Tabatha and Eric Fulton are committed to Culpeper: “If we can stay here and keep it ‘small town’ and that same community feeling, then…I’m willing to invest everything,” Eric said.
It all began with a mid-pandemic question: ‘What would you do if you could do anything?’
For the Fultons, it’s all about community. The Culpeper business owners are developing their version of a small-town business empire, built around their individual passions and love of community.
Tabatha and Eric Fulton opened their business, Botanical Dwellings and the attached Airbnb rental – Botanical Oasis – in 2021, followed by the opening of Fulton Found in 2023.
Now, they’re preparing to undertake a new project: Fulton Moto, set to open by the end of spring next year.
“Businesses just keep making more businesses,” Tabatha Fulton told the Culpeper Times.
The Beginning
Botanical Dwellings, a home decor and gift shop centered around plants, opened in 2021 after the couple took a leap of faith on the business in the midst of the pandemic.
The pair, who met while working in the wedding industry in the Culpeper area, were both working full-time jobs at the time.
“A lot of things changed for a lot of people [during the pandemic], and for me it sort of magnified the discontent that I was feeling in some parts of my job,” Tabatha said.
While the business officially opened in March 2021, the idea was born out of a rare day off in the summer of 2020 and some words of advice from her husband.
As Tabatha tells it, Eric was a “driving force” in the decision to launch the business, often asking her the question: “What would you do if you could do anything?”
On July 4, 2020, she sat down to answer that question, writing all the things she would do if she could do anything.
“It sort of landed around a community space, where I can teach people about plants and help them to make their homes beautiful,” Tabatha said.
Two months later, the couple sat down to eat lunch at a local spot and watched as a “for lease” sign was placed in the window of what became the first location of Botanical Dwellings.
Almost immediately, they began building their business. The first stage was making half of the building an operational Airbnb rental, called Botanical Oasis, which helped the business sustain itself financially before the rest of the building was complete.
The second half of the building, which houses Botanical Dwellings, opened in March 2021.
Having the courage to open a business for the first time in the middle of the pandemic, when many businesses were shutting their doors, came in part from her husband, Tabatha said.
“I don’t think that I would have had the gumption to just decide all of this on my own, but he’s such an incredibly positive force,” Tabatha said of Eric’s influence.
From Eric’s perspective, the Botanical Dwellings business turned into something that far exceeded his expectations; the first day, there was a line of customers around the corner.
That immediate success parlayed itself to the opening of their next business, Fulton Found, a masculine lifestyle boutique.
The Fulton Found store grew from the back room of Botanical Dwellings, where the couple kept one of Eric’s motorcycles and eventually turned the space into a man cave.
“It really led into my motivation to expand that business and open the other business, the Fulton Found store, entirely. It all started with the Botanical Dwellings concept … that totally changed the trajectory of where we are now,” Eric said.
Much like Eric encouraged Tabatha to open the Botanical Dwellings space, Tabatha pitched Eric on expanding that back room space to its own business.
Now, the couple reflects on the impact of the businesses in town, as Fulton Found approaches its one-year anniversary on Oct. 25. The day also happens to be Eric’s 35th birthday.
Why Culpeper?
The Fultons have made the Culpeper community a focal point of their businesses.
Fulton Found, for example, hosts “Moto meetups,” where motorcycle enthusiasts meet and catch up.
Motorcycle enthusiasts in the community will soon have a new space to enjoy, with the forthcoming launch of Fulton Moto. The new shop will be on the lower level of the building that houses Fulton Found on Davis Street and will be a motorcycle DIY garage.
The business will have a custom builder on site, with custom-built motorcycles for sale and rent, an expanded gear shop and on-site community classes and service classes.
Fulton Moto, expected to open around spring 2025, will be Eric’s venture alone while Tabatha focuses on developing the existing businesses and her work on the Culpeper Renaissance Board.
While there were some opportunities to expand their businesses to different cities such as Charlottesville and Fredericksburg, the couple decided to focus their attention only on Culpeper.
“It’s the place that we love, and we know that just by adding several more cool amenities that this town can really just be really awesome,” Eric said. “We’re at this point of sustainable, slow, steady population growth and just good economic vitality, and if we can contribute [to] that, then that would be freaking awesome.”
All of their businesses have ties to the community, with Fulton Found’s Moto Meetups, Botanical Dwelling’s annual plant swap fundraiser, the tourism their Airbnb’s bring and Fulton Moto being a community garage.
When it comes to community engagement and fundraising, the Fultons said they like to focus on nonprofits and causes that add social services to the community. Botanical Dwelling’s plant swap fundraiser, for example, directly benefits Services to Abused Families, Inc.
For the couple, Culpeper feels like home.
Eric grew up in Boulder, Colorado, and moved to Washington, D.C., for work. He began visiting Culpeper some weekends, exploring the town and going hiking nearby. When he first began visiting, he saw “an intense amount of parallels” to Boulder.
Tabatha moved to the region when she was 19 because she had family in the area and wanted to be near mountains, so she started by couch surfing with family members before she got her own place.
The community feel of Culpeper drew them both in, and now they’re ready to give back.
“It’s like I moved here and I belong in Culpeper, and that was really cool. So if we can stay here and keep it ‘small town’ and that same community feeling, then…I’m willing to invest everything,” Eric said.
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