Interview with interiors queen Kelly Hoppen

There’s someone in the mezzanine floor of the new-look Chiswick B&Q who’s causing shoppers to set down their buckets of paint and tear their attention from the electric sanders they’ve been examining. With flame coloured curls, red patent Chanel pumps and her well-cut black dress, Kelly Hoppen cuts quite a chic figure in Britain’s favourite DIY store.

She’s travelled here from her Notting Hill HQ to cut the ribbon on the store’s reopening, introduce her wallpaper collaboration with Graham & Brown and reveal her top tips, key trends and grand plans for 2010 and beyond.

Q: What’s the current direction in interior design?

A: The trend reports that I wrote this year were very much about ‘linear shabby chic’. It’s about people wanting their homes to look like they were lived in rather than being too streamlined and people being comfortable about bringing something from their past into the lives they lead now.

Q: What are some ways this trend is playing out?

A: I think there was a really bad patch where people just threw everything away and thought they had to have everything new, which I am against. The forward to my last book was all about my grandmother’s home and what I learnt from that. And the more I thought about it the more I realised it had such a big impact on my life. If I showed you pictures of my grandmother’s home you’d go; ‘That’s so not you’. But it wasn’t what it looked like, it was the sense of it.

Q: What’s different about the wallpaper you’ve created with Graham & Brown?

A: I do a lot of plaster finishes and natural textures so my wallpaper is very much based on texture. The flock wallpaper is the best-selling wallpaper that we’ve done. My inspiration was when I went to the palace last year to get my MBE. It was just covered in flock wallpaper. I thought; ‘Wow this is fantastic but why isn’t it in natural colours?’

Q: So what was the creative process for developing the papers?

A: I think that they add another dimension, rather than just putting colour onto the wall. And it’s not that expensive. It’s a very, very good way of highlighting something – a niche or one big wall. Strangely enough, black is the best-selling colour.

Q: What about your shutter collection that’s also sold through B&Q?

A: The shutters are the best range in the world. They came about because I couldn’t find what I wanted. I like the wide shutters that look very Vietnamese. I wanted them all in the perfect lacquers and perfect woods. There are lots of things I choose to do because I can’t find them. So I can solve the problem for somebody else. These shutters allow for privacy but you can have light coming in. I like the neatness of them; I think they’re a great investment.

Q: What other product developments are in the pipeline for 2010?

A: I’ve just brought out a clothing range – it’s all clothes for the home that will come out in September via Net-a-Porter, Selfridges, everywhere. We’ve just done the lookbook for it. We’re doing a collaboration with Technogym for exercise equipment. We’re doing stationery. We’re going to do lighting. I’m going to do a lingerie
collection next. I’m a bit of a runaway train. I love doing more and more and more.

Q: What are some of the secrets to maintaining your creative output?

A: When I travel I know that when I come back I will be so full of ideas. I take short breaks and I take a month off in summer. That kind of stops my brain working.
Then I’m full on.

Q: What’s your best advice for someone undertaking some DIY interior design?

A: I always say to people; ‘go slow.’ You don’t have to finish every room. I’d much rather walk into a home that’s got great lighting, great floors, great walls – and then sort everything else later. People need to stop and take time to do their home. It’s not running away. Impulse buying
never works – never. Only for shoes and handbags…

B&Q Chiswick, 2 Larch Drive, Gunnersbury Avenue, W4 5QL, 0845 850 0175, www.diy.co.uk

B&Q Chiswick

l The newly refurbished Chiswick store now has a 17,000 sq ft mezzanine level
l The mezzanine features new showroom displays including 36 kitchens, 10 bathrooms and 8 cloakrooms
l  Three showroom designers now help customers realise their new kitchen, bathroom and bedroom plans
l  The new level also houses lighting, art and wallpaper
l  The refurbishments have increased the total store size to 72,000 sq ft
l  Over Easter, B&Q sold about 2.2m litres of paint (enough to fill almost 30,000 baths), enough wallpaper to stretch from London to Rome, up to one million units of growing compost and 200,000 units of grow bags for fruit and vegetables

Kelly Hoppen CV

l Born in Capetown, SA, in 1959
l Started her career in London at   the age of 16
l Received the Andrew Martin International Designer of the Year Award in 1997, its inaugural year
l Clients have included the Beckhams, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law and   Elton John
l  Commercial commissions include the Park Lane restaurant,  Rhodes W1, Royal Mougins Golf Club in Cannes, Hotel Murmuri in  Barcelona and British Airways'    first class cabins
l  Launched her Kelly Hoppen Design School in 2003
l  Product collaborations have included Century Furniture,    Wedgwood, Waterfront Bathrooms, Chesney’s Fireplaces, Craig & Rose paints and Bhs
l  Author of several bestselling    books; the most recent, Kelly
 Hoppen Style: The Golden Rules
 of Design, was published last year
l Appointed MBE in the New Year Honours list for 2009

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