no clutter + bland.

I'm not a huge fan of minimalism but I do like when it's done well and enhances an environment rather than creating a sterile feel.

I am quite fond of maximalism; my interior designer crush is a "maximalist at heart" (quote from Instagram, not this book, although he did contribute to More Is More Is More: Today's Maximalist Interiors, which I find amusing in light of this book I'm reviewing...poorly).
So I didn't need to be sold on having stuff and colors and displaying everything in a way that makes everything displayed seem interesting. And yet, midway through this book that should not be as long as it is, I was incredibly tired of hearing about how being bold, brash, and big in your interior decor displays can make you happier, more confident, and whatever else you become when you switch to maximalism.
The cheekiness of the introduction became plain silliness.
The decorated page edges and interior illustrations were lovely but I found I yearned for pictures to take the place of words, for my eyes to be wowed by photographic evidence of the thoughts on page.

To assuage my disappointment, I'm going to go browse the stacks for some Rizzoli books on maximalism and will look at those pictures and enjoy the homes and offices of people who can pay for a cleaning service to come dust all their knick knacks.

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book about maximalism that has no photographs in it to illustrate what the author is talking about entirely misses the mark for me, I'm afraid. The rich embellishment and patterning on every page is beautiful but sometimes makes the text hard to read because of the font colour against all the other colour. The things Llewelyn-Bowen talks about are interesting but he writes in a mish mash of innuendos and in jokes that can sometimes become wearisome when you're trying to follow a point and you're constantly going up conversational cue-de-sacs. It was also rather strangely arranged in terms of subject and flow within the book.

The most frustrating thing is that Llewelyn-Bowen really knows his stuff. He is clever and interesting and this, of all things interiors wise, is clearly his specialist subject. But it doesn't translate well to the layman and a lot of the treasure here is lost amongst the stuff and nonsense that goes with it, which is ironic in a book about maximalism.

[Hannah Simpson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was honestly a bat shit ride. And one I enjoyed but it's not a good book.

I received this as a gift and happily began to rifle through the pages only to realize that for a book about design... there were no images, no illustrations, no diagrams. Yes, the text was placed over quintessentially maximalistic patterns, but the rooms and concepts written about were conspicuously absent from the glossy pages. I began to read anyway and the voice of LLB jumped off the page. I had a hunch that this personality would almost certainly read this audiobook himself. Indeed, that was just the case. So I switched over to audio and that made the read enjoyable. LLB somehow sounds like Moira Rose and Matt Berry had a son who became an interior designer. I'm not sure it was intended to be as funny as it is. But I enjoyed it.

It really truly fails as a book without any supporting images. It feels like everyone involved was somehow lazy. They didn't want to clear the right to images for use in the book. If you're looking for a design book on maximalism, skip this one.

[Marina · Rating 2 out of 5]

On TV, Llewellyn-Bowen comes across as very charming and erudite – but , I guess, that’s when he’s been ‘curated’ by a director. In this book, he’s verbiose and pretty random . It really does lack pictures (relevant pictures, that is). But it is a physically beautiful book and looks perfect laid on a sideboard with a candlelabra perched on top.

[Kira Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember when I first read about this book. Sounded interesting, added it to my wishlist, thought nothing more of it. Thought I’d eventually get round to it.

A couple of months later there’s an audiobook on BorrowBox and I find myself inspired, laughing out loud, empowered, and so much more. In a modern day interior world where everyone talks about minimalism, for once I have representation. For a non-fiction book, I have never felt so seen and inspired to make my own library of celebrations.

Beautifully written with excellent classic Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen tone of voice, the words jump of the page with grandeur and emphasis. Never have I read a book so passionate about style, interiors, design and ultimately, life.

Maximalism is not clutter. It’s a celebration of life, the world around us, culture, nature, people etc. It’s a way to display and honour the things that make us smile, remember happy moments, and feel warmth and love. More, more, more is a wonderful explanation of why maximalism is the way forward and realistically the “norm” without realisation in a society that want to make a house feel like a home and lived in.

