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Interior Designer: Jillian Dinkel
Construction Company: Venari Projects
Photographer Credit: Dave Wheeler

Jillian Dinkel has transformed Kilmory House into a bold reinterpretation of Australia’s Arts and Crafts heritage, creating a residence that fuses historic integrity with a fearless contemporary spirit. Conceived as a secondary home for clients living nearby, the project was anything but secondary in ambition. The brief called for drama, immersion, and a complete reimagining of the home as an entertainer’s haven for art, wellness, and lifestyle-driven design.

Jillian Dinkel reconfigured the traditional floor plan, replacing surplus bedrooms with purpose-built spaces including a serene art studio, a spa-like wellness retreat, and a moody rumpus room for social gatherings. Throughout, velvet-clad furniture, sculptural lighting, artisanal tiles, and jewel-toned finishes infuse the interiors with layered richness, while natural stone, solid timber, and hand-applied finishes honour the home’s early twentieth-century character.

One of the project’s most memorable spaces is the powder room, which distills Kilmory House’s design ethos into a single, immersive experience. Here, a dramatic marble floor, solid timber wall panelling, and hand-painted deGournay wallpaper create a balance between architectural weight and painterly softness. At its centre sits a custom-aged brass vanity encasing a honed marble basin, an object both sculptural and opulent.

Jillian Dinkel worked closely with artisans to realise the vision, from specialist joiners crafting curved wall panelling to stonemasons shaping oversized marble slabs, and metalworkers fabricating bespoke hardware. Even technical elements, such as the 400-bottle wine cellar with biometric security, were integrated with the same attention to design detail.

The result is a home that embraces its Arts and Crafts bones while confidently looking forward. Kilmory House proves that heritage need not constrain innovation, instead offering a platform for imaginative design that is as emotionally resonant as it is liveable.