Kitchen furniture specialist DeVol has opened a stunning new showroom in Bath to showcase its kitchen cabinetry in four distinctive rooms – creative director Helen Parker shows us around.
The Yellow Room
This room is like walking into a sunny day – soft blush pink and a warm yellow seemed the perfect combination to welcome customers into our new Bath Showroom. The reception area is designed to put them at ease and make them feel calm and cosseted, a soft leather chair, a few beautiful old pots from faraway places and a very pretty cobbled together, vintage curtain, are a little introduction to our new showroom.
We designed a very large dresser in our new Shaker colour ‘Princelet Pink’ and filled it full of weird and wonderful old papier-mâché mushrooms. The idea is to show how well our furniture works in other rooms, not just kitchens. Having a large dresser in your hallway is very traditional and as our furniture is freestanding, it really can go anywhere. The Classic English prep table is a lovely spot for our designers to work and welcome visitors, so this practical entrance has been made to feel not only warm, welcoming and un-kitchen like, but it is also very practical.
The highlights of our new showroom were most certainly the extraordinary light and the proportions of the rooms, two features that without doubt are what make this place so wonderfully atmospheric and really authentic.
The Green Room
When a room is so beautifully proportioned it is always a pleasure to design a kitchen for the space. The ‘Green Room’ was, however, full of compromises on first inspection with regards to placing furniture, these compromises are (as always) as much a blessing as a hindrance, and the trick is to find a layout that works for the space rather than trying to make the furniture fit the space. The doors, windows, fireplace and original panelling are all such impressive period features and although they restrict the placement of furniture, they are what makes this room so atmospheric.
The DeVol Heirloom sink cabinet and rather grand plate rack feel almost utilitarian with the addition of our Cream Subway Tiles, there is a simple elegance to these open pieces that doesn’t need any adornment. The Dairy Table is such a functional piece of furniture that also has an undeniable substance and beauty, you can almost feel the strength and usefulness of this piece just by looking at it. This kitchen is very simply furnished, yet it feels grand and elegant, but also hardworking – this combination is the absolute key to all DeVol furniture.
Old-fashioned colours add to the authenticity and feel of our ‘Green Room’ and the very minimal styling was a conscious decision. You will notice the 'Refectory Red' internals of the fitted pantry – a little spark of colour that matches perfectly with our new Wilkes Green, the newest of our standard Shaker colours.
The Black Room
The 'Black Room' is designed to feel like a local bistro bar in a Manhattan neighbourhood, that has been loved by locals for decades. There is a feeling you get when you walk into a friendly, familiar neighbourhood bar that suddenly lifts your spirits and makes you feel welcome. This is the feeling we wanted to create in this room, so we filled the walls with random posters, painted it blush pink and very importantly placed one of our Vineyard Tables in the corner, tucked away and secluded behind a sheer floaty café curtain. The Frilly Chartreuse Light really did the job of adding delicate light, a vintage feel and oodles of atmosphere.
The sink and cooker run is made up of our Classic furniture painted in 'Printer's Black', it is chic and functional and allowed us to have a very sturdy but plain Heirloom island, that is both a prep table and sit-up bar. The brass foot rail on the island is a detail we cannot imagine not having here, it is almost the one thing that establishes this room as a place to hang out, enjoy yourself and sit up at the bar.
The copper touches are essential in this room, they add understated shine and warmth. The glow from our aged copper worktops really is beautiful, soft and subtle any time of the day or night.
Every time people walk into this room they are struck by the variety of accessories on display, the mix of DeVol furniture and the opulent finishes, the surprise is how they all work together with such ease. Heirloom Task Lights, Haberdasher’s cupboards, an ornate La Cornue range cooker, very bold Arabescato marble sink and worktops – it’s a wonder it doesn’t feel too much, but it doesn’t, it feels so authentic and the moment you sit yourself down at the Vineyard Table you simply don’t want to leave. Isn’t that the recipe for a perfect home kitchen too.
The Blue Room
Sometimes when a room is naturally dark and north-facing, it is tempting to make everything light and bright, paint the cupboards in creams or whites and have lots of lighting. Well, we did the opposite in here – we went for dusky pink on the walls and rich dark Shaker cupboards, in the hope of creating a really moody atmosphere. Dark can be dingy and dull but more often, if embraced, it can create a magical space. The sink run gets the morning light shining right across it, the Carrara marble worktop and sink add some nice reflections and the tongue and groove back panelling along this whole run gives a warm tactile feel and a lovely place to display plates and bowls.
The cooker run is small and compact but there is plenty of room for a proper cooker, some pretty Shaker drawers and a very nicely proportioned London Glazed Wall Cupboard that takes full advantage of the high ceilings. Finished off with our Lace Market Tiles, the 'Blue Room' has become a favourite with our customers because it feels so achievable and yet so bespoke. That is what makes our Shaker cupboards special, along with our design service, as the two things go hand in hand, giving all our customers guidance in which cupboards to use and how to make the best of the space they have.
