The next design renaissance could come from Australia, according to one of Britain's leading interior design experts.
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Britain's bling king and prince of purple colour schemes, believes Australia's natural beauty, our ability to bring the old and new together and our easy relationship with technology will see this country leading a design renaissance.
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Seven's 'tough' House Rules judge
International design style star Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen will join the team of judges on Channel Sevenâs new home renovation.
Llewelyn-Bowen is a big deal in the United Kingdom.
He shot to fame in the mid-90s as one of the first presenters on Changing Rooms for the BBC before going on to host scores of design and travel shows on British television.
But his signature flamboyant, sometimes retina-punishing, design style, has remained relatively unknown to Australians with most of his shows relegated to daytime runs on cable television's lifestyle channels.
That is all about to change with the 50-year-old signing on as a judge on Seven's House Rules, which premieres on Sunday.
The series marks his first long stint down under with filming on the show beginning back in November, although he admits he has been allowed home from time to time for good behaviour.
House Rules has given him the opportunity to explore large swathes of Australia and he remains convinced that it is the next country to lead the world in terms of design.
"I have never spent a great deal of time down here before," he said.
"I shot a film in Melbourne a few years ago, but I was only here for five days and didn't get to see very much at all."
But now, with nearly five months of traipsing around our great brown land, he has a firm grip on our interior decorating inspo.
"We get fed on a small diet of what Australia is like in the United Kingdom," he says.
"We think it all looks like Home and Away.
"No one tells you how cool the old stuff is. No one shows you the beauty of Hyde Park in Sydney or the gorgeousness of Toorak in Melbourne.
"It's not like I am getting a skewed view either, we have been all over the place, even somewhere called Mandurah, which was lovely."
His travels have shown him what an ideal position Australia is to be the next world leaders in interior design.
"Taste is very hot here, creativity is hot here, it's appreciated and cultivated," he says.
"Australia is taking over the world in food terms and I want to see that happening in fashion, film-making, music, everything.
"I would not be surprised if the next design renaissance comes from Australia. It's certainly not going to come from America where the motto is 'in beige we trust'."
Llewelyn-Bowen says our impressive historical built environment combined with our inspiring natural environment puts Australian designers in an ideal position make a mark.
"Australia has such an easy going relationship with the past, the present, technology, east and west," he says.
"You have skies the colour that normally happen in Disney and birds with punk hairstyles and that's all very energetic and exciting."
He is renowned for his flamboyant and over-the-top designs. His own home, a converted farmhouse in The Cotswolds in south central England, has a kitchen adorned with orange and pink wallpaper, a bedroom with a hand-painted countryside mural and lots and lots of purple.
But he says he won't be inflicting his own taste on House Rules contestants.
"I'm not here to paint Australia purple, I am here to use years of experience as an interior designer to make these guys style as good as it possibly could be," he says.
"I feel really strongly that we are crazy if we don't create facsimiles of our crazy interior selves.
"We are really lucky to own a tiny little corner of the planet... the planet is getting scary so when you are able to close the door on your burrow you should be doing it for yourself.
"You should be doing it because it's what you have always wanted to surround yourself with."
House Rules returns to Seven on Sunday at 7pm.