And the winner is…
25th September 2020
Last week we got some very exciting news. We had been awarded a new accolade at a recent ceremony and the trophy was in the post and on its way to us. I’ll tell you a little more about that soon but it occurred to us that we’ve never actually shared all the awards we’ve won as a company here in one place on our deVOL Journal. So it seems like perfect timing to go way back to 2016 when we received our first award, we hope you won’t mind us showing off for a few minutes!! We are so proud of these awards and hope you’ll share and enjoy the excitement with us. It’s one thing for us to tell you that we’re great!! But to hear it from some of the industry’s most respected designers, well that’s pretty cool and the ultimate ‘well done’. And it’s important too, when our customers are choosing us and trusting us and spending their money with us, that they’re not just going on our word, but that people from all aspects of the design world, credible and really trusted people, are saying we’re really good at what we do too. So, let’s go…
2016 – ‘KITCHEN DESIGNER OF THE YEAR’ – Homes & Gardens Awards
The first award we won was such a special one. deVOL were awarded ‘Kitchen Designer of the Year’ for our collaboration with Sebastian Cox. We were presented with the award at a very plush ceremony held at the British Museum in London. “As good for a cottage as a loft”, “Not just a kitchen, but desirable furniture”, “A champion for wood” were a few of our favourite judges’ comments. This was our first collaboration, an urban rustic and really tactile range of furniture, it strays a little from our other more traditional painted kitchens but what doesn’t differ is that it is handmade, the attention to detail and the always important deVOL ethos of simplicity and longevity are also still very much part of this range. This kitchen is all about utilising sustainable British timbers and in the past five or so years it has gone on to be an absolute favourite with our customers, a permanent deVOL collection and a strong partnership with our collaborator, Sebastian. See more of The Sebastian Cox Kitchen by deVOL on our website here.
2016 – DESIGN GUILD MARK – Awarded to ‘The Sebastian Cox Kitchen’ by deVOL
Another award for our collaboration with young British designer, Sebastian Cox. The prestigious Design Guild Mark is awarded by The Furniture Makers’ Company in order to drive excellence and raise the profile of British design and innovation. We were sooo delighted to win this award, it’s all about championing British design which is something both deVOL and Sebastian are incredibly passionate about. It’s who and what we are and we are proud to say that even after 30 years, every single piece of deVOL furniture is designed and made here in the UK, not many kitchen companies can say that!
2017 – DESIGN GUILD MARK – Awarded to ‘The Bum Range’ by deVOL
We were awarded a prestigious Design Guild Mark for the second year running! This time for our amazing Bum Range, a beautiful collection of solid wooden stools and chairs that have been designed to support a healthy posture yet remain simple and visually stunning pieces of furniture. This range and age-old challenge has always been really important for deVOL, it’s something that we have wanted to be able to offer our kitchen customers from the start; a beautifully simple, comfy, stylish stool at a sensible price, designed and made here in England. It all started with a lump of clay, each day new team members sat on it until eventually we came up with the mould for the seat. That’s why it’s named the Bum Range, it is something that bodies – or more specifically bums – have formed. View the latest Bum Stool and Chair on our website here.
2017 – ‘BEST KITCHEN COMPANY BLOG & SOCIAL MEDIA’ – The EKBB Influencer Awards
Ok this was a particularly special award for our little PR team and it was voted for by the public, by the people who actually follow along with our Instagram each day and have a read whenever we post up a new blog on the deVOL Journal. I remember Letty and I just being so, so excited to win this award – seeing the deVOL Instagram page go from 0 followers to hundreds of thousands, it’s very cool. I just checked and we had about 99K followers when we won this award back in October 2017, at the time that seemed impossible and crazy to us but now we’re approaching 420K, things just don’t seem to be slowing down and we’d like to say a big, big thank you to everybody who supports us on social media. Every single amazing and talented person that works at deVOL has an influence on spreading the word about who we are and what we do, Letty and Holly and I are just the lucky ones who get to share it with all of you.
2017 – ‘KITCHEN DESIGN OF THE YEAR (Over £25K)’ – Designer Kitchen & Bathroom Awards
We received our very first Designer Kitchen & Bathroom award in November 2017. It went to our Hampshire Barn Project, which was designed by our amazing NYC Showroom Manager and Kitchen Designer, Paul Endacott. It’s the perfect mix of natural materials and contemporary design and was the first kitchen in this range made in the gorgeous ‘Lavender’ colour, a soft purple that nods to the idyllic countryside that surrounded this incredible Grade II listed barn. What an honour to know that one of our kitchens was chosen as the best design of the year… the Sebastian Cox range of furniture is certainly topping the charts for our most celebrated range ever!
