Famed interior designer Jeff Lewis reveals wildest celebrity request – and it involves thousands of pennies-Rishma Dosani-Entertainment – Metro

Jeff Lewis has spilled the beans on some of his most glamorous, and wildly outlandish, home requests after his epic TV comeback.

The interior design icon has returned to our screens with his brand 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 revamp their homes.

A string of celebs, including Anthony Anderson, Mina Sorvino and Ashlee Simpson, opened their doors to the famed house flipper, who was on happily on hand to sprinkle some of his magic to bring their visions to life.

However, speaking to Metro.co.uk, the former Bravo star admitted that it hasn’t all been fun and games, as there have been some wild requests in the past, and a lot of penny counting – literally.

When asked about the most insane demands, he spilled: ‘I’ve worked with a lot of very wealthy people, demanding and sometimes entitled… I’m not going to say that this person is, because he was lovely to work with. But Chaz Dean – who is my daughter’s godfather. 

‘We’ve known each other for many, many years. He’s very eccentric, so he had me build a fountain and he wanted me to cover the fountain in pennies. 

Jeff Lewis manages to make utter magic happen in homes (Picture: Amazon Freevee)

‘But the problem was there were certain years of the pennies that were bad years for him, that he did not 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 remove the years that weren’t good for him. And only put in the years that he felt were positive years. 

‘That’s really nothing compared to what other people have asked me for.’

‘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 unquestionable style, his ability to make magic happen – no matter the budget – and his no-nonsense approach.

Chaz wanted a sentimental penny fountain – naturally (Picture: WireImage)

All of this rolled into one makes epic TV, so it is no surprise that he has fronted another series after years of leading Bravo’s Flipping Out.

But, despite the ridiculous asks and wanting to please his celebrity pals, the host has absolutely no issue turning something down if he doesn’t think it will work.

‘I have no 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’ve got a very famous comedian who has been famous for 30+ years, who was surrounded by yes people, they’re not used to hearing “no”. 

Anthony Anderson was one of the stars opening his doors to Jeff (Picture: Amazon FreeVee)

The interior designer has a phonebook full of famous faces (Picture: Amazon FreeVee)

‘Sometimes it doesn’t go well. But then on the other hand, I remember Leah Remini hired me to do a consult at her house. This was early on in my career and I was afraid of offending. I went in and I gave her 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.

Can Jeff pop around to our place? (Picture: Amazon FreeVee)

‘I went 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 awful and it needs to go,” or “the scale is off or the fabric is cheap or why would you paint this room this color, this is horrifying. We need to change this”. 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 coy on who else could really do with a Hollywood Houselift.

‘I actually think that people have developed a better taste in the last few years, versus when I started this business 20 years ago,’ he added. ‘Because of the home shows, because of all the online blogs… 

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‘People really are much more in the know now today than they were. I don’t know offhand who needs me the most, but I imagine there’s probably a lot of people that do need me. 

‘I watch a lot of Bravo and Real Housewives, some of those Jersey housewives could use could use my help.’

That 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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