How We Started This Business

Mulberry Tree at Home is run by myself and my partner Kevin. The inspiration for the business stemmed from renovating an old 1930’s property which was completely run down. When we bought the old house, we did most of the work ourselves although being so particular (Kevin says “fussy”) it took much longer than it should have.  

We love old cottages and farmhouse kitchens with slate or tile floors and love bare floorboards and exposed wood, open fires and log burners so our home has a traditional feel to it.  

When it came to furniture, it was difficult because we couldn’t easily find what we were looking for to fit the spaces that we had. Traditional furniture retailers didn’t seem to sell the things that I liked or if they did, they weren’t the right shape or size. We looked at buying used tables and chairs and bringing them back to life which we did with a couple of things.  During this time, we thought why not make our own. Once we started down this route there was no turning back for us. Kevin absolutely loved spending time in his little workshop making things and when he finished a piece, I found myself loving it more than anything we could have bought.

 Having two dogs, Mabel a working cocker spaniel and Poppy, a tiny but very independent blind Jack Russell Terrier we love to take holidays in remote cottages and farmhouses where we can walk with the dogs and we get lots of ideas and inspiration from visiting these places.

We built a huge storage chest style coffee table from old reclaimed wood because we had seen something similar which the owner had made himself for a huge farmhouse in Wales. When our family visited and saw the table, they wanted one themselves and suggested we make them for sale. We followed that up with an oversized kitchen storage console table to fit a space in our new kitchen, and then because of our love of horses decided to make a wooden serving tray using old horseshoes as handles. These were quickly followed by more horseshoe handle home accessories, all of which you will find in our home. 

At this point our home was really beginning to show a country inspired character and was further enhanced by these equestrian themed items that we had made. When added to the horse paintings that we had collected over the years and some pictures of the dogs, we noticed that our home was truly beginning to reflect the things we love. It became a talking point for friends and family whenever they came into the house to visit and made us realise that perhaps the things we were making would be popular with other people who shared our love of country inspired living and horses. 

Since then we’ve been continually developing more products and expanding the range of collections which include equestrian, shooting, country, children and outdoor ranges. This will be followed shortly by a new boot room collection and we have plans for a tack room collection also.

Our furniture and home accessories are designed for people to reflect their individual passions in their own homes with unique products that are both practical and an eye-catching talking point. 

We love traditional design and love to see aged wood in both old and new properties. We think it works beautifully so when we began, everything was made from reclaimed timber and recycled horseshoes. This now feels very important environmentally and so most of our products are still made this way.

It takes longer to make each piece because of the careful cleaning, handling and treatment needed for the raw materials but the end results are worth it. The natural ageing of wood is to our eye, a beautiful thing to behold and makes each finished piece completely unique.

​As with most people who love the countryside, spending time outside is very important to us, and we walk our dogs each morning before heading off to a stable yard where we help at to look after three horses, and other animals, not to mention the chickens we keep at home.  Every Tuesday I have a riding lesson and I share this on my Instagram page @the_mulberry_tree_lifestyle. 

We are also fortunate to be able to volunteer for the RDA. All of this whilst developing and running the business day to day means that we are always incredibly busy although we often reflect on how lucky we are to be able to enjoy our passion for horses and all things country whilst meeting and dealing with lots of lovely people who love the same things that we do. It doesn’t really feel like work at all.