Jeff Lewis has dished out some of his most fascinating and insanely weird requests at home following his epic TV comeback.
The interior design icon is back on our screens with his new Amazon FreeVee series, Hollywood Houselift with Jeff Lewis, taking viewers along for the ride as he helped some of the biggest names in the industry remodel their homes .
A string of celebrities, including Anthony Anderson, Mina Sorvino and Ashlee Simpson, opened their doors to the famous house flip, which was ready to sprinkle some of its magic to bring their visions to life.
However, speaking with Metro.co.ukthe former Bravo star admitted it hasn’t been all fun and games, as she’s had some wild requests in the past, and plenty of pennies — literally.
When asked about the craziest requests, he said: “I’ve worked with a lot of very rich, demanding and sometimes righteous people… I’m not going to say this person is, because he was nice to work with. But Chaz Dean – who is my daughter’s godfather.
“We have known each other for many, many years. He is very strange, so he made me build a fountain and he wanted me to cover the fountain with pennies.
“But the problem was that there were some penny years that were bad years for him that he didn’t want to use in the fountain. So he wanted me to go through, you’re talking about probably thousands of pennies, he wanted me to go through pennies and take away the years that weren’t good for him. And only for the years that he felt were positive years.
“That’s nothing compared to what other people have asked of me.”
“Some people just have too much money and too much time on their hands,” he laughed.
Jeff has made a name for himself thanks to his unmistakable style, his ability to make magic – regardless of budget – and his no-nonsense approach.
All of that rolled into one makes for epic TV, so it’s no surprise that he’s tackled another series after years of leading Bravo’s Flipping Out.
But despite the ridiculous questions and the desire to please his famous friends, the presenter has absolutely no problem turning down something if he doesn’t think it will work.
“I don’t have a problem saying no, they have a problem with me saying no,” he told us. “I’ve worked with celebrities before and you have to understand, if you have a very famous comedian who’s been famous for 30+ years, who was surrounded by yes people, they’re not used to hearing ‘no “.
‘Sometimes it doesn’t go well. But on the other hand, I remember that Lea Remini hired me to do a consultation at her house. This was early in my career and I was afraid to offend. I walked in and gave him nothing but compliments.
She said at the end, “I’m disappointed. I didn’t bring you here to compliment me and compliment my house. I want to make some changes and I want to know what you find offensive.” So that really changed the direction of the meeting. It’s so funny, I don’t think I got the job.
Then many years later we reconnected when she was on The Talk and then I ended up helping her with a design for her kitchen.
“I came in and I wasn’t my unedited, unfiltered self and that’s not what people want. They want me to come in and say, “This sofa is terrible and it has to go,” or “the scale is off or the fabric is cheap or why would you paint this room this color, it’s terrible. It has to be.” ‘Let’s change that’. That’s what they want from me, but my delivery could be a little softer.’
Although he happily shares his opinions on home style in front of the cameras, Jeff remained tight-lipped about who else could really do with a Hollywood Homelift.
“I actually think people have developed a better taste in the last few years compared to when I started this business 20 years ago,” he added. “Because of the home shows, because of all the blogs on the internet…
“People really are a lot more popular now than they used to be. I don’t know who needs me the most, but I imagine there are probably a lot of people who need me.
“I watch a lot of Bravo and Real Housewives, some of those Jersey Housewives who could use could use my help.”
This could be a spin-off in itself…
Hollywood Houselift with Jeff Lewis is available to stream for free now on Amazon Freevee.
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