Your deVOL Kitchens
23rd October 2020
What a funny old year it’s been, eh? Like many of our plans, photoshoots took a back seat in 2020. Usually our dream team, Helen and Tim, are out on the road photographing lots of new deVOL Kitchens for us to share with you all on social media and our website but that just wasn’t possible. So back right back at the start in March, we asked if you could do us a huge favour and become our new kitchen photographers and wow, did you deliver. We were so chuffed with all of the lovely messages and absolutely gorgeous photos, there’s nothing better than seeing our kitchens becoming part of your day to day life, especially this year when our homes have become so important to us. We’ve shared a few of these on our Instagram but they’re just too good not to show you again here on the blog. So here they are, our 2020 album and it’s a good one…
Kicking things off with the most wonderful colourful kitchen. Purchased many years ago before we had showrooms in London and New York, this kitchen has been on quite the journey!! Originally painted in Putty and changing over time with the addition of new colours and vintage pieces and even a little DIY. The owner of this place is an interior designer based in London and never normally shares her own home on social media but during lockdown she decided to treat us to a few shots and oh boy are we glad!! This kitchen and the whole Guirao Design Instagram page has brought lots of colour and smiles and inspiration to us over the last few months.
From pattern and pastels to a very cool and moody kitchen. Doesn’t this almost look like some swanky bar, with the low warm glow of the hanging bulbs and the glimmering copper top? In the midst of full lockdown, I really missed hanging out at the pub with my friends but I think this would be a pretty great back up. The bold stone is just delicious. This is turning out to be a very popular mix, San Simone and our hand-aged copper, two natural materials that are absolutely perfect for kitchens. San Simone is quarried in Brazil and has the most amazing bold veining and little glints of gold and rust. It’s a really hardy stone, more like granite than marble, so it has a much higher resistance to scratching and staining and then you’ve got the beautiful copper with its inherent antibacterial properties and gorgeous patina that only gets lovelier the more you use it.
It’s no huge surprise that Melissa is also a stylist, we have such cool customers and it’s always fun to see how they interpret our cupboards. Our Shaker collection, especially, has a chameleon-like quality, it’s so easy to add your own personality and style or even just change things up every now and then.
I love this Haberdasher’s Kitchen in a fabulous home in Estonia. To me, it feels both really stylish and really cosy all in the same breath. Neat clutter and collections of kitchenalia and curiosities. It’s a bit random in the best possible way, it’s not meticulously styled and curated, it is the home of people with great taste who have a passion for collecting. The couple owns a cool interior accessories company where they sourced most of this stuff, how great would it be to have first dibs on all these weird and wonderful treasures?! It reminds me a little of Cotes Mill, full of the unexpected, a little quirky but utterly charming.
Our Printer’s Black cupboards are becoming more and more popular. I think people were a little scared of this striking colour when we first introduced it but it only takes a few daring customers to take the plunge and show everyone how great it can be. Perfect with our copper worktops and brass hardware, it has a speakeasy vibe, think late-night bars and trendy city restaurants but just a touch of blush pink on the walls instantly softens the look whilst still keeping the drama. This is Farrow & Ball’s ‘Setting Plaster’, a beautiful shade we’ve also used a few times, including in our New York ‘Potting Shed’.
Moving on to something completely different, check out this new extension on a fabulous Arts and Crafts home designed by famous English architect, E W Godwin. It can be a bit daunting adding on a new space to historical homes but, with the help of Alice Poole Architects, the owners have managed to create an extension that feels light and modern but is really sympathetic to this old house. Our Shaker cupboards are the perfect fit for this type of room, simple and stylish but still traditional enough to feel classic, especially when painted in our opulent Pantry Blue shade. I can just imagine settling down around that amazing old table with family and friends to enjoy a big Sunday roast… hopefully we’ll all be able to do this again soon!
Another sunny extension, this time by George and James Architects. How great would it be to have this glass ceiling, even on long winter nights it would be so dreamy to cook with the stars twinkling above you. This clever split-level kitchen shows that even in the smallest of spaces you can create something beautiful and practical with clever design. I especially love the decision to include the little seating area at the end of this run, the perfect spot to pull up a couple of Bum Stools. Having somewhere to sit and chill in your kitchen transforms it from just a room for cooking and cleaning to a place you enjoy spending time in, a place to chat and cook together or a place to find a little solitude with your morning coffee and newspaper.
And of course, we can’t forget our accessories! This year has been the year to revamp your home. It’s made us realise how important these rooms are and how much they affect how we feel and think. It might seem too much to take on a big renovation project but investing in little things that make us happy can make such a huge difference. A light, a hanging rail, handles, or even just a deVOL candle that smells divine, we definitely deserve to give ourselves a little treat.
We’ve shown you Ingredients LDN’s super stylish Sebastian Cox Kitchen many times before but we really enjoyed sharing these new shots with you. Our Laundry Maid is such a classic, it was our first accessory designed by Paul right back at the very beginning. The traditional pulley system and 12 metres of jute cord are perfect for apartment living, especially with these gloriously high ceilings – space saving has never looked so good.
I just think this idea is genius in its simplicity. An old hook and one of our little plug-in pendants and voila, you have the perfect bedside lamp. These shades are handmade from porcelain so they have this gorgeous milky appearance that is replaced by a warm glow in the evening.
Or how about in the kitchen wrapped around this painted peg rail? These pendants are so versatile and the best bit is that it’s so easy to just unplug them and move them to wherever you need a bit of extra light. The possibilities are endless!! If you’ve bought one of these little lamps, we’d love to see what you’ve done with it! In fact, we’d love to see all of your accessories and kitchens. It doesn’t look like anything is going back to normal any time soon so we will continue to celebrate your amazing homes and brilliant photography over on Instagram and maybe I’ll even do a part two here on the blog.
Thank you again to everyone who has shared their photos with us and sent us the loveliest messages, we can’t begin to tell you how much they’ve cheered us up and made us smile.
You can reach me at collette@devolkitchens.co.uk if you want to send me any photos.
And please do follow along with us on Instagram.
