My Ritual: How Fashion Presenter Louise Roe Built a Calmer, More Intentional Life – and What Changed Everything

Thanks to a career spanning the worlds of fashion magazines, the red carpet, and now running her own interiors brand, Louise is a true maven of style from wardrobe to home. So, what she doesn't know about upcoming design trends probably isn't worth knowing. From working for glossy fashion titles, such as Vogue, Glamour, and InStyle, Louise moved from the UK to Los Angeles in 2009 to work in front of the television camera on shows including MTV’s makeover show Plain Jane, and as a red-carpet correspondent at the Oscars, Golden Globes, and Emmys for NBC's Access Hollywood.

It was there that she met her husband, the TV director Mackenzie Hunkin, while working on shows like TLC's Style by Jury, before the couple decided to return to the UK in 2019. Now based in London with their two young daughters, the British designer Louise Roe has taken her great taste, honed while covering fashion’s front rows for more than a decade, and turned it into an elegant, timeless and nostalgic, yet modern homewares collection called Sharland England, named after her great grandmother, launched in late 2021.

From bamboo armchairs to rattan decorating ideas, like aperitivo side tables, to embroidered table linens and curvaceous terracotta jugs, Louise has drawn on historical references, childhood memories, and artisans using age-old techniques to create pieces with a sense of relaxed luxury and classic timelessness.

Here, she shares how she stays grounded and calm, juggling the busy life of a self-funded entrepreneur, wife and mother.

Homes & Gardens: What Does Home Mean to You?

Louise Roe: My style is very much informed by having grown up in the English countryside, where our home was filled with antique chintz, rattan, cane and antique wooden furniture. I have tried to bring the same warmth, tradition and nostalgia evoked by those pieces into my own home. Pieces aged with time, upholstered ottomans in classic ticking stripes, and shelves lined with books (their spines creased from being read to death), bring depth, character and soul to a room. So do colours derived from nature, like the Edward Bulmer shade of reddish-brown Sang de Boeuf that’s on our living room walls – it's also where my desk is – that makes me feel enveloped in an elegant coziness. It makes home feel like somewhere I can shut the door and leave the craziness of the world behind.

Homes & Gardens: How Would You Describe Your Style at Home?

Louise Roe: We don't have an open-plan house, but you can see at least one other room from wherever you're standing, so the colours complement each other as you move around. Browns, different shades of green – from Farrow & Ball Lichen in the bedroom to a darker racing green in Mackenzie’s study – all colours that you see in nature, but were also used historically. If you live in an older house, it feels right when they go on the wall. I love wallpaper too, especially in bathrooms, because they're playful, like Veere Grenny's coral-inspired Folly for Schumacher (Wallpaper Warehouse) and Living Quarters’ pretty prints. I am a maximalist, and I err towards a layered look where I'm quite happy to have print next to print, next to print.

Homes & Gardens: What Inspired You to Start Sharland England?

Louise Roe: After we moved back to the UK, I wanted to shift gears in terms of doing something more creative but on a smaller scale, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what that was, so this was a wonderful project to focus on, especially during lockdown. The idea to make rattan furniture came to me like a bolt of lightning, inspired by my great grandmother, Marjorie Sharland, whose beautiful furniture, from rattan and cane chairs to beautifully patinaed desks, had surrounded me as a child.

Homes & Gardens: Why Were You Particularly Drawn to Designing With Rattan?

Louise Roe: Marjorie had lived in Buenos Aires, and my mother describes her as a very magnetic character with a beautiful home and a real flair for decorating and entertaining. Slowly the idea came together because I am obsessed with rattan as a material – it's timeless, charming and elegant but also informal and it is also very romantic. When I think of rattan, I think of the glamour of the 1920s Riviera, where I imagine writers like F Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway drank absinthe out of beautiful glasses while lying on a rattan lounger in someone's garden.

Homes & Gardens: Do You Have Any Rituals For Starting and Ending the Day?

Louise Roe: I start every morning early, enjoying a cup of tea at my desk before everyone else wakes up. It's quiet and I feel creatively productive at that time of day. In the evening, I keep a massage roller (like this one from Amazon) under the bed to stretch out and soothe all my muscles before going to sleep.

Homes & Gardens: How Do You Create a Sense of Calm During Your Day?

