A Kitchen in Kew
12th September 2013
Its been a while since Tim and I went on a photo-shoot, we pack up the van the night before and get off early the following morning. Its always an apprehensive start, will we get good shots? will it be an easy kitchen to photograph, what will the light be like? all these factors can make such a difference to the finished shots which we value very highly if they are good.
More than half the kitchens we sell here at deVOL are for clients in London, but we seldom go and photograph them. So we were on the lookout for the something lovely and a customer who was happy to have her day disrupted and her kitchen turned upside down! Luckily we found someone, she was a perfect host and her house and kitchen were so beautiful we didn’t need to turn anything up side down, it was a pleasure to shoot and style.
This elegant little town house is tucked away down a narrow street in the delightful suburb of Kew. Each house is immaculately and very tastefully looked after. The front gardens of every house look like a page from a magazine, no bedding plants or begonias here, just carefully chosen trees and bushes, with the occasional geranium and rambling rose, it was a delight to see and also a somewhat frustrating acceptance that few people would go to this trouble or have the style and know how to make the very best of their house. Its not about being fancy, or different or expensive or posh, its not about outdoing your neighbours or your friends and its not about fashion, its about taking the time to do the obvious things properly and sympathetically.
The ‘Kew kitchen’ is from our Shaker range, it is painted in Mushroom with ‘Lagoon’ Silestone worktops, exactly the same combination as we have here at Cotes Mill. The centerpiece of the kitchen is a beautiful white ‘Esse’ range cooker, ‘Esse’ is a small English company with a very nice product. Above the range is a customized (shortened!) deVOL ‘Laundry Maid’, the warm air and the high ceiling make it the perfect spot to dry all your washing and when there’s no room for a tumble dryer a must. Washing can be such an unsightly and messy business but with deVOLs laundry maid and clothes airer (both hand made here at deVOL) it really does make a huge difference, washing can actually become really quite nice to see hanging around!
The simple shelf above the sink and the decision to have no wall cupboards or tiling make this room feel so spacious and uncluttered. Yet there is still so much storage in the tall triple cupboards on the opposite wall. These
cupboards house a fridge/freezer and a double sided pantry cupboard which keeps all the crockery, cleaning equipment, ironing board and other bits and bobs that need a proper home.
This was a kitchen where everything had been very carefully considered and it resulted in a well organised living space where you could relax, do chores, cook, clean or pop out and do the garden. But, much more importantly, what made this kitchen special was the calm and positive feel it exuded, the subtle colours and lack of clutter. This type of attention to detail and conscious decision to make design and function of completely equal importance is but so important and it worked and made the kitchen a joy to photograph and spend time in.
