“elemental” – a kitchen by Charlie Smallbone and deVOL
18th May 2018
I am very excited to give you a little look at our second brand new kitchen range… wood, metal and stone all come together to create a luxury and contemporary kitchen, “elemental”, launching at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, running next week from 22nd – 26th May. The first ever “elemental” kitchen will be displayed inside a stunning conservatory by Caulfield, and this display will be the first little taster of what has become a true collaboration between deVOL and British kitchen veteran Charlie Smallbone, following a chance meeting last year.
We have been aware of and admired Charlie Smallbone and his kitchens for nearly 30 years. Charlie and deVOL’s Director, Paul, had similar routes to the same market, starting out in antique furniture restoration and transferring that affection for traditional furniture details and proportion into kitchens. Paul is never one to say no to an opportunity, and although it seemed an almost impossible task to get two brand new kitchens made and fitted in one weekend for two separate shows (check out our beautiful new Haberdasher’s Kitchen, launching at CDW18!!), he just couldn’t resist the challenge or pass up the opportunity of a collaboration that just felt so right.
“The design of the elemental range has taken us about 6 weeks in total… Charlie and Sue Smallbone have both been influential in the final look and our meetings are friendly, but focused and we get a lot done. There are a handful of key players at deVOL that I bring in to the design process and we all sit around a table with biros and we do our thing; that magical process of dreaming up ideas, identifying issues and finding solutions to problems, and doing it with style.” – Paul O’Leary, Founder of deVOL Kitchens.
We have ended up with a kitchen range that is sleek, sumptuous, elegant and textural and so very different from what we are known for. As with all things deVOL, a little bit of rustic and a little bit of cool and a lot of incredible craftsmanship is what you can expect. Think dark, sharp, immaculately engineered flashes of beautifully crafted metal, elegant black Ash, handmade aged brass pivot hinges inspired by those seen on Victorian steel-framed windows, and minimal brass door frames finished with a delicate Georgian style cock-bead. The variety of fascia panels for the door and drawer fronts of this new range is infinite, we have already started to experiment with lots of other options including limed oak, distressed painted oak, Carrara marble and a crackled white enamel panel – we’ll keep you posted on how these go!!
Every element of this new kitchen has been handmade here at Cotes Mill, all the metalwork has been made by our Managing Director, Robin, and our Accessory Designer, Steph, the cupboards have been made by our Workshop Manager, Ben Creed and Robin and all the appliances have been supplied by Wolf and Sub Zero. We have also included one of our new and much-loved marble sinks into the Chelsea Flower Show display, this time it’s an Arabescato one and it’s truly stunning. A couple of our favourite aged brass hanging rails are in there too, they work perfectly with the fabulous copper doors that have been individually aged by Steph to give a wonderful texture and pattern and just a little hint of verdigris, they really are a work of art in themselves.
“elemental resonates with history, but it’s definitely current- I really don’t think there is anything out there today which is like it. It resonates with elegance – good proportions, and interesting details- like the Georgian style cock-bead which sits between the brass outside frame and main fascia panels. The pivot hinge, cast from solid brass, is a beautiful yet really simple detail. A door can open and close with the minimum of fuss – that to me is elegant.” – Charlie Smallbone.
I popped over to the Chelsea Flower Show yesterday to take a few sneaky photos of the kitchen being installed and I hope you will agree it’s looking pretty beautiful!!! Robin, Ben, Dean and Lee have been working so hard to get this kitchen finished in time and fitted to absolute perfection and it’s very nearly there. The show kitchen will be for sale and Charlie will be at the show the whole time ready to chat and tell you all about this new luxury, contemporary kitchen.
We’re so proud of this new kitchen range, it’s different from our normal look but that’s what makes it so exciting for us, the chance to be able to offer our customers something really quite unique – we can’t wait to show you more and hear what you think. Don’t worry if you aren’t visiting the Flower Show this year – we’ll be sharing lots more photographs of this very cool new design as soon as we can!!
– “elemental” is now available as a bespoke service with an initial price guide of £50,000 – £80,000.
– If you’re coming along to the Chelsea Flower Show you can see ‘elemental’ in all its glory as part of the Caulfield Company’s superb conservatory display, stand no. PW244.
– Have a little look at Charlie Smallbone’s newly launched website here and follow his Instagram page here.
