Q. When did you start Thomas Blue & Co?

M. 2010. I had a shop for a few years in Marlborough in Wiltshire. We sold oriental rugs and modern and antique furniture. From the start it was a family business and we still operate that way today. We had a lot of fun growing the shop but online was fast proving to be the future of retail. So with a desire for a more adventurous and far reaching way to run the business, we embarked on our online journey to create a shop for people who love their home, garden and family.

Q. Where did the idea come from?

M. Over the years I have been to many events over the Summer months ranging from Polo matches to mouching around country shows and noticed the increasing trend for a 'shopping village' at these events. I also noticed that when people are relaxed, having fun on a day out, they shopped in their droves in the vast array of shops at these events. All of these shops had webshops and so the idea was born. Granted its been done before, but as the saying goes 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. So it was back to our little cottage on the edge of the Savernake Forest to hammer out our plans for Thomas Blue & Co.

Q. Why the name Thomas Blue?

M. I wanted something with a sense of family but also had a ring to it rather than just a random name. So after much head scratching and knashing of teeth, a mixture of my family name and my favourite colour popped into my head, simple as that!

Q. So what can we expect to see from Thomas Blue & Co?

M. We are an online shop offering lifestyle products for your home, garden and family. It needn't matter whether you live in the town or country to enjoy our ranges. There is some design-led stuff, some gift ideas and some stuff just down-right useful and cool that you have to buy it. As well as the online store, you can find us during the year at carefully selected shows and fairs, where we will have new products coming all the time and we will also bring you special offers. Look at our events page to see if we're at an event near you and why not come down and see us, we'd love to meet you.

Savernake Forest was once Henry VIII's hunting ground. Take a walk here and you will see Ancient Oaks, Deer and the changing English seasons in full glory.