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Though best known for her floral installations, Tattie’s love of interiors runs just as deep. When she and her husband Fred bought a worker’s cottage in 2020, they lived in it largely untouched for a couple of years - a conscious decision.
Though best known for her floral installations, Tattie’s love of interiors runs just as deep. When she and her husband Fred bought a worker’s cottage in 2020, they lived in it largely untouched for a couple of years - a conscious decision. “I feel I need to have seen all 12 months in the house to see the light change, to know the rooms and their character and to work out what I what them to say.” That thoughtful approach shaped every part of the recent renovation. Rather than impose a new identity, they focused on peeling back the layers, revealing old brick, timber and tile to let the house’s original charm seep through again. What has been added since is similarly rich in story and sentiment. Nowhere is this more evident than in the dining room. The table, once belonging to a family Tattie nannied for years ago, now anchors her own family’s mealtimes, and on the surrounding walls are hand-painted murals by Tattie herself.
But what truly sold them on the cottage was its position in the quiet Dorset countryside, where Tattie could give her children the childhood she envisioned - days spent outdoors, away from screens and tablets, trusting that boredom breeds creativity. Spend an afternoon at Chez Isles and you’ll see it in action, from bike rides up the nearby tracks to old cardboard boxes transformed into rowing boats. Though she spent her own childhood moving from posting to posting with an army father, she’s built something different for her family - a safe and static place where they can quietly but confidently learn to be brave. As we speak, Tattie’s building the same rootedness in her creative practice, scaling back on loading up the van for installations elsewhere, and focusing instead on building a flower school at home. The decision comes from thinking more carefully about what her work creates - and what it leaves behind. While working with living material is beautiful, she’s become more conscious of its fleeting nature, the floral displays that bloom and fade within days. “The thing is, realistically, if you’re doing events you’re not being sustainable. I think that has been a pivotal moment for me over the last couple of years”.
The flower school is her chance to teach the approach that's always guided her work; to lead with feeling rather than aesthetics. The first question Tattie asks clients isn’t about colour schemes or style, but the atmosphere they want to create for their guests. She’s applied the same philosophy to curating and designing her home. The cottage hums with warmth and creativity - a sense that there’s always room for one more chair at the table, and that anything is possible.
