OXFORDSHIRE COTTAGE
Janice Talkington and Paul Bates fell in love with a compact cottage overlooking the village green and transformed it into a chic haven awash with neutral colours and natural fabrics
This chocolate-box-pretty cottage was only meant to be a detour on their way to a new life in Devon, but the lure of village living close to home in Oxfordshire proved irresistible for Janice Talkington and her partner Paul Bates.
The couple had put their farm up for sale in 2021 with plans to move to the West Country, but it sold more quickly than expected. ‘The day we moved out in June, Paul booked me in to view a traditional two-up two-down cottage with an extension on the back that was on the market in the nearby village,’ says Janice. ‘I wasn’t expecting to see it on the day I was leaving the farm but I fell in love with it at first sight. I loved its location across from the village green and the pond. It hadn’t been touched in years and I could just see that it was crying out for some TLC and for it to go back to its original roots.’
The couple decided to purchase it as an investment but then the property they were going to buy in Devon fell through at the last minute. ‘We thought, we haven’t got a home. Then we thought, we like this little cottage; we can make it work,’ says Janice. ‘It’s got a lovely courtyard garden and outbuildings we can convert into an office so we decided to renovate it and live here.’
The cottage had always been rented out so Janice and Paul moved in as tenants for a few months while their purchase went through. The renovation then began, with the house being rewired, replumbed, reroofed and a new boiler installed. The outbuildings were transformed into a laundry room and office, complete with stable door for a rustic feel.
When it came to the interior, Janice felt she needed help – and found that interior designer Jo Miller of Décor Buddi lived next door. Janice knew exactly how she wanted the interior to look. ‘I wanted it to have an opulent country-cottage aesthetic,’ she says. ‘I’m quite a structured person and I like clean lines, but I wanted the cottage to be warm and inviting and to feel more open than it was. We love France and have a home there so the aim was for a slight French influence, and Jo’s help was invaluable.’
‘We began with the fabric of the building and chose the flooring first,’ says Jo Miller. ‘Once we put it down, it was easy to move o
