Simple, naive and gutsy, these new accessories from deVOL are designed to be everyday items. Hard-wearing, useful, handmade and delightfully authentic, these new hooks are another product which we hope will become a necessary, if not indispensable, part of people’s homes. Like the good old days when you bought something and it lasted forever, no fashion statement, more a lifestyle choice.
There is nothing more comforting and reminiscent than an old hook on the back of a bedroom door that looks like it has been there forever, or a set of hooks on a kitchen beam with a few well-used copper pans that get unhooked at least once every day.
Forged iron is traditional and historical, we like the way it looks ‘old’ straight away and how you can just pop it into corners of your house and it feels right at home without needing much thought. Devilishly hard and steel black, although the colour slightly wears with use and time, revealing a little glint of silver sheen.
A solid piece of iron that is heated, softened, shaped and hammered by hand in the traditional way, it is an age-old craft that has a wonderful and mesmerising fascination. These products are most definitely for using, for giving you solid strength and a simplicity that makes them feel humble and reliable in a no-nonsense way. There are no frills and no ornamentation because you can do that with other accessories, these are for all those little places that just need a good looking, helpful hook or set of hooks and we love that utilitarian essence. There is such love for highly decorative interiors that these pieces feel almost an antidote to this and yet in their own way they are bold, so for the understated homeowner, the sensible homeowner or the flamboyant homeowner, these seemed to us to fit all those requirements.
Our favourite is the little beam hook, it needs its own special mention as this was where the whole range began. A simple scoopy curve of iron that embeds itself deep into an old beam and gives you the perfect spot for hanging whatever your heart desires, boy can they take some weight, they are certainly not as delicate as they look. Rusty old ones found in the woodworm ridden beams of homes across the world feel like a treasure when you come across them, now you can put some history back in your beams for people to find decades from now.
We welcome Alun, our new blacksmith, to deVOL and thank him for helping us come up with such a great range of accessories that we hope will become staples in your homes. He is now always a busy man, heating up and hammering away in his forge, making stock for our showrooms and fulfilling all the orders we are excitedly taking from our customers. The smell, the sound and the noise, not to mention Alun’s apron, are all such wonderful sights we now get to see here at Cotes Mill every day.
