As the daughter of builders, cabaret performer Ali McGregor, has been interested in house design since she was a child.

No wonder the Modscape modular home she shares with her husband, comedian Adam Hills, and daughters Bebe, 5, and Maisie, 2, had to fill her detailed brief.

She wanted her Yarraville house to be on one floor with not too much space (“I would just fill it with crap if it was too big”) and with a Robin Boyd-esque influence whereby the main rooms led out to a central courtyard.

The interiors are largely retro because “when I was three, my parents and I went around Europe for a year, bringing back Marimekko linen and Scandinavian design that’s really stayed with me”.

Very little inside has been bought new; Ali is an avid finder of treasures and almost everything in her home has come from auctions, junk shops and eBay. “Everything has a bit of a story.”

Ali’s favourite things

CHAIR

I found the chair at auction, thinking it was a repro mid-century chair. I thought I’d put in an absentee bid for $240.

Then when I brought it home, I found the original Hans Wegner marking on the bottom.

LAMP

This was owned by Hungarian family friends; it’s got a big crack in the side that I made when I was three.

I was at their house a year ago and saying how beautiful it was, and she said, ‘You need to have it because you broke it!’ I like the idea that maybe I had that forethought at three.

ROCKING HORSE

My dad made rocking horses and sold them at Georges.

I used to watch him make them in the front room while I’d sit there and draw, so they have huge memories for me.

PAINTING

This is by Mitjili Napurrula. I love Aboriginal art but I don’t see much that has these colours.

It was a wedding gift from mum and dad to us and, funnily enough, it’s got that kind of Scando organic design look too.

TOP HAT

Impresarios who ran music halls used to sit at the side of the stage with a top hat on and bang their gavel if they didn’t enjoy the act.

I wanted to try to recreate some of that with this beaver-skin hat I found at Spitalfields market in East London. The hat case sits on stage with me as well.

BOX

My dad probably found this in a junk shop or at auction, and put these little brass letters on.

I put treasures in it, like a little walnut snuff box and other things from my [late] father.

Ali McGregor will perform at Eat Street at Sofitel Melbourne on Collins in support of Variety the Children’s Charity, on May 24.