Jermaine Gallacher is standing in his office above Borough High Street, a crumpled packet of Camel Blues poking defiantly out the top of his shirt pocket. The walls – painted in ‘Madeleines’ by Francesca’s Paints – cast a rosy glow on the interior impresario’s features. It’s almost womblike – fitting for a room that has become Jermaine’s place to gestate, to nurture his ideas into off-the-wall existence.
Before he moved in here, Jermaine’s showroom, which was of Lant Street Wines’ shop, acted as his office. He’s kept it on, but not to work in full-time. “I was helping unload bottles too often – and drinking too many of them! I needed to crack on!” he laughs. In the six months he’s been here, a former lawyer’s chambers, that’s exactly what he’s done, taking on more interiors projects than ever alongside his product design (his ‘Zig Zag’ tables and candlesticks sell at Matches). Readers might be familiar with one of his recent projects: another lawyer’s offices, coincidentally, which received much attention for their somewhat unlawyerly glamour. He has some big things in the pipeline too, though it’s early days, so “mum’s the word.”
Those chambers were, after Jermaine got his hands on them, all plush purple carpets, tiger stripes and silver walls: 1970s sexy sleaze meets the space age. His own studio, however, is somewhat calmer (if paint-spattered blinds and pink-gloss window frames can ever be described thus). When he got here, the room was completely white and sterile, with grubby laminate underfoot. “I couldn’t deal with that,” Jermaine says. “I turned to Jocasta Innes, whose Paint Magic is just the best book for decorative techniques. That’s where I got the idea to comb the floor.” It’s black, acid yellow and rather brilliant.
