A little St. John’s Square showroom update…
8th February 2017
I thought it was about time for another little update on how our wonderful new St. John’s Square showroom is looking, we’re really really nearly there now!!!
My photography skills aren’t the greatest but I really hope these photographs give you even a tiny taste of how very special this space is and is going to be. It just has so much character and charm and atmosphere to it already. The furniture, the colours, the chandelier and fittings all look as though they could have been here for hundreds of years, ageing beautifully and getting even lovelier as time passes.
Peeling back the protective floor sheets to unveil the beautiful original wooden floorboards was one of the most exciting parts for us. Lovely deep, dark planks, all wobbly and knotted, that are hundreds of years old. This floor was hidden beneath a pretty nasty red carpet when we bought the shop, meaning the builders had to give it a good old scrub, but when we saw what was underneath we were very happy. We knew we had to restore this gorgeous floor to its former glory, it would be so silly to cover it up.
Some finishing touches have been added to the cupboards. Our beautiful and brand new aged brass handles and a handy little wooden plate rack inside one of the countertop cupboards, a neat and well-arranged way to store things, it’s perfect for big plates and really easy to access.
The tiling between the pink wall and the lovely open base cupboard has been finished and it looks so smart. All that’s left in this little corner is to add the catches and handles to the cupboard doors.
We’ve chosen our ‘Ioninan’ style Aged Brass taps, which we made in collaboration with Perrin & Rowe, for the sink area. We worked so hard to create the absolute perfect shade and tone of brass for these taps and we think they look so great against the old school green tiles and honed black granite worktops. If there was any place I’d like to be washing up, I’d pick right here, gazing out over St. John’s Square, watching all of the Londoners go by.
We also had a very exciting delivery this week… our beautiful palm tree has arrived! We can’t wait to get this beauty down into the showroom, it’s going to look so cool against the pink, green and blue and it’s nearly 6ft tall! In case you were wondering, this species of palm is called a ‘Dypsis Lutescens Areca’, it’s leafy and wild and just what we wanted.
The other half of the showroom is still looking a little bare, but in the next two weeks we will have made some beautiful pieces of furniture for this space. There’s going to be a lovely island from our Real Shaker range and a row of our handmade deVOL ceramic pendant lights hanging above. A chilled out little area to meet with customers and chat about kitchen designs.
And here’s a little peek at the very impressive cooker… a huge stainless steel ‘Wolf’ range, the absolute dream. Oh and how cool is the curvy tongue and grooved wall!? We’ve never really seen anything like it before, it’s these original features that we love most about our new showroom. We were very happy when we were approved planning permission to cut a secret little door in the panelling, it will lead you from the shop up into the deVOL house above.
Another thing the builders have been working on this week is the very cool new glass roof for the showroom bathroom. So here’s a little before shot (with an awesome view of the Cloister Garden of the Order of St John next door)….
…. and here’s the after! Such a lovely way of getting some natural light into our new bathroom and a nice contemporary contrast to the old walls of this building.
And I think that’s all I can update you on for now. We’re still working on the little ‘Pantry Blue’ deVOL staff kitchen in the basement and we’re hoping the rest of the beautiful furniture will be here in the next couple of weeks. We had a big delivery of props yesterday, things we’ve sourced from all over the world, old marble planters covered in moss and lichen, quirky coloured Majolica pottery, huge copper stewing pans, old antique chairs, stacks of lovely plates and bowls and collections of little glass jars in every size you could wish for.
We’re still hoping to be open by the end of February if everything goes to plan and we’ll be sure to let you know an exact date as soon as we have one. We can’t wait to show you around our new deVOL St. John’s Square showroom and townhouse!
– Keep up with the showroom’s progress on our Instagram and Pinterest
