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10 Beautiful Rooms

Starting off this week’s edition of 10 Beautiful Rooms with this fabulous kitchen from Devol. I’m not sure I would ever have the courage to paint my own in this colour but I could stare at it all day. Am seriously wondering if I need to just have a print made of this and stick it on the wall. Is that weird?

Upminster
Teal kitchen by Devol

I think it might be weird, but oh that colour. And it works so well with the battered old table. And the strong black and and white tiles. It is definitely the sum of its parts. I love it all.

Upminster
teal kitchen cupboards by Devol

Over the years of interviewing people about their houses, as well of manufacturers of kitchens, it has become apparently that that is the one room that is most likely to be devoid of colour. People will paint a strong colour in a sitting room or even a bedroom but for some reason, they play it safe in the kitchen.

Upminster
blue green kitchen by devol

But when you think about it, if you are spending money on appliances and units in safe neutral colours – so you don’t run the risk of going off them because you will have to live with them for a long time – the kitchen walls are the one place you can afford to push it a little. That’s easy to change and imagine if they change these walls to navy blue or green or even dark grey in a few years time. The whole room will feel different and refreshed but nothing else needs to change.

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new collection from Heals aw17

It will feel like a new kitchen for the price of the paint. Think on’t as they say. And here, from the new autumn winter collection at Heals, are a couple more dark and stunning walls to get you in the mood.

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the new collection from Heals

On the other hand, this is Pearl Lowe’s kitchen, which was recently done by Devol as well. Strong cupboards, pale walls and lots of interesting trinkets to make it a really personal space. This is the approach we have gone for – cupboard doors made in MDF and therefore, relatively, easy to change should the mood take us.

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Pearl Lowe’s kitchen by Devol

Clearly the mood takes me on a weekly basis but less so The Mad Husband and the bank manager but you get the point. You could change this element every few years if you fancied and everything else could stay in place. Painting cupboards is more of a faff than painting walls but perhaps a less scary thing to do in terms of the amount of colour you would be bringing in.

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Devol kitchen for Pearl Lowe

Talking of dramatic paint changes, this is the hall of Fiona Cameron, whose aroundthehouses blog has featured on this pages before. I showed you her dramatic dark sitting room and she was painting the hall at the time.

dark hallway by aroundthehouses.com
dark hallway by aroundthehouses.com

Do go and have a look. And she made that chandelier by the way. I know. Words fail. She hasn’t done a full post on how to do it yet but has linked to her inspiration if you fancy having a go.

dark hallway by aroundthehouses.com
dark hallway by aroundthehouses.com

Finally this loft apartment is such a gorgeous space but I included it mainly for the chairs. Pink chairs. As it happens I have the black version of them and am slightly envious of them in pink. I probably wouldn’t have got them past The Mad Husband but they are gorgeous and given all the black accents in this room bring just the right amount of lightness to the space.

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apartment for sale via aucoot

Have a bonus 11th picture below so you can see them in close up. They are the muuto visu and the green factory light over the table was another clever touch.

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muuto visu chairs via aucoot
Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

11 Comments

  1. Love the kitchen: looks like the cupboards have been made from Ikea Pax wardrobes…

  2. Oh thanks for those last two – I have managed to convince my husband that we should get a couple of junk-shop spindleback chairs and paint them pink (Little Greene Confetti Pink) to go with our grey kitchen and black fireplace wall 🙂

  3. The kitchen is lovely and the hallway is to die for.
    Showed the hubby and it just reminds him of olden days and dark depressing hallways, he can’t see the bigger picture. Men!

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