- PM's DVD collection includes 24, Star Wars, Desperate Housewives - and SpongeBob SquarePants
- £69 Ikea bookcase holds complete works of William Shakespeare and books on French design and modern art
- Top-of-the-range gadgets include £499 Magimix food processor, £435 Rancilio espresso maker and £130 Dualit toaster
With its immaculate cabinets, gleaming accessories and shiny pans in neat lines, it looks every inch the modern show home. But this is no artificial stage. This is the first glimpse of the much-talked about kitchen David and Samantha Cameron had fitted in their flat at No 11 Downing Street.
As Michelle Obama and Samantha Cameron chat on the mustard Graham & Green sofa - cementing the 'special relationship' the PM talked of earlier that day - we are offered a tantalising peek inside the Camerons' recently updated private residence.
It's a stylish, welcoming and contemporary space - and it's almost impossibly neat.
Kitchen confidential: Samantha Cameron chats with First Lady Michelle Obama in the new kitchen the Camerons had installed in their apartment at No 11 Downing St
On the underlit shelves, the gleaming professional standard All-Clad saucepans are perfectly aligned, their handles pointing at identical angles; the sparkling glasses are arranged neatly in descending height order.
The graphite kitchen cabinets (John Lewis's Continental collection) provide a neutral palette that allows the stylish £1,895 yellow custom-covered Dream sofa from fashionable British store Graham & Green to really pop.
WHAT'S ON THE CAMERONS' BOOKCASE...
THE BOOKS:
- Paris Interiors coffee table book
- Provence Interiors
- Arts and Artists
- The Family Cookbook
- The Flavour Thesaurus
- Complete works of William Shakespeare
- A large selection of children's books
- Mrs Beeton's Household Management
THE DVDs:
- Special edition Star Wars box set
- 24 box set
- Desperate Housewives box set
- Brideshead Revisited box set
- Band of Brothers box set
- Michael McIntyre Live and Laughing
- Armageddon
- The Departed
- Goodfellas
- Yes Man
- Kill Bill
- SpongeBob SquarePants
- Wiggles
The Camerons are clearly keen on top notch kitchen gadgets. A £435 espresso machine by Italian brand Rancilio - regarded as the gold standard for coffee lovers - and a £499 Magimix food processor sit to the left of a smart £3,799 Britannia Sigma range oven (said to be one of the finest on offer), its £900 Miele hood as highly polished as the stainless steel splashback behind.
A Panasonic microwave can be seen in the corner, with the bottle steriliser and a £2.45 blue plastic Tommee Tippee baby cup resting on top marking this out as a family home.
On the bookcase - the £69 Ikea Leksvig in black to be precise - the DVDs and books, neatly arranged by height, can just be made out. Among the collection we see coffee table books from renowned publishers Taschen on art, design and French interiors - perhaps Samantha looked to them for inspiration for her kitchen? - as well as Mrs Beeton's Household management tome, plenty of children's reads - and that highbrow essential, William Shakespeare's complete works.
A large DVD collection offers insight into the possibilities of a Cameron night in front of the television:
Box sets of 24, Brideshead Revisited and Desperate Housewives can be spotted, along with a special edition, digitally enhanced box set of Star Wars, indicating that one of the Camerons is a big fan.
There are two live stand-up comedy DVDs from the Live and Laughing tour of popular comedian Michael McIntyre - perhaps David Cameron's way of lightening his mood after a difficult PM's question time - and drama is provided by films including Yes Man, Bruce Willis' Armageddon, The Departed and Goodfellas.
One assumes the SpongeBob SquarePants and Wiggles DVDs are for the Camerons' children - seven-year-old Nancy, Arthur, five, and nine-month-old Florence.
On the sideboard is a shiny new Phillips 21:9 flatscreen television and two - yes TWO - Apple iPads (purchased, of course, with no help from Parliamentary expenses), while underneath sits a Sky+ box for those quiet nights in.
When the Camerons moved into their new four-bedroom apartment (which they use because it’s bigger than the family accommodation at No 10), Samantha Cameron is said to have despaired at the dark, poky kitchen.
Cherie Blair had previously admitted that when she saw the kitchen at No 11, her heart sank; it was so awful and outdated.
But at the time the Blairs moved in, they couldn’t afford to splash out.
Thanks to the the PM and his wife's personal financial security, however, the Camerons could - and wouldn't Cherie have loved this modern, airy space, with its top-of-the-range accessories and gleaming pans?
Instead of replacing the shabby 1970s kitchen already there, this large, bright, contemporary kitchen was built in addition.
While it's much more modern than the Cameron's white and beige wood kitchen at their former residence in Notting Hill, some of the contemporary touches are the same - the modern fixtures and fittings are familiar, but the sophisticated grey tone is all new.
Gone, or perhaps out of sight, are the £99 pendant light and £130 Flap City clock from Habitat, the £175 Waring blender, the £100 Brabantia bin and the £360 Tom Dixon for Heals Mirror Ball light.
For all their fabulous wealth though, the Camerons show that they're not unnecessarily lavish: the large set of stainless steel pans and knife block are back in use at No 11.
Lived-in: David Cameron in the modern kitchen at his former residence in Notting Hill - note the same pans and knife block have resurfaced in the new kitchen at No 11
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