Well-Connected Queen Of Interiors Jane Churchill On Inspirational Family Women Who Shaped Her Design For Life

The living room of Lady Charles Spencer-Churchill – better known as interior designer Jane Churchill – is just what you’d expect in an elegant Chelsea home from someone famed for her classic English style. Traditional but with a modern twist, there are comfy sofas, light, lime-washed walls, gilt-framed pictures and lots of table lamps – she has, she says, a light fetish.

The living room of Lady Charles Spencer-Churchill – better known as interior designer Jane Churchill – is just what you’d expect in an elegant Chelsea home from someone famed for her classic English style. Traditional but with a modern twist, there are comfy sofas, light, lime-washed walls, gilt-framed pictures and lots of table lamps – she has, she says, a light fetish.

She likes to think of her home, which she moved to from Belgravia five years ago, as welcoming. “It doesn’t have that: ‘Where should I sit?’ sort of feeling,” she says, settling into a sofa. “It’s homely.”

From city townhouses to country homes and restaurants, Jane has designed countless interiors at home and overseas including Australia, the US, St Barts and Russia. Once married to Lord Charles Spencer-Churchill, the 10th Duke of Marlborough’s younger son, with whom she had three sons, she is spectacularly well connected – the Duchess of Cornwall is one of her oldest and closest friends. But she’s not one to gossip. She won’t even divulge her client list. “I am discreet, which is extremely important,” she says.

Most are attracted by her experience; she opened her first shop on Pimlico Road in London aged just 22 – “I’m the oldest bag in the street” – and can “walk into a house and see where a room should be”.

“One thing I do is comfort. And lighting. I can’t bear tiny lamps or short curtains. I think people can have really uncomfortable bathrooms – they’re too modern or utilitarian.” And don’t get her started on swimming pools. “I never understand the point of them. Nobody uses them. Of course I’d never say that to clients – they can have what they want, they’re not employing a headmistress. Nobody wants to be bossed about.”