From Cow Byre to Vanessa's Country Home: The Story of The Tallet
The Tallet has been Vanessa’s Cotswold family home for over 30 years. Long before our Cirencester shop and showroom opened, Vanessa found her style and printed her first curtains here, while looking after her four young children. A handful of commissions and an eight-page Country Living feature later, Vanessa Arbuthnott Fabrics was born in 2000.
Today, Vanessa shares the story of her beautiful home that has shaped her best loved designs – from her Cockerel collection in 2000, to the vibrant Modern Folk collection launched in September 2026.
A blank canvas where Vanessa first found her style
Vanessa and Nicholas first moved into The Tallet over 33 years ago, having converted it from a cow byre into a home. It was now up to Vanessa to turn its bare walls and empty rooms into the lively family home it is today.
“It was the first time I had a blank canvas to work with,” Vanessa explains. “It was simply the necessity to decorate the newly converted cow byre from scratch that made me develop my own interior style.”
She pored over old magazines for inspiration, and was particularly enamoured with the rustic French and Swedish interiors. Their gentle blues and greens on the walls and woodwork really sang to Vanessa, and she chose these colours to run right through The Tallet – uniting the rooms alongside painted beams, wooden floors, and latch and braced doors.
But money was tight in those early years. As Vanessa reminisces, “We created The Tallet on a shoestring, painting the walls, doors, and windows whilst my one-year-old slept.” They also attended local auctions to purchase old furniture they could upcycle with new upholstery or a lick of paint. “Some of those early finds are still heroes in the house, such as my father’s old tool cupboard from his garage. It became the centrepiece for our ‘unfitted’ kitchen!” Vanessa chuckles.
The decoration of The Tallet continued to evolve over the next 33 years, and with it the Vanessa Arbuthnott style that is so instantly recognisable today.
From homemade curtains to a successful fabric business
Vanessa’s fabric printing began out of necessity. The Tallet had so many large windows that needed curtains and blinds, so Vanessa began making the fabric herself while her Mum operated the sewing machine.
The first curtains that she created for her hallways were made with a resist technique. This involves making a paste from flour and water, painting it onto the fabric, painting dyes over it, and then washing the flour and water away. It was a charming sea-inspired design that made her hallway feel instantly calm and welcoming. She also hand screen-printed a cockerel design for her kitchen curtains.
Vanessa’s unique style was shaped by her experiences of living with her own fabrics. “It was very helpful to see how colours worked together and the different effect of using stronger wall colours and lighter curtain colours, and vice versa,” Vanessa explains. “I also learnt that I liked soft, gentle hues of colour – at times pattern, and at other times gentle checks and stripes. It was fascinating to observe that the amount of light in each room affected the paint colours dramatically.”
The house itself was instrumental in turning Vanessa’s passion into a thriving business. She let The Tallet out for photo shoots between 1998 and 2002, which paid for her first stock. Country Living Magazine then ran a feature that introduced her hand-printed fabrics to the world. As interest grew, Vanessa took her designs to a printer for the first time – and Vanessa Arbuthnott Fabrics was born.
How the business outgrew The Tallet and found its new home
A couple of years after the business’ inception, the workload had started to take its toll on the family. “It was intense with my four children aged 8 to 14 years old. I was only able to work in snatched moments, mainly when everyone was tucked up in bed,” Vanessa recalls. “The rolls of fabrics were initially under my bed and I then made a move into one of our attic rooms.”
The children pitched in with all the labelling and sample requests, but the fabrics started to slowly take over the house. Vanessa and Nicholas converted the bottom of the barn adjoining The Tallet and converted it into a fabric store and office. More fabric rolling machines arrived, and the Arbuthnott’s “graduated from pinking shears to a proper sample cutter”.
But Vanessa found it hard to switch off with the business on her doorstep. After about 7 years in the barn, Vanessa and Nicholas decided it wasn’t ideal to have work and home in the same building. So, in 2015, they bought a dilapidated building in Cirencester, and transformed it into the business’ shop, showroom, office, and storeroom. “It was wonderful,” Vanessa smiles. “At last, home was home and work was work!”
Our beloved photography backdrop for 25+ years
Although home and work separated in 2015, The Tallet has remained the backdrop for our photography for around 25 years.
When asked why, Vanessa explained, “It’s because of the light. Every room has large windows on two sides. Also the rooms are quite big, so they are practical for taking photographs in.” Vanessa’s home is the perfect balance between a cottage and a large house, which makes it a useful scale for showcasing her fabrics in curtains and blinds.
The shoots have left their mark on the house over the years, too. Vanessa’s stylist, Sally Denning, plans each scene out so well that Vanessa has often kept the new look. Most recently, The Tallet was the setting for our new 2026 Modern Folk Collection. “I feel it’s always a good measure that if the new fabrics look right in my house, they will be OK,” Vanessa laughs. “I think this new collection looks very comfortable ensconced at The Tallet!”
Bring a touch of the Cotswolds into your home
After so many years of change, Vanessa is finally happy to let the house settle. If you’d like to see the timeless designs born from The Tallet, explore our fabric collections. We’d love to hear which designs speak to you.