At Home With SMEG: Editorial & Lifestyle Photography In Leeds

Back in August I spent an afternoon on an editorial photography assignment for SMEG UK, photographing a rather special kitchen in Leeds.

The shoot was part of their ‘At Home With SMEG’ competition, capturing the beautifully renovated home of competition winner Heather and creating a collection of warm, natural lifestyle images showcasing the kitchen and SMEG appliances in situ.

The finished photographs have now been published as part of a feature on the SMEG UK website.

Photographing A Home, Not Just A Kitchen

The brief for the shoot was relatively simple on paper: create a collection of lifestyle and product photographs showing Heather’s newly finished kitchen and the SMEG appliances within it.

But what interested me most was that SMEG were very clear that they did not want the photography to feel overly staged. The images needed to be bright and polished enough to sit comfortably within the SMEG brand, while still feeling like photographs of a real home that somebody actually lives in.

That balance suited the way I like to work. Rather than treating the kitchen as a showroom, the aim was to photograph the character of the space and the details that made it Heather’s, while making sure the SMEG appliances remained an important part of each composition.

And there was certainly plenty of character to work with.

A Beautiful Leeds Location

Heather’s kitchen sits within a stunning North Leeds home dating back to the 1870s, and the finished space combines that sense of heritage with a much more contemporary design.

There is a lovely mix of oak, warm colours, texture and planting throughout the room, alongside cream cabinetry and distinctive storm blue details. In the finished SMEG feature, Heather explains that the colour palette was partly inspired by a treasured painting of New York given to her more than 20 years ago. The painting featured the muted pink and brown tones used on the walls, deeper shades that inspired the pantry, creamy yellow highlights reflected in the tiles and windows, a rich red accent colour and the most beautiful stormy blue, which perfectly matches the kettle and coffee machine.

For me, those details were important photographically too. They gave me plenty of opportunities to create images which showed the appliances as part of a much wider space rather than simply photographing each product in isolation.

Creating A Lifestyle Image Library

The shoot brief asked for a relatively varied set of images.

Alongside wider photographs establishing the kitchen as a whole, the brief called for individual appliance hero images, closer details of finishes and controls, different viewpoints around the room and photographs of Heather herself within the space. We also needed a mixture of landscape and portrait compositions so the photographs could work across editorial features, websites and social media.

I worked predominantly with the natural light already coming into the kitchen, using the layout, furniture and existing styling to build a collection that felt consistent without every frame feeling like a variation of the same photograph.

It’s one of the things I enjoy about editorial photography assignments like this. You’re not simply photographing a space or a collection of products, you’re creating images that help tell a story. In this case, that meant producing a varied collection of photographs that SMEG could use to illustrate Heather’s story while also providing a useful library of images for their wider marketing.

Seeing The Images In Their Final Home

It is always good to see where photographs ultimately end up, and the finished At Home With SMEG feature is now live on the SMEG UK website.

The article tells Heather’s story in much more detail, from the inspiration behind the kitchen through to some of her favourite appliances and the lessons she learned during the renovation. My photographs run throughout the piece, illustrating both the wider space and many of those individual details.

SMEG were also kind enough to send some lovely feedback after receiving the finished gallery:

“Thank you very much for your time with this. The photos look amazing. The kitchen has such a lovely look & feel to it.”

Lucy – SMEG UK

For a shoot like this, that second sentence was particularly nice to hear. The kitchen genuinely did have a lovely atmosphere, and I was pleased that the photographs managed to capture it.

You can see the finished At Home With SMEG feature on the SMEG UK website.