Cultivating a Life of Slow Living with Lou Archell

When Lou Archell, known as @littlegreenshed to her long-cultivated legions of followers, began documenting her young family’s embrace of the slow, considered life in a blog, she was at the vanguard of what would become a movement - back in 2010, there were no such thing as influencers; just people like Lou, who wanted to share with an organic audience the joys of stripping back, deferring to nature, and recording days with her children for posterity.

‘Our boys were very small then – three and two – and it was our first proper go at gardening and growing our own,’ she recalls. ‘The plot, on the outskirts of Bristol, came with a dilapidated shed, which we painted a lovely pale green, and so the name of the blog was born. As the years went by, it evolved from growing vegetables to raising our kids to days out to the lifestyle brand it has grown into today. We sadly no longer have the allotment, but we do still love to garden and grow a little produce in our small yard at home’.

Her followers have stuck close, following her trajectory as the boys have grown and the Bedminster home they have lived in for 18 years has evolved, all while remaining steadfastly true to the slow living movement – even if she sometimes jokes that renovations have been slower than even she’d have liked. 

‘Eighteen years later, we are still redecorating – much to my despair! When we viewed the house, the living room was an aviary with lots of small birds in large cages. The bathroom was downstairs, and the kitchen didn’t have a single drawer. The hallway and stairs were painted in purple gloss paint. It was a horror show. We’ve slowly stripped away and have turned it into a functional family home with a mix of old and new pieces – I live in the city, but yearn to live in the country, so my style is currently reflecting that. But the trouble with living somewhere so long, you are constantly going around and around redecorating,’ she says.

Going over old ground might be a hazard of the forever home but, on the plus side, the naturally carved out rhythms that emerge when one lives in a place for a long time are the stuff upon which rituals are built.

‘Our summer rituals chiefly involve eating outside as much as possible. Even if we are having something really boring for tea, I try to make it a special event with a tablecloth and candles. When I make an effort like that, the kids want to linger and chat, rather than dash back upstairs to their rooms and gaming.

Lou has form when it comes to dining under the stars, having been a sometime host of the Sisterhood Camps. What she’s learnt, she says, is that laying a good table is all in the lovingly attended detail. 

‘I have a love for drama and simplicity when it comes to table settings,’ she explains. ‘Always a tablecloth, it adds an elegance, even outdoors. I love rattan details, so I always use placemats. I collect plates and glasses from everywhere I travel, and I love to use mismatched crockery and glasses on my table. It adds an air of casual dining, and it always sparks conversation. Flowers are a must – I tend to use what I have in the garden most of the time. If not, then something seasonal from the hedgerows, like cow parsley or oxeye daisies.’

This summer, she has layered in a few new additions to her own garden tableau in the form of Rowen and Wren’s scalloped-edged Eden Pot, which now sits prettily atop her new set of Ludlow table and chairs.

Eden Terracotta Pot, Ludlow Garden Table and Ludlow Garden Chair featured

‘I could go through Rowen & Wren’s entire product list and want it all to be honest,’ she enthuses. ‘I’ve wanted the Eden Pot for a number of years now, and when my mum gave me some cuttings of her geranium, I knew it had to go in a special pot. They are a match made in heaven. The Ludlow table and chairs are perfect for my small backyard. They straddle country-meets-city style so well, and what I also love is that the chairs fold up. We have limited space, so if something packs away, it’s a big bonus. They are so elegant and have elevated my space immensely.’

With the passing of summers to come, stories and memories will inevitably confer themselves upon these new pieces and, with luck, see them enter the pantheon of cherished items that Lou has amassed over a lifetime.

‘I love anything thrifted,’ she says. ‘I think they add so much character to the home. A bargain Facebook Marketplace find is really the best. My partner Dan has a workshop where he restores furniture and mirrors and sells them on, so we have a constant stream of lovely things coming through the house. The small marble top table in my living room is a favourite piece. We bought it from a lady in Bath for £30. It was covered in pale grey chipped paint. Dan stripped it back and bought the wood back to life and changed the handles to small brass knobs. It’s beautiful.’

Eden Terracotta Pot featured left.

Another of Lou’s favourite pieces is a small bronze sculpture by local artist Carol Peace of a couple hugging that Dan gave her one Christmas. ‘It is so beautiful and I will cherish it always,’ she says. Meanwhile, she is slowly amassing a collection of Delft tiles (‘I don’t think they are traditional Dutch tiles, but they are in the style of’), all of them waiting patiently for the day that she has enough to create a fireplace with them. 

For now, she intends to spend her summer with her boys in Bristol, which comes alive in summer. ‘They’ve both now finished their exams and school, so we can finally breathe out,’ she says. ‘Charlie is off to uni in September, so I want to make the most of him being here as much as possible.’ And that is the abiding point: the slow movement she has so long espoused has humanity at its heart – after all, what good is a perfectly laid table in the sun without those we hold dear to share it with?

Interview by Nancy Alsop.