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Style Tips from Leading Interior Designer - Kelly HoppenBy Gabrielle Fagan  Leading designer, Kelly Hoppen reveals her interiors secrets, and talks about her home and style.While the rest of us agonise endlessly over redecorating our homes, puzzling over paint charts and getting frazzled about fabrics, designer Kelly Hoppen has no truck with such dithering and delay. In the space of five months she's renovated an entire four storey Georgian townhouse. It's been given it the Hoppen treatment, so it's a symphony of her signature neutral shades and literally oozes style. Her publicist describes it in hushed, reverential tones as "a homage to her talent" and it certainly demonstrates why celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law and the Beckhams clamour for her services. As she shows off her new 'des res' sanctuary complete with gym and landscaped patio garden Kelly enthuses: "I've just loved doing this house. "There's such a good atmosphere here, which I was aware of the moment I walked in, and that's so important. I've just tried to enhance it." To a visitor, the house seems uber-glamorous with glossy black lacquer units and tables, white walls and acres of polished dark wood flooring. But I'm reprimanded for calling it that by Kelly, who dispenses surprisingly down-to-earth words of interiors wisdom as we walk round. She thinks that the word 'glamour' implies an eye-catching but flashy approach which is now inappropriate in our recessionary times. "I think instead people want timeless luxury," she says. "Most of all they want a nurturing home that feels safe, comfortable and easy to live in." Key to that is layout, and her rooms seem to flow seamlessly into one another. An entrance hall complete with antique mirrors, a painting of boxer Mohammed Ali, and a silk carpeted staircase leads to a chic but tranquil living room. Kelly prevents her monochrome colour scheme becoming bland by enlivening it with different textures. Hard edge surfaces mix with seductive softness and the stunning focal point is a sleek fireplace and black glass chimney breast. This is complemented by a black lacquer Seventies coffee table and richly upholstered black and grey sofas, scattered with velvet cushions.  Kelly predicts that this Autumn, textures will be the focus. "Contrasting different materials - like wood, stone or fabrics - can be done easily by people using furniture and pieces they already have," she says. "It's a wonderful way of adding interest and variation. Without those variations a neutral scheme can look flat and dead." On the living room walls, and throughout the house, are chic black and white photographic prints, including one of her heroine, Marilyn Monroe. Windows are dressed with curtains made from slinky lingerie satin, which have just replaced the summer linen hangings. "Making small year round changes can alter the whole feel of a room," says Kelly. "It's no different to pulling out your winter clothes after a long summer." Interesting ornaments artfully displayed on shelves, have been collected by Kelly on her bargain hunting trips to local markets. "They're always the pieces people comment on. Vintage is a great way to go, as it's unique and beautiful whether it's an antique plate or a salvaged chair." She sweeps into the kitchen, which she acknowledges is the room people find the most difficult to get right as they're daunted by the expense. One of her latest projects is heading a Hotpoint campaign to show how to inject shoestring style into lacklustre kitchens.  "The kitchen so important these days as it is the heart of a home where we all entertain as well as cook."It truly needn't cost a fortune to revamp one. You can keep the existing cupboards but fit new doors, and update easily by investing in maybe one or two high gloss appliances." Black lacquered custom-built units line her own cooking and entertaining space, and guests can gather at a bar, over hung by pendant lights, which faces a contemporary wall-hung fire. On the floor is a colourful antique rug and on the windows wooden shutters, one of the newest additions to Kelly's homeware range. "My mother told me that if you're a rubbish cook your kitchen should look fab and then people won't notice what you put on your plates," she confides with a smile. Light and serenity reign in her sensual master bedroom which she says is her favourite room as "it's so calming and harmonious". A massive bed, with a sirocco silk cover and cushions, dominates the space and beside it is a dressing table, on which she displays a collection of treasured family photographs, including some of her former step-daughter, film star Sienna Miller.  Another guest bedroom, in shades of white, perfectly illustrates her "modern and eclectic" style. "It's all about mixing old and new, antique and vintage, and contrasting it beautifully with stark contemporary pieces or spaces." To illustrate the concept the room has an outsize upholstered headboard, with steel hanging lights by Tom Dixon on either side, brown sheepskin rugs but also a vintage French style chair and white painted floorboards. Bands of velvet fabric, her current favourite fabric, decorate the cushions and to achieve a new look she simply changes the material or colours of the bands. Top-speed design and decoration might be easy-peasy for Kelly, recently awarded an MBE for her services to interior design, but the rest of us struggle. Hotpoint's research revealed that nearly 40% of us lack confidence in our decor taste, while 38% of people bemoan the lack of style in their homes. Kelly, 50, counsels that we should approach dressing our rooms in the same way we dress ourselves. "If you have confidence with fashion and can visualise what something will look like on, then all you have to do is apply the same approach to interior design." Here are more of Kelly's interior design secrets and top money-saving tips... Kelly's top tips Despite the current craze for colour in homes Kelly is resolute that neutrals remain the best basis for decor schemes. "Trends come and go and are just a way of making people spend money unnecessarily, instead it's far better to save for a special piece you really love, and add a bit of colour with accessories that can easily be changed." Revamp a room at no cost by shaking up the arrangement of accessories. Put them all on the floor, and then replace them in different places to where they were originally. Lighting is key, says Kelly, who has a sophisticated Lutron system with uplighters, downlights and floor lights. "You can get great effects with a mix of freestanding lights, table lamps and candles." Use vegetables as table decorations displayed in glass bowls, for instance a cluster of purple aubergines, artichokes or limes. Buy fake flowers but make them look realistic by adding pebbles or compost to the bottom of vases or glass containers. "I'm a great believer in thinking outside of the box and using ordinary things in different ways. A short length of white rope coiled and displayed in an oversized brandy glass looks terrific," she says. Remember that whatever colour or texture is chosen for walls, the ceiling must blend with it. "If you use paint on walls, use the same colour on the woodwork and ceiling - it's like wearing black tights and black shoes shoes with a black dress," she advises. Look out for affordable art work at fairs, or college shows, by young, up and coming artists. "Do hang it at the right height - people often hang pictures too high. You should be able to look at a painting without tilting the head upwards."
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