Tucked behind the elegant south-facing terrace of The Dower House (as seen in our November issue), past the clipped lawns and topiary, lies another world entirely. If the main property that comprises The Dower House is art director Sean Joo’s stage for bold interiors and Mediterranean infused glamour, then the property’s outbuildings and gardens reveal his quieter side: a place of play, of experimentation and of patient creativity.

What might once have been dismissed as extras – a small guest cottage, a greenhouse, a tumbledown outbuilding and overgrown garden plots – have, under Sean’s creative hand, become something altogether different: a tranquil guest retreat, a fun and buzzy Wimbledon-inspired clubhouse and gym and a flourishing and productive greenhouse, with a series of gardens that echo both Sissinghurst and Provence. Together they complete the story of the latest chapter of The Dower House, proving that this is not only a place to live in but a place to grow.

When Sean and his partner first arrived in North Kent, the little two-bedroom cottage tucked into the grounds of the main house was, in his words, “a little plain and needed some refreshing”. Once a practical overflow for the main estate, it bore all the hallmarks of a space used only ‘when necessary’. The kitchen was tired, the fireplaces unused, the décor dated. However, rather than gutting the space entirely, Sean took a more considered approach. “We upcycled,” he explains. “When we redid the main house’s kitchen, we took some of the fittings and simply mirrored them in the guest cottage, giving them a new lease of life.

The taps, the basin, even the cabinetry were all re-finished with new hardware and repainted.” Through Sean’s sense of sustainability, although the cottage is a separate dwelling, it still speaks with the same design language as the main house.
Inside, the atmosphere is deliberately more relaxed, yet unmistakably Sean. Pops of his signature orange and blue reappear in the kitchen-diner, with bright orange chairs which lead up to the staircase to a print of a woman on horseback – a piece of art that Sean transformed. “It was originally just a print,” he says, “but I covered it with gesso and worked over it with a palette knife, so it has the texture of a real painting. I love tricking the eye like that.”

The sitting room next door, also on the ground floor, continues the colour scheme, its soft furnishings carrying whispers of Sean’s former New York apartment in the Jonathan Adler soft furnishings. Vintage style travel posters nod to Sean and his partner’s love of global adventure. Equestrian touches give the space a playful theme, while a window looks onto what Sean calls the “White Garden”, a tranquil view for guests seeking a moment of retreat during weekend sojourns to the couple’s fabulous Kentish country home.

Upstairs, the cottage bedrooms carry the same mix of comfort and character. One, with its velvet mustard gold bedstead, electric blue accents, and paired bevel-edged mirrors and wall lights, nods to a sense of Parisian chic which is continued in witty touches such as the wall posters and the Parisian themed bed cushion. The second room, which Sean has designed with twin beds and a whimsical faux-zebra print rug, is designed with children in mind: “It’s a little whimsical, a little bit of fun,” Sean smiles.

As in the main house, antiques – a wooden wishbone chair here, a Victorian or Georgian chest of drawers there – keep the scheme grounded and referencing the house’s very English, very aristocratic past.
A short walk from the house stands another recent reinvention. What was once a dilapidated and ivy-covered outbuilding has become the couple’s clubhouse – part gym, part retreat, and a nod to the tennis court that Sean hopes to build over the next few years.

“We wanted a space that looked forward to the idea of the courts,” Sean explains. “So we restored the building and painted the walls in a bright lime green and juxtaposed a yellow, all inspired by a silk Wimbledon scarf I’d framed last year.” Cutting edge Technogym equipment gleams against the lemon-yellow rubber flooring, its colour branding echoing the yellow painted wooden beams overhead.

A large TV, wire-framed Deco tables from The Conran Shop and thick sheepskin rugs soften the utilitarian edge, creating a space that feels both functional and yet welcoming. Traditional style metal gym lockers line one wall, a fridge holds cold drinks. “It’s practical, but it’s also playful,” Sean says. “Eventually, yes, we’d love to put in a tennis court. For now, it’s our gym, our hideaway and a bit of fun.”

