Inside Jeweler Monica Vinader’s 12th-Century English Home

Jewelry designer Monica Vinader has lived in her home in northern Norfolk, England, for 19 years now. When she first bought it, she spent a year completely restoring it with the help of her husband, Nick Zoll.

For Vinader though, the house was a passion project. With a mother who used to sell antiques in Spain, plus a husband who comes from a long line of architects, it’s an understatement to say the designer is firmly steeped in interiors and has a penchant for design from the past. Even her jewelry—slim, linear bracelets and pendants covered in elegant pavé diamonds—is frequently created using a 18th-century French technique called vermeil, which involves plating gold on sterling silver.

“It’s a house that’s part 12th century, part 15th century, and it goes up to the 19th century,” Vinader says. “It’s a hodgepodge of periods.” Restoring it from scratch meant doing everything from building bathrooms to installing fireplaces in the old manor. “The pond in the back of the house was original to the 12th century,” she notes. “They would have used that to feed the village around it.” While the main body of the house is from the 12th century, Vinader explains that the annex and forge were extensions added later on.

Because of certain laws in England, Vinader couldn’t make changes to the exterior of the house. She could only restore it to the original. “We had to change every window to its original state. We had to restore the incredible cobblestones. We managed to maintain the features inside. We tried to keep everything, much as we could,” she says of the exhaustive project.

The jewelry designer found more freedom when she got started on the interior design. Think: custom-mixed baby blue brick walls in her daughter’s bedroom, a library with stunning turquoise walls plus a bookshelf full of seashells, a kitchen with antique wooden cabinets from Spain, and plenty of mid-century furniture she’s collected over the years.

“I think some of the things that I value about jewelry, I really value about interior design, too,” says Vinader. “I like to go with something that has a real materiality to it. I love intrinsic quality,” she says, referring to one of her favorite vintage tables, sitting in her personal study, which is made of solid wood with steel legs.

At the end of the day, however, form follows function. “Our house is constantly people coming, going, children, friends,” she laughs. “Our house is mad. If my daughter and my dog jump on the sofa, they jump on the sofa. It’s there to be used.”