Interiors: Sue Stowell’s home is a paradise of inspiration for a range of all-natural pampering products

SUE Stowell had been working as an interior designer for more than 20 years when she decided she wanted to take a new direction.

And when work took her to Thailand, the trip provided the inspiration for an alternative career. Having always had a love of organic products, Sue was inspired to start her own organic beauty range and package it beautifully too. In 2005 she set up Willow Beauty from her home, a stunning Georgian mansion in Hampshire.

It is certainly a departure from her days as an interior designer, when she worked on a number of London properties, including redesigning the former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s new build home in Dulwich.

“It was interesting to see what she wanted to have in her home, although I just did the basics: the walls and the curtains. I used a lot of Designer’s Guild stuff, and also Osborne and Little,” says Sue.

“It was a brand new house as she didn’t want to have any history at all. I did it before she brought in her furniture, but it looked very organised,” she adds.

Sue has lived at her home in Lymington for more than 20 years and first moved here with her partner, John Leach, when, with five children between them, they needed to find a home big enough.

Sue’s children from her previous marriage now help in the business. Jamie, 31, Bonnie, 27, and Tammie, 25, all play key roles in running the company.

One of the reasons Sue started her company was down to her determination to use organic products. “So many claimed to have 100 per cent organic oils, but when you looked at the ingredients they only had, say, three per cent oils and the rest was made of synthetic materials. Many had cheap plastic packaging. It wasn’t easy to find manufacturers who were able to make organic products because preservation can be tricky – in fact it was far more complex than I had imagined. We had to use different companies to make the fragrance and the final products. The bottle manufacturers we wanted had a minimum order of 10,000 units and the pumps to fit these bottles were only sold in lots of 15,000. The labels and ribbons were made by yet more companies, and the European legislation was a nightmare. But we got there eventually and started selling at charity fairs to raise brand awareness and create a database.”

The range has grown in popularity and now has a number of celebrity fans including Emilia Fox, Katherine Jenkins, Sienna Miller and Countess Carnarvon, whose home is where Downton Abbey was filmed.

Sue’s house is steeped in history. “The first documentation is that an auction was held here in 1774,” she says. “The central section of the house is the earliest. Then a west wing was added in 1840 and an east wing in 1920. We found out that the adjoining salt marshes have been used for salt production since Roman times and it is assumed that there has always been a dwelling on this site since then,” she explains.

“The gardens in their present form were created between 1910 and 1916, and the huge rocks in the rockeries were brought from Scotland by train, and then horse and cart from the local station,” she says.

When the couple bought it in 1991 it was in a very rundown state. “Because of this we managed to get it at a great price, but we needed to do a lot of work. Some of the rooms upstairs are still unfinished, and we have been here nearly 20 years now,” Sue laughs. “It certainly is a work in progress.”

The house has seven bedrooms, two spare rooms and a cottage at the end of the driveway where Sue’s mother lives. One of Sue’s favourite rooms is the library, where more than 1,000 books vie for space on the shelves. Although the walls look like wood, they are in fact covered in wallpaper.

Sue’s bedroom, which looks on to the surrounding 30 acres of woodland, is another favourite. She has a large cream bed that was specially made by a local carpenter, teamed with a stunning black and gold Chinese lacquered screen dating from 1770 which was bought at an antique store.

The kitchen is not finished yet but currently has a deep blue Aga in place, while bunches of dried lavender hang from the pulley. Her passion for living organically extends to her walled garden where the couple grow all their own vegetables and keep free-range chickens.

Sue loves to relax in the dining room, which is painted a deep green. “It was this colour when we bought the house, we loved it, and when we had to redecorate, took a chip to a paint shop and they scanned it and recreated the colour for us,” she explains.

“It is very warm and relaxing in the evenings with the gold curtains, especially when the room is lit with candles. The cornicing in the house is all original and where it had been damaged we had a specialist firm take moulds and recreate it.”

One of the guest bedrooms appears to have a majestic-looking four-poster bed. “It is just the canopy at the top and back curtains are hung from the ceiling by marine wire,” Sue explains. “There isn’t a frame as such and we bought the bed from the heirs of the previous owner, Lord Lurgan.”

As Sue approaches the second anniversary of her King’s Road shop, she is looking forward to developing more organic ranges for the company named after her favourite tree – the willow – and to continue to be inspired working from home.

• Willow, 340 Kings Road, London SW3 5UR (01590 670483, www.willowbeautyproducts.co.uk)

What is your favourite perfume? Other than Willow’s Jasmine & Geranium, it is ‘O’ de Lancôme.

What was the last movie you enjoyed? The King’s Speech.

What is your favourite book? Wild Swans by Jung Chang.

Who is your favourite artist? Giotto.

What is your favourite drink? A Margarita, with salt.

What do you love most about your home? The beautiful Georgian windows, most of which still have the original, slightly blurry glass.

If you could change anything to your home, what would it be? I’d like to have a south-facing kitchen.