Why would Carrie Symonds pay Lulu’s not-so-Lytle bills when John Lewis can mirror her designs?
- Carrie Symonds’s Downing Street redesign is inspired by designer Lulu Lytle
- She wanted to rid the home of the ‘John Lewis nightmare’ left by Theresa May
- Could Carrie have got the look she desired from the High Street brand?
Carrie Symonds‘s Lulu Lytle-inspired makeover has caused uproar, but the 32-year-old apparently saw the lavish Downing Street overhaul as necessary to rid the Prime Minister’s residence of the ‘John Lewis nightmare’ left behind by former occupant Theresa May, according to Tatler.
It came as a painful blow to fans of Britain’s favourite department store — and an unfounded one.
For while the 157-year-old company may have a reputation for being safe and suburban, look closer and it offers plenty of chic, timeless pieces.
Boris Johnson’s girlfriend Carrie Symonds’s Lulu Lytle-inspired makeover of Downing Street has caused uproar
There are £2,000 sofas (a snip compared with the £20,000 three-seaters from Lytle’s company Soane Britain), lamps for under £20 (not £12,000) and wallpaper for £9 a roll (not £500).
And many of its pieces are hard to tell apart from Soane’s.
So could Carrie have got the look she desired from the High Street brand?
Lulu Lytle’s own West London living room is bursting with Soane furniture, fabrics and accessories
Here we show it can be recreated using John Lewis products for just £2,545, compared with around £42,000
Lulu Lytle’s own West London living room is bursting with Soane furniture, fabrics and accessories — yet here we show it can be recreated using John Lewis products for just £2,545, compared with around £42,000 for her Soane-styled room.
The ‘paintings’ on the wall are, in fact, framed pieces of antique fabric collected on Lulu’s travels, while the furniture is a mix of oak, mahogany and pine.
Her tables are not from Soane but look very similar to those in the firm’s catalogue, which start at £4,800.