It’s the last weekend of London Design Festival 2016 but don’t worry there’s still so much innovative design to discover and lots of Instagram-worthy installations to snap over the next couple of days. Here’s 5 things not to miss this weekend…

1) Brixton Design Trail

Adding Brixton’s vibrant flare and youthful edge to LDF 2016, the Brixton Design Trail presents a mixture of events and installations exploring the rich cultural diversity, young talent and new ‘urban age’ of this buzzing design district. Head to Rebel Space in the gardens of St Matthew’s Church tonight to discover Brixtopia; an event celebrating Brixton’s diversity and the launch of an important social experiment in self identification. Find loads of cool independent fashion, furniture and print businesses in their new creative shipping container home, Pop Brixton. Make your own chocolate at the Bean-to-Bar Workshop, or take a tour of the amazing street gallery with Animating Brixton.

Check out all the cool stuff happening as part of the Brixton Design Trail here.

 

2. London Design Festival at the V&A

Carrying on its tradition of providing some spectacular Insta-worthy installations, the V&A is once again home to some really interesting pieces that are sure to get you snap happy.  ‘The Green Room‘ by Glithero sees a dramatic curtain of coloured string descending 6 stories down the 17.5 meter stairwell in the museum. Emulating the circular motion of the arms of a clock, each string moves every minute creating a fascinating wave of colour. There’s also a big focus on interesting materials this year, with the venue housing a mystical looking ‘Liquid Marble‘ by Mathieu Lehanneur as well as ‘Foil‘ by Layer, which sees the tapestry room transformed into a memorising space filled with fragmented light reflected from the disco ball-esk 20 metre undulating metal sculpture.

Learn more about LDF at the V&A as well as all of their other amazing exhibits here.

3. The Smile

Alison Brooks’ Landmark Project, ‘The Smile‘, is an impressive 34m long curved wooden sculpture sat in the Rootstein Hopkins Parade Ground next to Tate Britain. Made of tulipwood, it’s been labelled the ‘world’s first-ever hardwood megatube’. Although it looks like a huge wooden see-saw, we’re assured that the complex CLT (cross-laminated timber) structure is totally secure, even if sixty of us ran to one of the end viewing platforms, making this piece a pretty impressive poster-boy for the ever-evolving timber revolution. The urban pavilion is also speckled with strategically placed perforations that flood the arch with sunlight in the day and transform it into a beautiful lantern at night.

Find out more about this fascinating installation here.

4. Design Junction at Kings Cross

Design Junction has found a new long-term home at Kings Cross showcasing contemporary interior design against an industrial backdrop. This year’s show explores the connection between creativity and dyslexia, invites homeowners to free drop clinics in big red monopoly style houses, and even has its own secret garden.

Discover more about what’s happening at Kings Cross this weekend here.

5. 100% Design

There’s still one more day to visit the 100% Design show, where we’re exhibiting our award winning Sebastian Cox furniture as part of The Wood Awards stand amongst the other amazing design talent who have been shortlisted for this year’s awards. Saturday is the only day the show is open to the general public, so make sure you pop down to Olympia London tomorrow to get your fix of cutting edge design from some of the leading names in the industry.

Find out more about the show as well as who else you can see this year here.

 

Images sourced from www.brixtondesigntrail.com, www.londondesignfestival.com and www.designshanghai.com

 

London Design Week is now in full swing and amongst an array of cool exhibits, talks and installations dotted around London, you can also find our beautiful Glazed Freestanding Cupboard from our Sebastian Cox Kitchen range at 100% Design, which kicked off today!

A little earlier this year we were so excited to discover that our Sebastian Cox Kitchen has been shortlisted for a 2016 Wood Award and it was even cooler when they asked us to loan them a piece of furniture for their stand at this year’s show. Since opening our first London showroom almost 2 years ago, we’ve loved getting involved with the incredibly exciting design scene in the city, it’s such an honour to be recognised as part of Britain’s amazing design talent!

If you are planning on visiting 100% Design this year, we’d love for you to head over to The Wood Awards stand L620 to check out our sustainable urban rustic design as well as all of the other cool pieces that have made it on to this year’s shortlist. You can even pop along tomorrow night after work to their 100% Design Late Night, when the show opens its doors until 9pm with an evening of music, drinks, networking and talks. The Late Night is free to attend for all registered visitors.

