In Conversation with Laura Butler-Madden, founder of GROVE England

It is a huge privileged to chat with Laura Butler-Madden, interior designer and now founder of GROVE England. She has the most incredible style and eye for design and it was her home in the Cotswolds that we were honoured to use as the backdrop for our Spring/Summer campaign. She is warm and welcoming and in the last year has founded the amazing GROVE England, a natural fine fragrance brand - her products are divine! We talk to her about her style aesthetic and creating a new brand. 

1. We hosted our Spring/Summer shoot in your stunning home, what inspires your beautiful aesthetic? How did you go about the renovation?

Thank you, I am so pleased that you love our home. We have been working on it for over three years now and are almost finished – still some bits in the garden to complete, but overall, we are done and so happy to be enjoying it fully at last. My inspiration always comes from nature – soft colours, natural textures are things I have used in my designs. I just get a vision and then start piecing it all together.

2. What makes a calming space?

I think the colour palette is important – nothing too jarring when mixing colours – I love soft naturals, but that does include dark colours as they can be very cocooning. Avoiding clutter is key – I love to give each piece of furniture and art proper space to breathe.

3. What do you enjoy about living in the Cotswolds? Where would you recommend visiting?

We love the Cotswolds – everything about it! Our surroundings are just stunning – the countryside, the villages are all beautiful. We also love the people and the proximity to London is great. I always pinch myself when I get off the train after a busy few days in the city – we literally pull up to a station with cows and sheep grazing next to it, yet it’s only an hour from central London.

4. This year you have also created a beautiful, fine fragrance brand GROVE England, please tell us a little more about it and why you have pivoted from interiors to products.

I have always been obsessed by nature and the beauty of the seasons. I have always used nature in my designs and decided to take this a step further in creating a natural fine fragrance brand to bring into the home. Our first collection, Anemone, launched late last year and has been so well received, I am so grateful. We started out developing a bath, body and home collection, but the scent was so heavenly we created an eau de parfum at the last minute. Interestingly that’s one of the best sellers, but it was the product I was most nervous about. I am loving working in a new area and dipping my toe into the beauty industry. We have some very exciting things in the pipeline and are in development now of the second scent collection, which is honestly delicious, I can’t wait to share.

5. How do you create the amazing scents for your GROVE products?

I have worked very closely with a talented British Master Perfumer – he is the nose behind some of the most well-known natural brands in the UK and we have had such a lovely time creating the fine fragrances for GROVE England together.

6. What is coming next for GROVE England?

Early next year we have something truly beautiful launching – our second scent collection and again it will be based on a flower that doesn’t have a natural scent to celebrate. That gives us such creativity to blend something truly memorable – it’s very unusual and I think people will love it!

7. Favourite Sian Esther PJs?!

I love them all! If I have to choose then this season it would be Blue Stripe Scallop PJ set – I just adore the colour and texture of these.

Discover more about GROVE England here