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Hi Elizabeth and Jake! Please tell us a little about Bovina Farm and Fermentory\u2026<\/strong> <\/p>\n And what made you want to start this wonderful business?<\/strong> <\/p>\n The first project we worked on together was back at the end of 2020, a simple Shaker kitchen for your beautiful barn on Bovina Farm. How did you discover deVOL?<\/strong> <\/p>\n Why did you think deVOL would be a good fit for the space?<\/strong> <\/p>\n We were lucky enough to work with you for the second time last summer, please tell us about your wonderful new Guest Cottage and why you decided on deVOL again.<\/strong> <\/p>\n I really love the cottage\u2019s simple country look, it\u2019s humble but you can tell every detail was so considered. What is your favourite thing about it?<\/strong>
\nBovina Farm and Fermentory<\/a> is a small restaurant, guesthouse, brewery and farm in the Catskill mountains of upstate New York. The farm welcomes visitors year-round to its property for inn stays and weekly Saturday night dinner parties. With a strong dedication to agriculture and local food, the restaurant and brewery sources all ingredients from the farm\u2019s own gardens or from neighboring farms. We built the house, barn and farm outbuildings with the help of a local timber-frame barn builder, family and friends. The main house offers a cozy dining room and three comfortably appointed guesthouse rooms, one of which features a deVOL Shaker kitchen and living space. The main barn is home to the brewery and a loft with a spacious timber-framed inn room. A freestanding guest cottage sits in its own secluded stand of cherry trees on the 20-acre property, equipped with a small deVOL kitchen, living area with a woodstove and whimsical curtained bed nook. The farm is home to a small flock of dairy sheep, two donkeys and a family of chickens and ducks.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.devolkitchens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1.jpg\")
\nHaving grown up rurally, we both experienced the joy of having a garden and space to roam from a young age. Growing food, cooking and hosting was central to both of our upbringings, and a love and respect for nature was at the core. During a semester abroad while studying at Cornell University, we lived in the Czech Republic and spent time traveling around various countries to explore the world of food, beverage and hospitality. Upon moving back to the area where Jake grew up, home to the Sackett family since the mid 1800s, we began building out the homestead and blending our love of food, beverage, farming and hosting into Bovina Farm and Fermentory.<\/p>\n
\nYes, the kitchen upstairs in the main house, in what we now call The Maison Room. We drew so much inspiration from Shaker furniture and design during our building process. Friends even began gifting us various Shaker design and furniture-making books! The overall design of the house emerged out of the simplicity of clean lines, practical storage pieces and purposeful d\u00e9cor. The kitchen was to be small but mighty, simple but beautiful and built by hand using natural materials. Our search led us to the Shaker range<\/a> from deVOL with its hardworking functionality and warm, British design sensibilities.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.devolkitchens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bovina-Fermentory-44711-scaled.jpg\")
\nThe style of our farmhouse is simple and pared-back. We knew that we needed a few quality pieces of furniture to anchor the spaces, alongside the built-in cabinetry that we constructed throughout the house. Everything had to be functional and hardworking in addition to being nice to look at \u2013 we needed pieces that are meant to be weathered and worn and can stand the test of time. The craftsmanship and simplicity of deVOL\u2019s cabinets felt like a seamless match and the natural materials that develop a patina over time work harmoniously with the raw wood floorboards and other living finishes around the house. Aside from a few antique and handmade treasures, the house has minimal flourish \u2013 we let the countryside views and these staple furniture pieces do all of the talking!<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.devolkitchens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bovina-Fermentory-44732-scaled.jpg\")
\nThe Guest Cottage is our little labor of love that we spent the last two years building. We pulled in several willing friends and Elizabeth\u2019s father to help us build it from the ground up, hoist its impressive rough-cut beams and clad its wooden walls. The Cottage is surrounded by cherry trees, so we settled on cherry floorboards and a cherry butcher block countertop with various shades of green used in its interiors to mimic the forest around it. With the Cottage being only one room, it was important that everything inside worked well together and made an immediate good first impression. The deVOL cabinets painted in Wilkes Green<\/a> add a touch of whimsy against the lighter green walls and flow nicely into the built-in bench that Jake built to nestle beside the deVOL Vineyard Table<\/a> in the dining nook. We used a green gingham linen fabric to create curtains that enclose the bed, to provide some separation from the rest of the space. But our suggestion: sleep with the curtains open to awaken to the view of the mountain valley tumbling out in front of the wall of windows and to see that gorgeous little deVOL kitchen awaiting its morning cup of coffee!<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.devolkitchens.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/9.jpg\")
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\nOur favorite thing about The Cottage would have to be its light, both natural outdoor light and subtle indoor lighting. Even when it was still just a construction site, The Cottage had some of the best light on the property, warm and golden come early evening. It floods into the small abode through the wall of windows on the south-facing wall and through the sets of French doors on either end. Since The Cottage is off-grid and powered only by a solar array, electricity is minimal. Aside from soft candle light, our favorite indoor light is the pendant hanging above the deVOL table, handmade by our friend Camille, who sells the pendant and other ceramic goodies through her business, Camille Callahan Clay<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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