– 100% Design runs from 21-24 September at Olympia London. To register please click here.

–  You can discover more about this year’s Wood Awards here.

– And if you’d like to see more from our award winning Sebastian Cox Kitchen range, simply click here.

 

I fell for this kitchen the moment I saw it, and I know you guys did too… but I kind of put off doing one of these blogs because a lot of the lovely stuff that fills this room was actually vintage bits and bobs found by the very clever and very stylish customers at antique fairs, on eBay or at our showrooms.

… But then it made me think that maybe a lot of our customers, or people who follow us on social media, don’t actually know about all of the great and unusual and really well-considered pieces of antique furniture, vintage home and kitchenware and unique little treasures that we source from all over the world and have for sale at our showrooms. So, if you’re lusting after this perfectly balanced mix of old and new and classic and quirky, don’t forget that we don’t just do beautiful kitchens here at deVOL, we do lots of other cool stuff too.

The simple cupboards are from our Real Shaker Kitchen range, and here’s a little info on the rest…

 

1. The flooring was original parquet which the customers sanded back and waxed themselves. For a similar floor we recommend the beautiful new Rustic Oak Parquet from our sister company Floors of Stone, this can be oiled and stained to achieve your perfect colour and finish

www.floorsofstone.com

 

2. White metro tile splashback with grey grout, from Topps Tiles

www.toppstiles.co.uk

 

3. Lovely big industrial pendant lights hanging down from long chains

Sourced by the customer from antique fairs and eBay

 

4. Smeg ‘Opera’ range cooker in stainless steel

www.smeguk.com

 

5. deVOL’s ‘Bella Brass’ hardware (only available to purchase as part of a deVOL Kitchen)

 

6. Carrara Opal Quartz worktops on the base cupboards, and oiled Oak on the island

(worktops can only be supplied by us as part of a deVOL Kitchen)

 

7. ‘Pantry Blue’ paint by deVOL (our paint colours are only available as part of a deVOL Kitchen)

 

8. deVOL’s Aged Brass Ionian taps by Perrin & Rowe and a Villeroy & Boch Farmhouse sink

To order deVOL taps please call our Cotes Mill showrooms on 01509 261000 or email enquiries@devolkitchens.co.uk

Sink – www.villeroy-boch.co.uk   

 

9. Shelves full of amazing vintage bits sourced by the customer at antique fairs & our showrooms

Cotes Mill, Nottingham Road, Leicestershire, LE12 5TL  –  2 Tysoe Street, Clerkenwell, London, EC1R 4RQ

 

And one more pretty cool fact is that this is our most popular deVOL kitchen, ever! It has been pinned over 30,000 times, seen by hundreds of thousands of people, makes up the top 3 most liked photos we have ever posted on Instagram and is the most viewed kitchen project on our website. I wish it was mine!!

 

– To view the full Arts & Crafts Kitchen project, just click here.

– To keep up with all our latest news, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook & Pinterest.

 

Renovations are underway at our new London showroom and everyone’s getting pretty excited about the new design. We’ve found ourselves surrounded by mood boards, CAD drawings and paint samples, we’re peering through shop windows and taking a moment to have ‘a quick look’ on Pinterest only to emerge 3 hours later feeling that surreal mix of being completely inspired and slightly envious of everyone’s incredible homes.

Oliver Gustav studio Copenhagen photographed by Line Klein

In the midst of one said Pinterest sessions, I happened to stumble across the incredibly beautiful studio of Oliver Gustav and fell instantly in love with its moody colours and subdued style. It felt so wonderfully atmospheric, a look that transcends that pristine showroom/showhome image that can be hard to shake off at times.

Oliver Gustav studio Copenhagen photographed by Line Klein

Oliver Gustav studio Copenhagen photographed by Line Klein

I really love the subtle difference between the Scandi style of the Copenhagen studio and the cool loft style of the one in New York. They’re still coherent but have little details that make them distinctive, like the tall slender table legs and the bare brick walls; they’re like cousins not twins.

