What a week!
27th May 2016
Clerkenwell Design Week is over for another year and we had the best time ever. Our Sebastian Cox Kitchen looked amazing sat in the old Crypt at St John’s Church, and we spent the week chatting away to so many lovely and interesting and unique people, telling stories and sharing our love for simple, beautiful, well-made things.
Since launching the Sebastian Cox Kitchen at the design week last year it has been more successful than we could ever have imagined. We’re always learning and trying new things, and working on how we can make our designs that bit more impressive or beautiful or functional. In fact, lots of people came up to say how much they thought this kitchen had ‘grown up’ since last year, what a cool thing to hear.
I think the sink area was my favourite part of the whole display, the combination of smooth honed Carrara marble worktops, our aged brass taps and those incredible deep copper sinks was utter perfection. The sinks are made for deVOL in India and are really special, but we are actually hoping that one day we will be able to manufacture our very own deVOL copper sinks… oh, and speaking of sinks, I’ve heard that our ceramicist Ed is pretty close to perfecting the very first deVOL ceramic sink, we can’t wait to show you.
This beautiful big Island is a brand new piece to be added to the range. It stands on slim elegant legs and features an unusual mixed material worktop, two integrated ovens and two domino hobs side by side. It’s a piece that we hope will work within a kitchen or simply as a standalone piece that can be designed to any length and to incorporate as many appliances and as much storage as the customer needs.
The stunning copper worktop on one half of the Island was a big talking point, people couldn’t stop coming up and touching it and running their hands over it, taking photos and asking lots of questions. It’s the first time we’ve ever done a copper worktop, we treated it with lemon juice and vinegar and ammonia, really acidic substances, to give it that mottled, authentic aged look.
And we noticed the more people came up and touched the copper, the more beautiful it became… it began to look like the most incredible sheet of rose gold, especially around the corners where people would really lean on the surface, catching the light in such a pretty way. I guess that’s the beauty of using natural materials in your home, the more you love them and the more time you give them, the more beautiful they become.
Of all of the shows that we have ever exhibited at, Clerkenwell Design Week is for sure my favourite. It’s just got such a cool vibe to it, such a sense of community spirit, it’s not all about selling and making money, it’s about sharing ideas and passions and celebrating some really great design and some really talented people.
To make this week even more special…. last night The Sebastian Cox Kitchen by deVOL was awarded a Design Guild Mark. And in the words of deVOL’s Director Paul, that’s “another award in the bag!”
… get it!?
A Design Guild Mark is such a prestigious award, and we feel very proud to have been awarded this acolade in recognition of a kitchen range that the deVOL Design Team and Sebastian Cox have worked so hard on. The Design Guild association aim to drive excellence and raise the profile of British design and innovation, something we’re very passionate about too. Paul, Robin, Helen and Sebastian went along to a lovely ceremony at The Goldsmith Centre in London to collect the award last night.
Now it’s back to reality and I’m sat at my desk kind of missing the buzz and excitement of all of the award-winning and Design Week fun. Saying that, we’re already looking forward to the show next year, we’ve got our slot booked and a few very cool ideas up our sleeves!
Phil and Dean have spent the morning taking down the beautiful Sebastian Cox Kitchen from our Design Week stand and have just dropped the last cabinet off at our Clerkenwell showroom. The whole kitchen is going to be installed and displayed in an awesome little showroom downstairs. I took a sneaky little photo to show you the space, I thought the cabinets and the colours and the copper looked pretty cool sitting there in the sunlight.
The cupboards and worktops will be fitted over the next couple of weeks, so it shouldn’t be too long until you’ll be able to pop in and view a full Sebastian Cox Kitchen in our London showroom. Being able to see this beautiful furniture in the flesh really does make all of the difference.
We’d like to say a big thank you to everybody who came to our CDW stand to check out the furniture and say hello, and to the Design Guild Association for presenting us with this incredible award… you’ve made our week a very happy and a very memorable one.
– To view more of The Sebastian Cox Kitchen by deVOL, just click here.
