Decorating & Design
deVOL Kitchens Brings British Design And Craftsmanship To The Small Screen And Beyond
Updated on November 11, 2024

“I always want someone to walk in to their kitchen and feel like it’s their favorite room in the house,” says Helen Parker. As the creative director of the überpopular English kitchen furniture brand deVOL Kitchens, Helen, along with the firm’s founder, Paul O’Leary, have been enchanting viewers on their Emmy-nominated television show, For the Love of Kitchens, for the past two seasons. “You spend more time in that room than all the other rooms of the house put together,” says Paul. The pair, who are partners on and off-screen, showcase the very best of British kitchen design and craftsmanship — dovetailed cabinets, solid brass hardware and earthenware pendants — all made by artisans at Cotes Mill, the firm’s 16th-century watermill headquarters.
Season 2 spotlights the design of a kitchen in a 1790s Georgian house in Bristol which was outfitted with Shaker-style cabinets and an Arabescato marble island. “Big kitchens are tricky to get right,” says Helen. “You’d imagine that if you had all the space in the world then it’s going to be easy.” Paul adds: “It’s overwhelming to clients when they’ve got a large kitchen because there are so many options and weighing which is best is difficult, and it’s a personal thing.” Another episode features a 17th-century dairy barn conversion kitchen in Suffolk.
“It’s a prime example of loads of different materials working together beautifully,” says Helen. “A limited palette and natural materials — you can’t go wrong with that,” says Paul. Fortunately for North Americans, deVOL’s cabinets and fixtures can be shipped across the pond, plus the firm designs kitchens for Canadian and U.S. homes so you, too, can bring the deVOL look home.

Creative director Helen Parker and founder Paul O’Leary of deVOL Kitchens, which has three showrooms in England and one in New York.

deVOL’s Clerkenwell Blue makes an impactful statement on the cabinets in this kitchen in Bristol, England.

Farrow & Ball’s Setting Plaster gives walls a whisper of pastel pink in the adjacent dining area, and blue-painted furniture is in harmony with the kitchen cabinets.





Sebastian Cox cabinets from deVOL Kitchens were the right rustic-yet-streamlined choice for this kitchen in a barn conversion. Copper pots hang artfully from a long brass rail.

Handmade brass cup pulls are an heirloom touch on the drawers.

“I think it’s fine to mix as many materials as you like, as long as you keep the tones of the colours cohesive — which natural products often do naturally,” says Helen.



Courtesy of deVOL Kitchens
Kitchens + Baths