I have already recommended this book to a number of people during and after finishing. Yes I started with the audiobook (brilliantly read by the way) but immediately pressed the buy it now button for next day delivery. The book is both visually and verbally gorgeous. A must read.

[Desirée Boom · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5 stars.
Warning: if you don't like Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, don't read this book. He jumps of every page, each word is exactly like how he speaks when you see him on TV. So if you don't appreciate that, skip this book.
For everyone who expects this to be a 'how to decorate your home in a maximalist manner', it's not. Like the title says: 'Making Maximalism work in your home and life'. It is a how to incorporate maximalism in every part of your life, in the form of design history lessons, peppered throughout with Laurence's take on minimalism, modernism and maximalism. If you want to see maximalist interiors, Laurence very rightly steers us to Instagram, because there's an abundance of maximalism there, and since there's no one way of doing it, Laurence will not tell us what we must do to get it 'right', apart from urging is to do what we love.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it will definitely take pride of place on my maximalist book shelves.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was probably the strangest—and yet bizarrely enlightening—book on interior design I've read yet. I think I am probably a maximalist at heart; I love the idea that objects hold memories and tell the story of your life. And yet I don't think that idea wholly contradictory to Marie Kondo's maxim that what you own should bring joy. For me the takeaway here is: if you want to have stuff, have stuff—but make it really good stuff that means something to you.

[Carisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a delight to read. It was both artfully written and hilarious. It helped me realize why I always felt unsatisfied when I read and looked at books about minimalism. Other reviewers noted disappointment at the lack of photographs, but I felt like that was part of the message and it allowed me to focus on the writing and consider my personal stylistic whimsy. The layout, format, colors, and patterns in the book are beautiful.

[MELANIE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable tongue-in-cheek writing from a maximalist. I really enjoyed the historical elements that punched this book, as well as the lack of photos. Other than the writer's art, there is nothing to guide you one way or another - you are free to choose your maximalist level and let your heart be light because you are not confined to taupe and beige minimalism.

[Thirteen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book for what it is as I wasn't looking for a manual with pictures, just insights and history and philosophy of maximalism and it delivers. It's a beautiful book too, I'm glad it's on my shelf in its colorful glory.

[Granny Swithins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun fact: LLB owes me his life. Many moons ago he stepped in front of my car at the Waitrose in Cirencester and I had to choose whether to hit the gas or the brake. I spared him. Which possibly means he should be paying me royalties at this point, but I have no one to delegate the task to.

Okay. The book. It's so very LLB, so chock-full of witty turns-of-phrase (blokecoco was a personal favourite), so amuse-bouche, so cheekily opinionated, that I could only read it in short bursts. The text was exhausting. Enjoyable, but I could only take so much. And while the book is gorgeously designed, full of over the top LLB collages, it really suffers for not having photographs. I get it, sourcing, crediting and paying for the rights would be a nightmare - but the book really really needs them. There are so many references to people, places, styles, cultures, designs, buildings, eras where as a reader I really needed to see an example of what he was describing, and if I've got to keep reaching for a device to Google them, then the very bookiness of a book is undermined. Was this a TV show he couldn't get commissioned?

The book also makes no claims of being a how-to, and without the design-inspo pictures we'd normally expect from an interiors book, its purpose becomes unclear, the book a lengthy rococo polemic to the glories of Maximalism over the dreariness of modern/minimalism. Which could probably have been achieved across a double spread in a Sunday magazine. Still, it's good fun, especially as I was reading it for free (hello local library), and his writing style amuses me, even if I'd like a little less of it occasionally. The more serious point I came away with was the inherent sexism of minimalism, which I hadn't really considered before. Ultimately though, LLB is trying to celebrate individualism and give us all permission to express our own tastes, our stuff unabashedly celebrating our selves, which is no bad thing.

[Jane Gregg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Truly silly

[Donna Dufault · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book for a very interesting topic! Love these ideas and if you love color and mixing things in a maxi style- this book is for you.