Dame Prue Leith surprised fans on 21 January with the news that she has stepped down from her judging role on Channel 4's The Great British Bake Off. The baking show, which she joined as a judge in 2017, is typically filmed over a 10-week period from April to June each year.
But this year, the restaurateur, 84, will have more time to unwind at the rural Oxfordshire home she shares with her husband of nine years, John Playfair.
© Getty ImagesPrue's rural pad
It won't come as much of a surprise that Prue, who is known for her taste in outlandish jewellery and bright clothes, has designed a space dripping in colour. The TV star built her pad from scratch after owning the land it sits on for several years before knocking down the dilapidated farmhouse sitting on it to make way for a more modern design.
© ITV"It's got lovely views. I can see two houses, otherwise it’s just countryside," Prue told The Times in 2021. One of the more unusual features in Prue's two-bed home, which was renovated during the Covid-19 pandemic, is one that helps her marriage to the retired clothing designer.
Prue and John's 'banishment' room
"We sleep in my big bedroom, but there's a slightly smaller room next to it with its own bathroom. He calls his banishment room, so if we are sick or furious with one another, we can at least have our own space," she told the newspaper.
"When he chose the colours for his room, I went, 'Oh God, that's awful.' It was maroony red, with skirting boards of brighter red, and I thought this will never ever work — and it looks absolutely wonderful. If we were on different pages, about colour, I would normally give in, and his ideas would work."
Lemon yellow kitchen
Talking of colour, Prue's purpose-built kitchen cabinetry is lemon yellow in hue. Her wooden kitchen table also comes with yellow and lime green chairs. "The yellow just makes you happy. It feels like springtime," she said of her decision to opt for the vibrant shade.
Meanwhile, she turned a beamed barn into a library with burnt orange walls and clashing printed rugs. Of her transformed library, Prue exclusively told HELLO! in 2022: 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."
© InstagramPrue's colour-drenched space
Her study has sky-blue colour-drenched walls. HELLO!'s Homes Editor, Rachel Avery, said previously of the benefits of colour-drenching rooms in the home: "This is a trend that isn't going anywhere, so I suggest you pick up that paintbrush and get brave!
"Colour drenching means coating more than just the walls with your chosen shade, so this can be the ceiling, the skirting boards, a door, or even a radiator. This look instantly makes your room look more stylish, and it can also help it look bigger – win, win."
Housing Pure's jewellery collection
Of course, it wouldn't be Prue's home if there wasn't a way to display all her eye-catching jewels. She told us: "On the wall, I have huge metal trees that have little hooks all over them for hanging all my necklaces on.
© WireImage"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 are two huge necklace trees and four little additions to the trees for my earrings. The whole wall is jewellery, and it looks amazing."
