Jo Howell Designs is a company designing, hand finishing, and fitting bespoke soft furnishings that transform a house into an exceptional home, from London townhouses to Norwegian new builds and cozy cottages.
We have handmade soft furnishings and curtains for projects in Corfu, New York, Paris, Norway, and Geneva, and regularly works in London and around the south of England.
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Scroll through for close-ups of creations from
Jo Howell Designs.
Projects
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Jo Howell Designs works with a number of designers across the south of England and are also available to work directly and advise on your project.
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Working on homes and hotels, old and new,
Jo Howell Designs can help find and make the perfect soft furnishings for your space.
We collaborate with various designers and craftspeople, including:
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Tillys Interiors, Waterlooville
IHF Interiors, Izzy Hamilton-Fairely
Studio 73, Lisa Holliday and Georgina Magowan
Stilwell Interiors - Lucy Orchard​
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The Team
FROM LEFT:
Jo Smith, Founder
Graham Smith, Fitter
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Peta Shepherd
Project Manager
Snowie Modaberri
Head Seamstress and
Project Coordinator
Sophie McKinnon
Head Seamstress
Martin Boxall
Fitter
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We follow and respond to changes in interior design trends and movements.
Hampshire-based Bespoke Soft Furnishing and Curtain Makers
Jo Howell Designs brings ...
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Skills to create a space that reflects you
Design with feeling and personality
High-quality finish creating joy and energy in your home
Contact
Contact Peta by email or phone about potential projects.
We offer a complimentary measuring service and project consultation.
Phone:
07970469005
Address:
Sycamores, Plantation Road, Liss, Hampshire, GU33 7QB
VAT Registration No:
461 5765 33
The history of ...
At the age of 34, Jo was newly divorced and living in London, already silver-haired but rocking the look, and on the search for work.
The Job Centre told her if she had any hope of finding a secretarial job she needed to dye her hair and lie about her age. To which she thought, “Oh, no thank you. I’m not faking anything when I’m only 34,” and she set her creative mind to work.
After some time sewing for The Ski Shop in Notting Hill Gate, altering salopettes and sportswear, she was recommended to other Londoners for a variety of sewing projects and would soon meet P M Dyson, a feisty London-based interior designer.
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Dyson was a source of direction and encouragement in Jo’s early career. As one of the few designers that actually knew how to make curtains, she somewhat guided Jo over their 15 years working together until Dyson’s sudden decline.
After two years of word-of-mouth success, secretarial work was safely in the past. Jo could breathe a sigh of relief.
Many barriers lay ahead (comments when buying her first drill on Ken High Street, local builders patronising her about whether she could handle the tools in her bag, and the usual freelancer fears of when the next job would come in) but she had made it.
“Not having to depend on anyone else financially was a real highlight. Jo Howell Designs just took on a life of its own – I remember sitting on a Friday night and thinking, I don't know what I’m going to do on Monday morning. Then Monday morning would come, the phone would ring, and off I’d go.”
Jo’s family became and continues to be the beating heart of the business, which grows and grows without ever advertising, existing solely on reputation and recommendation.
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Jo’s legacy is a stream of outstanding homes, wedding and bridesmaids dresses for prestigious politicians, and restoration projects for soon-to-be-lost upholstery, antique quilts and crewelwork (a Jacobean form of embroidery), “Painstaking but amazing work.”
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For the past ten years, Jo's daughters have taken over the business, with Peta navigating projects and designer collaborations, and Snowie and Sophie creating Jo Howell Designs' bespoke masterpieces.
Jo continues to apply her wealth of knowledge and skills in a more relaxed capacity.