Yet another of the house’s outbuildings has also seen an uptick in recent activity. A large glazed greenhouse is now proving to be an exciting new chapter of creativity for the artist. Generously proportioned, what might have once felt daunting to those unused to gardening and from a city background, for Sean it has become the latest string to his creative bow.

“Here in the garden, I can unleash the same creativity as I have done in the house,” he says smiling broadly. Propagation benches now brim with tender plants; rows of tomatoes share space with marigolds and herbs. In autumn, trays of hardy annuals are prepared, ready for spring planting. “When we first moved here, I never imagined I’d become a gardener,” Sean admits. “But once you live with land, it changes you.

You either engage with it, or you ignore it and I wanted to engage.” For Sean, the greenhouse is a new kind of artist studio, a space where horticulture meets design. Plants are arranged as much for their form and colour as their productivity, and the work here feeds directly into the gardens outside.

Step outside the greenhouse, and the impressive gardens unfurl in a series of chapters, each with its own mood and rhythm. When Sean arrived, much of it was overgrown, the bones that had been created by the first owner, Lord Chilston and his wife, still visible but hidden. “The skeleton was there,” Sean recalls. “We just had to bring it back to life.”
Closest to the cottage lies the White Garden, inspired by the famous planting at Sissinghurst. Here, hydrangeas, peonies and roses all bloom around the year in shades of ivory and cream, while standard bay trees add constant structure. “It’s a secret garden,” Sean says, “enclosed, calm, with bees and butterflies drifting through.” From here, paths lead outward. To one side is the Mulberry Garden, anchored by an ancient tree and bordered with lavender, fruit cages and kitchen beds.

Another path takes you to the lake, complete with its small island. Nearer the main house, colour returns: a terrace planted in hot shades of red, yellow and orange, echoing the striped awnings and Mediterranean furnishings.
Perhaps the boldest project is the new front garden, currently in progress and accessed by a pair of vibrant orange doors. “I wanted it to feel like you are walking into Van Gogh’s The Starry Night,” Sean reveals. “So, we’re planting mostly blues, with flashes of yellow and white, arranged in swirls for movement. It’s going to feel alive, almost painted onto the land.” It is this creative layering and painterly approach to his design, one garden leading to another, each distinct yet a part of a whole, that gives The Dower House grounds their character. “It’s about separation and surprise,” Sean explains. “You step through the gates, and suddenly you’re in a different world.”

For all its elegance, there is nothing contrived here. The cottage, the greenhouse, the clubhouse, the gardens: each tells a story of reuse, of evolution, of living with the land. Even shopping, Sean admits, has changed. “In New York and in London it was all fashion and going out. Now it’s all about furniture, antiques and lots of garden plants! We love going to high end interiors shops like Restoration Hardware now housed in the stately home, Aynhoe Park off the M40, but we do also haunt outlet stores, we find bargains and we build rooms around them. The house and garden have become our world.”
It is a world that Sean is now hoping to start to share. With The Dower House and its grounds, Sean hopes to host small events and photo shoots, and one day he aims to open the gardens through the National Garden Scheme. “I’d love people to see what we’ve been creating,” he says. “It’s been years of work, but it feels like something worth sharing.” On summer afternoons, with the scent of lavender rising from the Mulberry Garden and the awnings casting striped shadows across the terrace, The Dower House feels more like a Mediterranean estate than a Kentish retreat.

And yet, step into the White Garden, where wisteria and jasmine climb the old walls, and you are firmly back in the heart of the garden of England. That is the magic here: the ability to hold many worlds at once. A cottage that feels both playful and serene. A greenhouse that doubles as a laboratory. A clubhouse painted Wimbledon-ready. Gardens that wander from Provence via Sissinghurst to a Van Gogh fantasy. For Sean Joo, artist, designer and now gardener, it is all part of the same vision: a home and a landscape to live in, to dream in, and to now share with us all.