While Sophie Ellis-Bextor may once have been synonymous with noughties hits and covetable eyeshadow (see: the Murder on the Dancefloor music video), her music now carries a strong association with the home.
Though it may feel far in the past now, the singer brought a dose of joy to our phone screens during the throws of the pandemic with her Instagram Live Kitchen Disco series, wherein she sang and danced to old and new hits in her home's kitchen. With the release of Saltburn in 2023 (and that scene), SEB fever has continued with a fervor; we are definitely not the first to admit that "Murder" is still playing in our own kitchens nearly 25 years after its initial release.
It's natural, then, that the London-based singer-songwriter has partnered with appliance brand LG in a campaign for their MoodUP fridge – a state-of-the-art refrigerator featuring 1,800 color-changing combinations and built-in Bluetooth speakers. Suffice to say, it's a catalyst for kitchen discos.
Reaching Ellis-Bextor from her (colorful) home in London recently, we heard from the pop star about how this serendipitous partnership came to be.
'I think part of the reason why LG and I have had this nice resonance with this relationship is because I have spent a lot of time in my kitchen and during lockdown. I did discos with my husband, and our five kids live streamed from our kitchen,' she explains. 'You can use [the fridge] either in a kind of fabulous dancing way or just if you want it to be a set color to match the scheme.'
The refrigerator connects to an app, which allows users to control music and light settings.
'It does have a cool thing where you can knock on the window and it will show you what's inside so you can keep the temperature constant,' Ellis-Bextor states when asked about her favorite feature on the appliance. 'I actually really like the lights, though. I'm a simple creature, and things that twinkle and sparkle at me make me happy.'
When it comes to her own interior style, Ellis-Bextor is a self-declared maximalist. She describes her aesthetic as 'colorful, but hopefully quite joyful,' and she balances this affinity for vibrance with the practicalities of having five kids.
'I grew up in a house not far from here,' she explains. 'My mom's 10 minutes away and has a similar exuberance. What I've always wanted is for my kids to feel like they're at home. They can really be as creative and experimental with things as they grow up.'
She continues, 'The world is wide, and there are lots of things that can make you feel a bit homogenized or like the edges of you have been a bit knocked off. As much as you can feel, home is a place where you see yourself reflected back at you, and it makes you feel good, the better.'
To her, this means decorating her home with her children's drawings and ensuring that they make the space their own.
With the resurgence of Murder on the Dancefloor, Ellis-Bextor says that home projects have been developing slower than anticipated as she continues to tour and work on new music. However, there are a few comforting kitchen essentials she likes to have on standby.
'I'm very British, so the first thing popped in my head was like a kettle,' she says. 'I've gotta be able to make tea. There's a certain mug I like making my tea from - Cornishware. I love the shape; they always make the perfect tea.'
A KitchenAid mixer and Thermomix are some other recent additions, but she says, 'As long as I can heat up a pan and get a good oven, I can cook you something nice.' We can shop for some Ellis Bextor-inspired essentials, including that all-important (and continually-celeb-approved) KitchenAid, below.
As she continues working on her eighth album, Ellis-Bextor leaves us with some lasting interior design advice stemming back to playful childhood memories.
'My mum would let me paint on my walls, I could put posters up... I do think that's a nice thing because it means you always feel like you can come home to yourself. It makes you remember who you are. I think everybody needs a bit of that.'
