We're always looking for easy ways to make our homes look the best they can be – ideally without bursting our budgets. So when interior designer Kelly Hoppen offered her favourite way to upgrade a room we were all ears.
‘Layering of textures is really important to me,’ Kelly told us. Whether it’s in the living room on your favourite sofa with cushions, throws and other pieces of decor dotted around the room or in the bedroom, texture is what makes any space feel warm and inviting, rather than something like a living room colour scheme, the interior designer explains.
‘You can walk into a room that's full of colour and it can feel cold,' continues Kelly Hoppen. 'You can walk into a room that's neutral and it can feel warm, and it's the way that it's been layered. That's why you look at all of the many textures and how you layer them.’
One example she gives is warming up a leather sofa with soft and cosy accessories. ‘I always feel that a leather sofa is cold. Like a leather pair of trousers is cold – it even feels cold on your skin. But when you put the right sweater on, or you put the right cushions on a leather sofa or the right throw, and you mix it together, it feels cosy.’
As Kelly explains, any colour can be made to feel warm or cold, depending on the textures used and what other colours you pair with them. ‘A lot of people will say blue is a cold colour, but if it's put with the right textures, like wool and cashmere, it can feel really cosy.’
How Kelly incorporated texture into her M&S collection
Texture was integral for Kelly when creating her new (and first of many, as we're told!) collab with M&S. Since neutrals go with everything, Kelly opted for her signature colour palette of black, white, grey, beige and taupe for the inaugural M&S x Kelly Hoppen range, but while it is lacking colour, there are plenty of different textures purposefully included in the offering.
‘All of these textures work together. You've got the signature cushions with the velvet and the linens. If you were to touch these,’ she says while pointing to the throws from the collection, ‘they feel like cashmere. They're just so soft! So these you could use on a chair, on a sofa, on your bed, wrapped around when you're watching television, however you want to.’
‘But there are textures also on the hard finishes – all of the matte, glossy and textured vases of all different scales.’
Our top picks from the M&S x Kelly Hoppen range
If pure cashmere throws are out of your budget - let's face it, they're pricey - then Kelly's throw design is the next best thing as they feel just like cashmere but cost only £35.
Whether you want to call them scallops or dinosaur spikes, these three-dimensional features add some texture and something a little extra to this large vase design.
Kelly Hoppen is known for her pet peeve of chopped cushions. That's why all of her tactile cushion designs from this collaboration, including this grey style, cannot be chopped.
If you really want to nail the interiors game then there are two other elements besides texture that Kelly recommends to focus on.
‘When you walk into a room and you feel at home and you feel cosy, it's because of the smell, the lighting, the textures – those are the three things.’ We’re taking notes.
