Award-winning interior designer Kelly Hoppen receives thousands of Instagram messages a day from people asking her to help them transform their properties – and she says she’d love to have the time to reply to everyone.
She currently shares her tips and tricks in a regular slot on This Morning and says she’s grateful for the opportunity to help people create spacious, bright and comfortable homes.
Kelly’s latest mission is to show people how to create gorgeous surroundings without breaking the bank. She believes having your own sanctuary is crucial for your wellbeing, especially as the cost of living soars.
“I’m passionate about everyone having the perfect home to live in because in terms of mental health, which is something I’m very proactive on, if you don’t feel good in your home, you’re not going to feel good somewhere else,” she says.
“And everybody deserves to feel good with the cost of living crisis going on.”
She wants to help people find affordable items on the high street while still being able to achieve a “cohesive” look. “It’s about creating capsule looks for people – finding a rug that will change your room immediately, whether you’ve got a carpet or wood floor. Also, lighting is key.
“Most people have down lights, which are the most unattractive things, especially for women. Accent lighting is really important. And change the cushions on the sofa or buy a throw which you can put on a sofa – it will change the look of it.
“If you’ve got a small entrance hall, put in the biggest mirror you can, because you can create drama out of it. Part of design is about the shock element. It’s like in fashion when underwear became outerwear and people wore a little lace cami top with jeans and a leather jacket and everyone said, ‘This is so cool.’
“The same thing applies to the home. It’s about not doing what you think you should, it’s about adding a twist. It’s very individual.”
So which high street shops are Kelly’s favourites?
“Zara is amazing – the Belgian shabby chic look – and H&M is really good at showing how you can mix and match,” she says. “Sainsbury’s and Habitat is a brilliant partnership – people want brands they know and trust. M&S has some really good pieces of furniture and great china.”
Kelly has been transforming people’s homes and spaces for 47 years.
After leaving school at 16, she took on her first interiors project – renovating her stepfather’s friend’s kitchen.
“I hated school,” she says. “I was very badly bullied. I’m very dyslexic but thought I was stupid. I couldn’t read or spell, but I was very artistic. One day I said to my stepfather, ‘I’m going to start my own business in interior design.’ I was very fearless and tenacious.
“Looking back, I absolutely cocked it up from start to finish – it was an absolute disaster. The builders were drinking vodka the whole time, everything was hung upside down.
“It was so plain, boring, dull, horrible and brown, but my stepfather’s friend was thrilled.”
After that, Kelly’s friend recommended her to racing driver Guy Edwards, who enlisted Kelly to transform his home. “And that kick-started my career,” she says.
Since then, Kelly – who lives in a renovated Cotswolds barn with her partner, retired businessman John Gardiner – has transformed the homes of many celebrities, including Victoria and David Beckham and Frank Lampard.
While she won’t reveal the specifics of her famous clients’ requests, she tells us perfumer Jo Malone once told her, “You’ve given me something I wanted but I didn’t know I wanted it.”
“That’s part of the magic I was born with – getting into people’s heads and taking that information out,” she says.
Kelly, who featured as a dragon on the BBC show Dragons’ Den from 2013 to 2015, won critical acclaim in 1997 for her first book, East Meets West: Global Design For Contemporary Interiors.
Since then, her muted neutral colours have become a benchmark in the interior design world. She has even joked that her MBE stands for “makes beige exciting”.
What we can’t help wondering is whether she covers her pale furniture in dust sheets when her five-year-old grandson Rudy comes over.
“You can spray furniture with Scotchgard,” she says, laughing. “When kids are around, it’s more about objects – you want child-friendly spaces. I would literally remove everything in my home for Rudy so that he could be there, I love him so much. But I tend to go to his house and we sit on the floor and play.”
Rudy’s mum Natasha is Kelly’s daughter from her first marriage, to restaurateur Graham Corrett.
She later married Edwin Miller and during that marriage she was stepmum to actress Sienna Miller and fashion designer Savannah Miller.
Rudy refers to his grandma as Glammy – short for “glamorous grandmother”.
“My son-in-law and Tash came up with Glammy and that’s what it always is. Sometimes I say, ‘Come on, come to Granny, but he’ll always call me Glammy,” she says.
It’s easy to see why Kelly was given that moniker. Her flawless skin, bouncy curls and slender physique make her look years younger than 63.
“I’ve been an advocate of the collagen wave – a non-invasive treatment that reheats the collagen in your face – for many years,” she says. “I’ve got good genes. My mother is 87 next month and she looks amazing. I’m careful with my skin. I don’t go out in the sun because I’m very pale and just burn anyway.”
She adds, “Eating healthily, limiting carbs, sleeping a lot and exercising every morning – they are staples that have always been in my life. It keeps me youthful. I use the gym, I have a PT and I do online classes. I’m a disciplined person, but I’m absolutely s***e when it comes to doing it myself – I need that motivation.
“I’m into trampolining at the moment and I also do self body weights, pilates and stretching. I don’t really drink a lot. My friends will say when I do I get drunk very quickly. I’ve only just recovered from Amanda Holden’s party!”
She’s referring to Amanda’s 52nd birthday bash, where she joined friends including Alan Carr and Angela Griffin to help the Britain’s Got Talent judge celebrate.
At the party, Alan presented Amanda with a birthday cake in the shape of a bidet after she criticised his bidet on their TV show Amanda And Alan’s Italian Job in which they renovate a dilapidated property in Sicily.
“Someone has a video of that bidet cake and me that night. Let’s just say I hope it never surfaces,” Kelly says.
Kelly took part in Dragons’ Den for two series, but she quit when she struggled to commit to filming due to her work schedule.
She admits she’s still a fan of the show and she often texts fellow dragon Deborah Meaden.
“I think it’s brilliant. I’m obsessed. When I watch it, I’m thinking what I would say and do. I do miss it, but I don’t miss the pressure it put on my business. It was hard to run my big business and the investments. I had to get more people to do it and I hadn’t factored that in.”
Kelly admits she isn’t a fan of watching herself on television. “I just don’t like the way I sound – I sound really posh,” she says. “It’s not very nice watching yourself. I love helping people create comfortable and beautiful homes instead.”
So is there anything that is an interiors no-no for Kelly?
“The colours brown and blue together make me feel sick – I can’t bear it. I used to hate chintz but today I could quite easily put a bit of chintz in my living room. Perhaps I’ve got softer with age.”
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