Football club chairman and TV personality Baroness Karren Brady reveals her chic kitchen makeover, transforming a run-down apartment into a light, airy space that looks the business.
As well as being a TV personality and professional business mentor, Karren is Chairman of Premier League football club West Ham United. With help from Wren, she has revamped her Central London apartment by adding a contemporary kitchen space that screams understated luxury. Thanks to her love for interiors and her talented Wren designer, Karren’s L-shaped kitchen has optimum cooking space and lots of style.
Karren opted for Shaker Chelsea Ermine base units with traditional, soft touch frontals, and paired them with matt touch Milano Contour wall cabinets for a run of uninterrupted lines and a sleek finish. Combining the timeless Shaker style with the typically modern Milano design, she’s achieved the perfect balance between classic and contemporary. Karren matched her matt Mushroom cabinetry with crisp white walls for a subtle contrast in-keeping with the bright and airy feel of the room.
Sat in her new open-plan living space, Karren gushes about her experience with Wren.
‘The property was pretty run down when we bought it. What I wanted to do was open it up to give it a feeling of space, even though we didn’t have much space, and make it light and airy, and of course, modernise it!’
‘Everybody knows that in a home the kitchen is the most important feature, so I really wanted to bring the kitchen out and make it the biggest and most important feature of the apartment.’
‘I wanted something that was light, airy, practical, gave an illusion of luxury and space, but didn’t cost an absolute fortune.’
‘We managed to achieve the design that I really wanted. Clean, modern, elegant, that contained everything practical that you need in a kitchen.’
With worktops being one of the most prominent parts of the kitchen, Karren has chosen our stunning, hardwearing Xena Quartz in a striking Valenza finish. She added a matching Valenza upstand with deep veins running across the wall to make a dramatic statement.
‘The worktop and the backsplash was really important to me because I think that adds an element of luxury and it elevates any design scheme that you’re doing. And as soon as I saw this Quartz, that’s the one I wanted.’
The modest Central London apartment boasts a range of state-of-the-art Neff appliances, from a Slide & Hide oven to a slimline dishwasher, this kitchen has every appliance needed for modern living.
‘I really knew that I wanted a Neff oven and hob because I have those in my main house.’ Karren explains.
I know they work really well. I know they’re really reliable. The difficulty for me having the oven was, it’s such a small space that when you pull the door down, it’s in the middle of the room and they have this really unique feature where you slide the door underneath the oven and it disappears. So there’s no tripping over it. It’s no getting in your way. And in a small space, that’s really important.’
Having a compact kitchen means you must prioritise worktop space and keep clutter to a minimum, something Karren bore in mind while choosing her appliances.
‘I wanted to have a cooker tap because I have one of those in my house, and they are so practical. In a small kitchen, you don’t want lots of plug-in appliances, littering all this limited space that you have, so I didn’t want a kettle and this is the perfect solution.
As well as being practical, her gold Quooker 3-in-1 tap is a stylish addition which blends in with the rest of the chic kitchen space. She adds: “In a small kitchen where you don’t have room for many design features, to have a prominent tap that really is eye-catching, I thought was great.”
Get the look
- Infinity Plus Shaker Chelsea Ermine kitchen in Mushroom matt
- Infinity Plus Milano Contour kitchen in Mushroom matt
- Xena Quartz worktops and upstands in Valenza finish
- Samos 1.0 Composite Undermount sink in White
- Quooker Fusion Square 3 in 1 Boiling Water Tap Gold
- Neff FlexInduction 4 Zone Hob
- Neff N50 Single Oven – Slide & Hide
- Neff Integrated Slimline Dishwasher with Home Connect
- Neff Integrated 70/30 Fridge Freezer
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