Can you spot the fashion influences that shaped this Peckham home?

Peckham, according to Jill Macnair (and Del Boy), is where people come to do their ‘big idea’. A place of artists, creatives and young chefs opening their first restaurants, as well as the area with the biggest Nigerian population in the UK, it’s where the interior designer’s studio is based. And, since 2020, it has also been where she calls home, along with her husband Neil, their two children, aged 15 and 12, and Jimmy the cat.

After living in Victorian townhouses, the family hankered after the spacious proportions of a Georgian villa. They found what they were looking for in a quiet conservation area near Rye Lane.

‘We bought it knowing we wanted to renovate. The space was nice, just not in our taste,’ she recalls. ‘It wasn’t really fit for purpose – in my fussy opinion! It was shabby, not shabby-chic, but it had gorgeous bones.’

Jill spent a year working out how to reconfigure rooms, but needed an architect to help her execute her vision. She turned to Instagram, where she found Architecture for London. Led by the Passivhaus designer Ben Ridley, the award-winning firm is known for creating buildings that meet the highest sustainability standards.

‘Superficially, the house was in a reasonable state. However, the thermal performance was poor, with ill-fitting sash windows and broken panes leaking heat,’ says Ben. The solution was a complete renovation, improving the property’s energy efficiency while working within the limitations of its Grade II-listed status.

Key to this home’s refresh is the joinery, all designed by Jill; she chose materials for their natural beauty, including reddish sapele for the study bookcase, douglas fir in the bedrooms and crosscut oak-faced plywood in the kitchen.

While she loves the Huguenot buildings of Spitalfields and Brick Lane, Jill knew her home ‘needed a nod to the Georgian feel, but a little more modern’. She also happily admits to an obsession with Piero Portaluppi’s Villa Necchi Campiglio – ‘like everyone else in the design industry!’

Treasured pieces, such as her black-lacquer cabinet by Jasper Morrison for Cappellini, were other reference points: ‘It’s a bit bling, but with clean lines so it’s not ostentatious. Things like that are emblematic of my style.’

‘I’m trying to keep it fairly calm,’ she says of the palette, which includes colours taken from her favourite fashion and art references: the green study was inspired by a Gucci ad, while the living room’s creamy shade (don’t call it magnolia) speaks to her fondness for Molly Goddard’s frothy dresses.

The warm, rosy hue of the kitchen – Jill and Ben’s favourite space – came from a Perfumer H campaign. ‘That colour is amazing to live with,’ she says, also noting the ‘stunning but expensive’ fireplace tiles by Konstantin Grcic for Mutina. ‘A small amount of something really beautiful!’

These details define Jill’s philosophy: a nuanced reflection of the places, people and things that inspire her, with space to grow. ‘I know others will look at my living room and think, “It’s a blank canvas,” but I quite like that,’ she says, smiling. ‘It’s a nice way for me to live, a work in progress.’ architectureforlondon.com; jillmacnair.com