Louise Roe: To distinguish between the end of the working day and family time, I light a candle, put on some chilled jazz and pour a glass of wine. I have an essential oil that I'll put on my wrists, which I then breathe deeply in; I do four-two-four breathwork with the girls, too. My youngest calls it ‘slide’ breathing – she says ‘your breath goes up the slide and then waits at the top and then it goes down the slide again'. But then I think a glass of red wine also does the trick.

Homes & Gardens: What About Your Skincare and Selfcare Routine?

Louise Roe: Sheet masks and under-eye patches by 111Skin are brilliant – I put them on and then do something like watch a movie and forget about them. It has to be easy, otherwise I won’t do it. I add a spoonful of Wild Nutrition’s collagen powder to an ORS electrolyte drink (Amazon) – incredible for hydration – and I find magnesium in the evening very calming. I try not to overdo it on supplements, I’d rather eat oily fish, fresh vegetables and pulses to get the goodness that way and I do reformer Pilates for an hour once or twice a week.

Homes & Gardens: How Do You Juggle Being an Entrepreneur With the Demands of Family and Relationships?

Louise Roe: If I have a great morning, feeling like everything is in balance, I have to accept that by the afternoon it might all be falling apart, but that’s OK because that’s life. My first and forever priority is always family, so if things like my social life or working out fall off the radar, that's fine, too. I try to spend one-on-one time with the girls – even if it’s just grabbing a hot chocolate after school – and with my parents, too; I have breakfast with my Dad once a month, when we talk about absolutely everything; and go on special outings with my mum to concerts at the Royal Albert Hall or an exhibition. And if I’m lucky to grab a quick walk and a coffee with my friends, these are often more precious moments to me than going out with them for a big dinner somewhere fancy.

Homes & Gardens: What Makes You So Good at Taking Risks – From Moving to LA to Work in the Cut-Throat World of Television in Your Twenties to Starting Your Own Business in Your Forties?

Louise Roe: My dad is an entrepreneur, and I remember when I was only about eleven, he said I’d have my own business one day. I didn’t agree but he was right. I have that drive to work for myself, and while it's scary, I enjoy it. There's an adrenaline rush, where the highs are higher and the lows are probably lower, but I would never swap it.

Homes & Gardens: What Are Your Feelings About Ageing?

Louise Roe: I get such a buzz from my business – keeping my mind active and my body on as top form as possible is far more important to me than trying to look like I’m still 25. I now approach things like exercise not out of vanity but longevity – I want to be the most active granny I can be when that day eventually comes.

Homes & Gardens: Where Do You Look For Creative Inspiration?

Louise Roe: Something that helps me switch off and dream is reading through old, usually out-of-print interiors books. I hunt them down on Etsy, eBay, car boot sales. It’s great because I’m not looking at a screen and I’m also not looking at a picture I've seen on Pinterest or Instagram.

Homes & Gardens: Tell Us About Your Recent Collaboration With Crate & Barrel’s Crate & Kids?

Louise Roe: Sharland England for Crate & Kids launched in October, and I’ve designed everything from beds, drawers, and chairs to throws, rugs, and curtains. It was a real joy, partly inspired by a sweet little set of vintage Brambly Hedge children’s books (at Amazon) I found, which follow the lives of little mice who live inside trees, but with the most gorgeous interiors you’ve ever seen. It shares the same charm as the aesthetic and feeling I’ve tried to give Sharland England, and I wanted it to be of good quality, so that the pieces last. You could easily take the Crate & Kids Crosby desk with its faux bamboo legs from childhood to university.

Homes & Gardens: What is Your Biggest Luxury?

Louise Roe: It's time. If you gave me a day where I wasn't allowed to work, I'd probably spend a good chunk of it on my own going to a gallery or a National Trust house I haven't yet visited. To just mooch around without being rushed would be a true luxury to me.

Louise's Essentials For a Calm and Balanced Life

This interview is part of the My Ritual series from Homes & Gardens, which explores the ways that leading tastemakers find calm and connection in their busy lives. Part of our wellbeing and sanctuary content, you'll find plenty of tips and nuggets of wisdom as well as product recommendations to help you create your own daily wellness rituals, for a healthy body and calm mind.