As if painting, acting and family aren't enough Seymour has delved into interior design. "I love picking out fabrics and colors, finding unusual things that inspire me,"she says.

In fact, when she first came to America to fulfill her career dreams, she was low on cash and purchased a small house in a desirable neighborhood in California, which she then fixed up, decorated and sold to make a profit. Seymour bought, decorated and sold a total of nine houses in those days. Now, several decades later, she opts to share that decorating passion with everyone. In 2001, in conjunction with the Saks Department Store Group, Seymour started her own product line, the Jane Seymour Home Collection.

The collections are reminiscent of the beauty that envelops her Malibu home or the heirloom qualities and colors of Seymour's English estate. Additionally, Seymour blends accents and colors from around the world. With excitement and animation, she talks about her inspiration

for the collections, pulling fabrics from a closet, urns from a shelf, a plate from a nearby table. One item is a beaded shawl she found in Africa when working with the Red Cross to help inoculate children for measles and other diseases. Another tapestry she purchased in Puerto Rico when she was filming Swiss Family Robinson

"I get my inspiration from all around me, from all parts of the world, because, honestly, this is what I'm about-difference, color," says Seymour. "If I see a color or a pattern that calls to me, I have to bring it home with me. I surround myself with bits of this and that."

According to Seymour, what drives her in all she does is the creative process. "It's the creation of it all that I enjoy more than anything else,- says Seymour with an almost mischievous smile. "It is wonderful to make something where there wasn't anything before. I love to mix things up, to create, to do my best at everything I do."

Even Seymour admits that sometimes, on some project or other, she has to grumble a little and walk away because she has so many things going on, and she realizes she can't be perfect at all of them. She can only strive to do her best-which typically is superb.

NEXT

LUXURY LIVING Holiday 2004