a contented sigh……………our Bloomsbury photoshoot
10th December 2015
I love to imagine my perfect house, but when we go on deVOL photoshoots I sometimes change my mind, forever or momentarily, I am totally fickle. I love something one minute, then I see something else and I change my mind, but one thing I never change my mind on is my love of big old houses, with wide painted front doors, really high ceilings, old fireplaces, original floors and beautiful delicate big old sash windows. I don’t own one which is sad, my house is old but it’s certainly not big, on the contrary it is teeny, but I did grow up in a fabulous house of the kind I covet. Since I have been visiting London I have become a little obsessed with these houses, especially the big East End ones which are usually Georgian. Every town has its fair share of Georgian, Edwardian and Victorian terraces, but the London ones for me are something far more.
This year I have really enjoyed visiting our London showroom and taking time to walk the streets just looking at the houses, my favourite area is Fournier Street off Brick Lane, a road of stunning Georgian Huguenot Townhouses built around 1720. But the real treat is being able to go into our customers houses and see how they have done up their properties, their extensions and their taste and their neighbourhood, it’s fascinating.
Everyone is knocking out the back of their house to extend their living space into a big family room where you have a super stylish kitchen, big family table, sometimes sofas and direct easy access into the garden through huge doors. Crittle or bi-fold, these doors are the main feature, floor to ceiling and the full width of the house, so it’s like having a glass wall looking out into your garden. For a simple seamless look inside and out, many people keep the flooring the same, this is often polished concrete. If the property is in London then chances are the outdoor space is limited, the house is usually an old Victorian or Edwardian terrace, large, well-proportioned rooms but usually a smallish kitchen in comparison to the rest of the house. So changing the position of the kitchen to the back of the house and creating light where it was once a dark maze of small rooms and outhouses, seems a very sensible choice and I would rarely find any reason not to follow this tried and tested formula. However, it is lovely once in a while to see someone with a more sympathetic view to the extension, keeping the whole house as one rather than ‘old at the front’ and ‘huge expanses of new glass’ at the back. It’s a tough call though and probably not such a practical or possibly stylish choice.
Well our Bloomsbury Kitchen is none of the above, it is just a beautiful kitchen in a beautiful house, no big extensions just original features and a true London Townhouse with a view over the park. Absolutely beautiful, how lucky not to have to extend but to be able use the original structure of the building to create a stunning, modern classic kitchen. The moment we walked through the door we knew it was going to be oh so popular with all our customers on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and all the magazines and editorials. We were right, its been an overnight sucess and it’s great that all our customers see the beauty just like we do.
From the colours on the cupboards and walls to the honed marble worktops and open shelves, it was all just a delight. Its soft ambient light and soothing calm decor just made you feel tranquil and happy. It was a true home, so simply and timelessly finished, understated but flawless. I loved it, I wanted it, I was bowled over, by the colour and the marble and the huge pantry and the open shelves. Nothing was wrong, nothing was overdone, it was a perfect lesson in how to do things properly and I loved it and really hope you do too.
All photographs taken by deVOL
