The Riverside Apartment, Barnes

A Juliet balcony looking out over the River Thames is one of the reasons this kitchen felt so atmospheric. The dappled light poured in through the open doors and was instantly softened by the earthy tones and delicate translucent fabric at the windows.

Using the same colour on your walls and your cupboards always seems to make a room feel more cohesive, but mostly it softens the edges of the view, making it somehow easier on the eye. Architectural and decorative details become less obvious, and you tend to notice them in a much subtler way, playing down grandeur is often a clever way of neatening up a busy or smaller sized room.

Then you have all that Arabescato marble, the sink, the worktops and the splashback, this is what takes this kitchen from just atmospheric to quite daring and sumptuous. The chequered marble floor ties everything together in both its suitability for the room and its soft sheen and feeling of quality. Little flashes of brass are everywhere making this combination of colour, texture and material feel exquisitely well paired.

In a rather grand apartment block on a leafy road in Barnes, it was such a great choice to go with this elegant and rather glamorous style. The high ceilings and well-proportioned rooms were the perfect backdrop for an apartment that was far more than the sum of its parts. Sometimes when you walk into a room it instantly feels completely perfect in every way and you assume it’s just a stroke of luck or good bones, but it is so much more than that. It takes a little bit of daring and guts to go for such a strong look, but nothing else would have matched the instant feeling it gave us, that’s when you know all the tough decisions have paid off.

The glamorous theme moves seamlessly into the adjoining room, where Classic deVOL cupboards and copper worktops create a chic cocktail bar and dining area. The art deco feel of this space and its rich decorative features gives a hotel bar vibe, which we all know is the very best kind of vibe. We love this playful mix of black, copper and pink and the way it changes the feel of our cupboards from kitchen to living so perfectly.

We felt these images of a deVOL Classic kitchen were the best we have seen in a very long time, and we like to think it’s partly down to Iain our amazing Kitchen Designer, partly down to deVOL’s impeccably made cupboards and an awful lot down to having such cool customers. This couple had no formal interior training but walking into their home was like walking into a very comfortable chic hotel, and let’s be honest, who wouldn’t love to live in one of those!!