'What I've learned from moving from the city to the country - twice over'

Tabitha Webb’s move to the countryside hasn’t exactly been a breeze. The fashion designer and author first moved from London to Hampshire around six years ago with her husband Gavin and their daughter Betsy, now nine. ‘We were renting down the road from here as a kind of trial,’ she says, ‘and we’d been there for about two years when I said to Gavin, “I can’t be here any more, I’ve got to go back to London.” It was so much harder living outside the city, with work.’

Then, a year and a half later, ‘I thought, “Maybe it’s actually easier in the country.” You get used to the space. So we decided to move back down here again.’

After searching the area, they found their current house and moved in just 10 days before their younger daughter, Primrose, was born three years ago.

‘The house needed so much work, but there was no time,’ says Tabitha, ‘so to get us through the first few months we just took out the carpets and curtains and got some wooden flooring down. Eighteen months later it was the same, because you just get used to it.’

They finally started work on renovating the house just over a year ago. ‘The builders arrived about three weeks before the first lockdown,’ says Tabitha. ‘It was horrific. Downstairs was still a building site, and then the builders had to leave for about six weeks while they weren’t able to work.

‘We moved upstairs, bought a cheap oven and put it in the loo at one end of the corridor, with a sink on wheels that my husband had found. Then at the other end of the corridor we had a little shelf that we put cereal boxes and a microwave on. You don’t want to complain when you’re doing something that you know will end up being great, but it was so dark.’

Luckily, the builders were able to return last spring, and the first phase of the renovation was completed in the summer. There’s still work to do on the upstairs and the exterior of the house, but, says Tabitha, ‘Everyone just needed a break. When you take on a project like this, I don’t think you ever realise how big it is until you really get into it.’

When it came to decorating the living spaces, you might think a fashion designer known for her bold, colourful prints would find choosing a palette a breeze, but Tabitha found herself locked in decision-making paralysis. ‘You have this space, and you can decorate it any way you want,’ she says, ‘so how do you possibly decide?

‘You realise that a home is something that has to be built over years as you collect stuff, and that’s what creates its ident-ity, but it’s quite hard to have this empty canvas that you have to try to fill.’

Her starting point was her vision for the kitchen: a Miami-inspired scheme in soft pink and baby blue, with art deco-style fluted panelling on the cabinet doors and brass accents. ‘I have this thing about British houses decorated in grey and white; they all look the same,’ she says. ‘It’s the safe way to go, but I really wanted something different, and pink has always been my favourite colour. Our architect, Simon Randall, is all about the New England vibe, and I wanted to bring in that feeling of light and space.’

Her flair for pattern and colour came to the fore with the walls and windows, many of which are dressed with prints from her fashion archive that she had transferred on to wallpaper and fabrics. A swan motif decorates the downstairs loo, yellow leopard-print curtains frame the sitting-room windows, and a floral striped design makes a statement in one of the bedrooms: ‘It’s quite out-there, but I love it,’ says Tabitha.

Her favourite room, however, is the garden room, an upgraded version of the rundown conservatory that stood in the spot previously. Today it is decked out with a scenic tropical mural by Iksel, a black-and-white chequerboard floor and rattan furniture from Att Pynta. ‘I had this vision in my mind that I would sit in here on my own in the morning with the sun streaming in, have a coffee, write my book and chill out,’ she says. ‘That’s literally never happened, but I love this room, it’s so peaceful.’

The past year has given Tabitha and her family the chance to settle in and enjoy their home, and the bustle of London life is a distant memory. In fact, ‘Sometimes I wonder if we should have gone further out and moved down to Somerset or somewhere, now that the commuting is not so necessary,’ she muses. ‘Everyone else talks of their forever home, but I’m a bit of a traveller at heart. The way I see it, this is for now.’ 

Have you moved out of the city? Did you find the experience harder than you expected? Tell us in the comments section below

Tabitha will be giving us a tour of her home on Stella’s Instagram this Wednesday – to watch, follow us at @telegraphstella