Oliver Gustav studio New York 

Oliver Gustav studio New York

In the same way, our Clerkenwell showroom feels quite different to Cotes Mill, a little more contemporary with tall wall cupboards to make the most of London’s high ceilings and now even a cool basement kitchen, which we so often see in our customers’ homes in the city. With the new showroom only about 10 minutes walk from our current Tysoe Street home, it could quite easily just become an extension of this space, but that is definitely not going to be the case. I think it’s so exciting that we get to show yet another side of deVOL. Our style has evolved so much since we moved to London almost 2 years ago, and this is the perfect opportunity to showcase everything deVOL has become. I can’t wait to show you what the team have been working on, but for now you can follow the new showroom’s progress on our Instagram and Twitter pages.

– You can also see more from Oliver Gustav here.

– Or get lots more interiors inspiration from our Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter or Facebook pages.

Images sourced from www.olivergustav.com and www.lineklein.com

 

So I haven’t written a blog for ages and I’ve got a few up my sleeve, my trip to Mallorca was amazing and so was my day in the ceramics studio making a majolica tile, oh and my day with Steph making a silver ring, that was such fun. She is coming to work in the ceramics studio and make beautiful things along with Ed, Hannah and Claire but that’s another story. I’ve taken so many photos my phone is full but before I share those images with you I just had to tell you about Claire’s pots. I did a lifestyle photoshoot the other day with Tim and I got a sense that these ceramics were really special. I already own two of the crackle top mugs and I know they are going to be old favourites in years to come.

I guess I’m biased, but really I haven’t seen anything like these pots around since the old Habitat days in the eighties and early nineties when I had a few really lovely pieces that I coveted and was very attached to. They got lost somewhere along the way but I still remember them, the feel and the colour, one in particular was pea green. Which is why I wanted to write this blog, because odd as it seems, some people can have an attachment to things in their home, especially pots. They hold memories and they can be comforting, they can feel good when you hold them and look good on your table, they can have character and almost seem to breath, a cup of tea in a special mug is just comfortable and safe.

I have been surrounded by ceramics all my life, my Father was a fascinating collector of many things, ceramics being one of them. So our home was filled with amazing collections of pottery and I still have many of these pieces today, a few quite rare and valuable items that along with books, have followed me around since I left home. In the good old days, you left home with boxes of odd glasses and plates from your parents house, an old sofa and some flat pillows that were 100 years old and you set up home with these things and gradually tried to replace them, but they often lingered for longer than you would have liked. In my case it was more than a few boxes and it’s nice really, sometimes a burden to house these things that you can’t bear to part with but they give your home history and life.

A sweeping statement it may be, but I think Claire’s pots come under the heading ‘trusty, stylish, classics for everyday life’, maybe that’s more than a heading but it’s what they are!! Claire has managed to make a small but growing collection of classic stoneware in the most beautiful soft muted colours, that feel good, are practical and simple and they will be around forever. The little lipped bowls in three sizes and the colander with a slightly rustic finish looked great on the photoshoot, I love ceramic colanders and finding some elderflowers in the grounds of Cotes Mill made it come alive.

The ceramics studio at deVOL is just the loveliest place to be, I am very lucky to be able to spend time in there making and designing new products with the help of the experts. The days I was there, the sun was baking hot, the doors were pulled back, the radio was on, everyone was busy, Hannah making tiles for a big American order, Ed building his legendary sinks and Claire patiently helping me make things out of clay. A bit of chitter chatter, some cups of tea and biscuits, the odd friendly face just stopping by to chat and see what we are up to. There’s an Olive tree at the door, an outside sink which for some reason I love, and lots of pots and bags of clay and things drying in the sun. This time last year we didn’t even have a ceramics studio, now we have pots and sinks and tiles that have been featured in articles and magazines all over the world. They are being sold all over the world and are in my opinion some of the most beautiful and unique ceramics around, where else can you buy a beautiful handmade kitchen, with a handmade sink and handmade tiles, a special mug and a collection of crockery like no other!! all under one roof, yup deVOL.

We have all our ceramics on show and for sale at Cotes Mill and plan to have lots in our new London showroom (opening October 2016), you can also view them all on our website. Take a look and come and visit us, you can even pop your head in the ceramics studio door and say hello to Ed, Claire and Hannah.

 

 

Almost a year ago we set ourselves the task of creating a handmade sink. We wanted to create a sink with character to match our kitchens. After numerous attempts and refining of technique we finally achieved our goal. You can now purchase our unique handmade sinks directly from us at deVOL. Keep an eye for them appearing on the website in the next few days. In the meantime, sit back and enjoy this short film showing Edward, our ceramicist handmaking a crackled Belfast sink.