Living in the landscape

Interior designer Jill Macnair takes us on a tour of her Scottish Highlands home

If there were a window into my soul, I think the view would be a rain-soaked Scottish landscape. Not, I hope, because I have a relentlessly bleak nature. My dad plotted family holidays all over the small but majestic country I grew up in, and while I didn’t greatly appreciate his efforts at the time – the walks were a bit too long, the cycles often too uphill – the colours and scenes etched into my memory from those trips are the ones that still restore me today. They form the palette that now underpins the design of my holiday home on Loch Tay, Perthshire.

I’ve been a Londoner since 2001, but in 2018 my husband and I built this house to share the gift of spectacular dreich [an evocative Scottish word for dreary] summers with our two city-dwelling children, Rafer, 11, and Gilda, eight. The architecture is by my old school friend Kirsty Lees, who I have known since we were both four. She runs local practice Tektonika with her husband David McMillan, and together they devised a simple, long structure. The base is solid rock and the roof is clad in black zinc, while the huge windows between allow for the feeling of living within the view, with its ever-changing skies, stolid mountains and that stretch of loch, breathtaking in its stillness.

Kirsty selected the building materials for their ability to cope with extraordinary extremes of weather and I followed the same logic for the interior, using colour and texture to root the building in its setting, while also offering protection from it. This meant blending minimal details with cosy ones – concrete with the aggregate exposed, warm Douglas fir wood, handmade zellige or flattish-toned encaustic tiles, and woven fabrics. Everything is built on a palette of green, yellow, navy, pink and brown (the sludgy versions), allowing the rooms to bleed into the land they overlook.

I spend the majority of my time working in Peckham’s Bussey Building in southeast London, where we’re lucky to have lots of creatives on the doorstep. Thus, my kitchen was made by carpenters just outside my office, and the terrazzo floor tiles were sourced a few miles away in Bermondsey. Everything else, though, was made in Scotland. The kitchen worktop was poured on site and much of the custom carpentry was produced just an hour away in Perth. The result is an interior that feels like a life distilled, but also the beginning of a wondrous new chapter. jillmacnair.com; tektonika-architects.com

This home is featured in full in ELLE Decoration Country Volume 16. Our latest look at the world’s most beautiful homes in the country, it’s on sale from 1 April at WHSmith and selected newsagents. Buy back issues now at hearstmagazines.co.uk

EVERYTHING is built on a palette of green, yellow, navy, pink and brown, allowing the rooms to BLEED INTO the landscape they overlook

For the INTERIOR, I used colour and texture to ROOT the building in its setting, blending minimal MATERIALS with cosy ones

Living room The sofa was designed by homeowner Jill, made by Rory Middleton and upholstered in Kvadrat fabrics. The bespoke shelves are by Peckham-based Jacob Alexander and display curios, including a stag horn found on-site. The rug is from Emily’s House London, the paper shade by Isamu Noguchi for Vitra and brass ‘Spot On’ ceiling lights by Hans Verstuyft

Exterior Built using materials that can withstand the extreme weather conditions of the Scottish Highlands, the house also features impressive floor-to-ceiling windows that frame the views, which Jill can be seen enjoying, below

Hallway The ‘Calyx’ pendant by Atelier Areti hangs above a bespoke bench, upholstered in excess curtain fabric from Olicana. The floor tiles are from Diespeker & Co Dining room A table by Max Lamb for Benchmark is surrounded by vintage chairs from Societique, while ‘Splatterware’ pendants from Dyke & Dean hang above Kitchen/breakfast area Bespoke cabinetry by Jacob Alexander hides all storage and appliances, while a Dyke & Dean light illuminates the custom bench, Another Country dining table and ‘Arnold Circus’ stools by Martino Gamper at the end of the room. The splashback tiles are by Emery & Cie

Studio Curtain fabric by Anni Albers for Christopher Farr sets the tone, with a ‘Hanging Lamp No.1’ pendant by Muller Van Severen for Valerie Objects, ‘Mags’ sofa by Hay, Tom Dixon cushion and a blanket from Hoos in Glasgow. The rug is from Emily’s House London

Main bedroom A paper shade by Isamu Noguchi for Vitra hangs above the Heal’s bed, with Atelier Areti wall lights. The bedside table (above left) is ‘Sentrum’ by Woud and the mirror is from Reid & Wright Study area The desk is from Hübsch while the vintage string chair was found at nearby Aberfeldy Watermill Hallway Bought by Jill for her husband’s 40th, this one-off monochrome wallhanging from Rotate Editions is paired with a Larusi rug and cabinet from Retrouvius Bathroom The yellow tiles are from Johnson Tiles, while the basin is from Laufen, the tap from Hansgrohe, and the stool SCP

This page An antique chair in the corner of the main bedroom has been reupholstered in a Japanese fabric from Cloth House, while the curtains by Peter Neil Interiors feature a patchwork of Olicana fabrics Guest bedroom This Douglas fir platform bed with built-in storage was inspired by the work of Italian architect and designer Gae Aulenti. Vintage lights make a feature on walls painted in ‘Pigeon’ by Farrow & Ball See Stockists page for details