Colour is Dame Prue Leith's forte. The Celebrity Bake Off judge is known for her vibrant outfits, eclectic jewellery collection and, of course, her colourful career. Yet, the celebrity chef's penchant for all things eye-catching stems far beyond her on-screen presence.
READ: Prue Leith's bold decor inside new home with husband John revealed
Across the years, Prue, 82, has shared glimpses into her incredible home which boasts a dazzling array of bright hues. From canary yellow to turquoise, striking red to pink, the star's house is a curated colour bomb of unique furnishings, fittings and decorations.
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HELLO! spoke to Great British Bake Off star Prue about how she infused her Surrey home with technicolour, crafting a space that undoubtedly lifts the spirits on rainy days and goes against the grain of traditional interiors in the cheeriest of ways.
Prue Leith on her colourful home
When it comes to discussing houses, Prue Leith doesn't hold back. The Great British Bake Off star is generous in the discussion of her home interior – which sounds like a kaleidoscopic visual feast. Opting for a more vivid colour scheme for her Surrey home, Prue is a firm believer in making a house not only a retreat – but also a spectacle.
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"I am obsessed with colour - no question," the beloved TV host says. Taking into account Prue's vivacious wardrobe, it comes as no surprise that monochrome was out of the question when it came to decorating a new home. "I find grey or sterile white really depressing," she admits. "It's like a hotel and it's so impersonal - like living in a bathroom."
Designing and furnishing a house is often seen as a mammoth task, but Prue had the input of her husband John Playfair, a retired fashion designer, to help bring the space to life: "Both my husband and I love colour and so what we did was we divided up the rooms. He did the library and I did the kitchen – the two biggest rooms."
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She continued: "He is obsessed with books and has thousands and thousands of them. The library is bright red and has a green floor. Red and green go beautifully together – one of the classic colours. It used to be a barn before we knocked it down and started again. It looked quite scary, so bright red – fire raging red was the colour and all our friends were horrified and would say things like, 'I bet you'll be changing this colour before too long.' Of course, as soon as it's covered in books and pictures, red is a great colour to show off paintings."
Prue is known for her penchant for colour
Back in 2021 when she moved into the new house, Prue shared some snaps of her canary yellow kitchen on Instagram, which has since featured in the background of multiple social media posts. Fans adored the striking colour, which Prue chose for its shocking brilliance: "I like very bright and cheerful kitchens. I hate all those murky colours. I like clean, clear colours so I have a yellow and white kitchen. It's so sunny and cheerful, especially now because we have a big bowl of daffodils in the middle of the table."
The conversation continues upstairs, where Prue details the planning of the bedrooms. "For my bedroom, I chose the colour. There's a second bedroom and I call it the 'banishment room.' The snorer's room! To be honest, neither of us have been banished to the room for snoring or anything else. It's also John's dressing room and an extra bedroom. He chose the colours for that and I was horrified at first. It was maroon and pink and yet it works. It looks fantastic. Mine is bright turquoise."
Prue's turquoise bedroom is home to the pièce de résistance of the house – a fixture that only the GBBO host's expansive jewellery collection is worthy of display upon. "I have a necklace wall," the star reveals. "On the wall, I have huge metal trees that have little hooks all over them for hanging all my necklaces on. One of the trees has a parallel ladder of rolling pins and you can take the rolling pins off and slide bangles and bracelets on. So that's the bracelet tree and then there's two huge necklace trees and four little additions of the trees for my earrings. The whole wall is jewellery and it looks amazing."
Prue has an amazing collection of jewellery
This is the sort of installation that honours Prue's theory of homes as treasure troves in addition to sanctuaries. Many of us are guilty of accumulating unnecessary items, clothes or accessories, but Prue provides the perfect justification for this: "Because I have something like two hundred necklaces, the obsession is ridiculous, I comfort myself and think that it's not that I'm just a neurotic collector like Imelda Marcos collecting shoes, but that this is an art installation."
Yet, for Prue, it's not just about the new. The celebrity chef has recycled pieces of furniture from her previous home, breathing new life into preloved items. "We have a chandelier which is in our office. I had an old-fashioned chandelier because the office is big and I wanted to reuse the chandelier from my old house. I hung it up and it looked too pompous for an office. So, I strung spare necklaces and jewellery all over it and teacups, because I collect those old-fashioned little bone teacups, over the chandelier and they look amazing."
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With her vibrant personal touch and preference for the slightly eccentric, Prue Leith continues to brighten with her colourful presence both on and off-screen.
Prue Leith is working with cyber security experts Avast to help Brits understand digital cookies and has created a limited run of her chocolate chip cookies (complete with tips and tricks on how to navigate the digital kind) which are free for people to order from https://blog.avast.com/acceptallcookies
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