Handmade aboard our narrowboat
Cotton Lily is a small handmade business tucked inside our narrowboat, where plant supports, macramé hangers and houseplant accessories are made, packed and posted from our floating home.
It’s not the most conventional workshop. There are plants in every spare corner, stock tucked into unlikely places and canal views just outside the window, but somehow, it all works.
How Cotton Lily began
Cotton Lily began in 2018, when I started making plastic-free reusable products from my cottage in Bedfordshire. I took the business with me when we moved aboard our narrowboat in the South West.
Over time, though, my love of houseplants began to take over — first the shelves, then the windows, and eventually quite a lot of the boat.
As my collection grew, I found myself looking for plant supports that were useful but still felt decorative and at home among the leaves. When I couldn’t find quite what I had in mind, I began making my own.
Those first pieces slowly grew into the plant supports, macramé hangers and houseplant accessories that make up Cotton Lily today.
Made by hand, in small batches
Everything is made in small batches, with each piece passing through my hands from start to finish.
Some days I’m shaping wire at the table, knotting macramé by the window or packing orders alongside the houseplants. It’s not always the tidiest way to work, but it has become part of the charm of Cotton Lily.
Making things this way means each piece is carefully finished, checked over and packed before being sent to another plant-filled home or taken along to one of the makers’ markets I attend.
A little moment I’m proud of
In 2026, Cotton Lily was awarded four stars for our tradestand at RHS Malvern Spring Festival — a lovely recognition of the care that goes into both the pieces I make and the way I bring the collection together.
For plant-filled homes
Cotton Lily is for people who see their houseplants as part of their home, not simply something to keep alive.
For those who notice every new leaf, somehow find room for one more pot, and want the practical things around their plants to feel beautiful too.
My hope is that each piece gives your plants the support they need while adding something thoughtful to the space around them.