2017 – ‘BEST TABLEWARE’ – House Beautiful Awards
November 2017 was a pretty great month for us, we were the proud winners of another award and this time it wasn’t for our kitchens, but for the range of tableware we had worked so hard on with our incredible ceramicist, Claire. The ceramics studio started as a fun new adventure for deVOL, an idea and a dream that Paul and Helen had about being able to offer our customers more than just our kitchen furniture and welcome people who may not want a whole kitchen but just love the deVOL look. It’s not been easy going but over the last couple of years, our little ceramics workshop has blossomed into a very established studio, designing and making and shipping beautifully handmade pieces out to lovely people all over the world. We’ve refined and perfected our range of tableware over the past few years but it’s still heavily inspired by this very first and very beautiful award-winning range. Take a look at our current offering of crockery, pots and bowls here.
2018 – ‘KITCHEN DESIGN OF THE YEAR (Under £25K)’ – The Designer Kitchen & Bathroom Awards
These very cool customers, along with our lovely deVOL designer, Georgia, were the brains behind the award-winning Petersham Kitchen. The judges said they fell in love with this project mostly because it was unexpected, we love that, nobody wants a kitchen designed to a specific formula, a kitchen that feels samey and sterile. We had never seen our ‘Pantry Blue’ paint colour used quite to this effect before. The cupboards, the walls and the ceiling were all given a good lick of this delicious navy shade and we even supplied the owners with an extra pot of paint to update their vintage island. Warm woods, shimmering copper and low moody lighting were the perfect finishing touches. A very deserving winner we think!
2018 – ‘GREAT DESIGN AWARD’ – Architectural Digest
Now this was a fun project. A collaboration with kitchen design legend, Charlie Smallbone, to create a kitchen display for the 2018 Chelsea Flower Show. We have been aware of and admired Charlie and his kitchens for nearly 30 years and Charlie and deVOL’s Director, Paul, actually 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. The result of this collaboration was ‘Elemental’, a luxurious mix of wood, metal and stone and a kitchen range that is sleek, sumptuous, elegant and textural and so very different from what we are known for. Architectural Digest is one of the most influential and highly regarded interior and design magazines in the world, it publishes nine international editions and inspires millions of design enthusiasts every single month. The annual AD Great Design Awards celebrate what the magazine believes to be the truly best-in-class design from throughout the year, what an accolade it is to have been included, this is an award we’ll remember forevermore. Take a look Charlie’s ‘Ledbury Studios‘ to see more of the Elemental style kitchen.
2019 – ‘KITCHEN DESIGN OF THE YEAR (Under £25K)’ – The Designer Kitchen & Bathroom Awards
Our third year in a row winning ‘Kitchen Design of the Year’ but this time it was in the ‘Under £25K category’. The chosen project was our Bath, Larkhall Sebastian Cox Kitchen, created by a very cool couple and our deVOL designer, Emma. This kitchen needs no explanation, the buttery Bath Stone walls, the textured cupboards, the sleek concrete worktops and floors, ugh it’s just so good!! Winning in this category was a really important one for us because it came to our attention at the ceremony that nobody could believe you could get a deVOL Kitchen for under £100K, let alone under £25K!! deVOL isn’t about being super fancy and unaffordable, it is about beautifully crafted furniture, designed and handmade in England. We work to all kinds of budgets and can absolutely design and make and install your dream kitchen for probably less than you think. Don’t forget we offer a free kitchen design service to all our customers, you can see lots more info on that here.
2020 – ‘KITCHEN SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR‘ – Homebuilding & Renovating Awards
An award not just for a single project, but for all things deVOL Kitchens! The Homebuilding & Renovating Industry Awards were created to acknowledge and celebrate the amazing and diverse businesses and people that make the interiors sector what it is, this was the very first year of this awards show and with all of the craziness going on in the world right now, it was actually a virtual show. So we settled down in front of our computers, cups of tea in hand, tuned in to the live broadcast and eagerly waited for our category winner to be announced. No speeches or photographs or going up on stage to collect the award but still just the same amount of excitement and pride.
2020 – ‘BEST INTERIORS BRAND‘ – Real Homes Awards
And now to the reason this blog came about in the first place… last week we were named as ‘Best Interiors Brand’ at the 2020 Real Homes Awards. Wow, how cool is that. Kitchens are what we’re best known for but it’s so special to be recognised for all of the other beautiful, simple things that now come out of our Leicestershire studios and workshops too. We just wanted to say a big, big thank you to everybody who voted for us and also to everybody who has ever bought something from us, whether that be a whole kitchen or something a little smaller like a light or a set of taps or a few of our handcrafted handles for an old vintage dresser. And to everybody who has just shown us love and watched us experiment and delve into the world of making everything for a beautiful new kitchen, not just the cupboards. It takes time and it takes patience, it takes a lot of talent and even more determination and hard work. Luckily, we have the best team and we cannot wait to show you what’s coming next!! Becoming a modern day British ‘Bauhaus’ has always been the goal for Paul and everybody at deVOL and this award makes us feel a teeny bit closer to that dream.
– To visit one of our four beautiful showrooms, please book an appointment slot. Our contact details can be found here.
– If you’d like us to design your dream kitchen, take a look at our ‘Design Service’ page here.
– And to keep up with all the latest deVOL news, give us a follow on Instagram.
