The atelier
A tailor's practice, applied to a kitchen
A tailor does not sell you a suit from a rail. He measures, cuts, fits and then adjusts again. A kitchen deserves the same care, but it also needs one person to keep every specialist moving to the same drawing. That is the role I take.
Five stages
Survey
Two hours in your room, with a laser and a pencil.
I measure the space myself rather than working from an architect's plan alone. Wall deviation, floor fall, service positions, window reveals and the height of the people who cook are all recorded, because they all change the drawing every trade will use.
Drawing
Resolved on paper before anyone is briefed.
Elevations at scale, reveals dimensioned, appliance clearances checked against the actual model numbers. You see the kitchen as lines and shadow gaps first, which is the only honest way to judge it before the builders start.
Material
Chosen from the slab and the sprayed door, never the swatch.
We stand in the stone yard together and mark the layout. Lacquers are mixed to sample and sprayed on a full door, then stood in your room at three times of day. Nothing is confirmed from a fan deck.
Coordination
Plumbers, electricians, builders and tilers, all reading one brief.
I run the site meetings and keep the sequence tight. Every specialist is briefed to the same drawing, so the installation is not left to chance and the details are not argued about on the day.
Handover
I am there for the final walk-through, and I stay until it is right.
Alignment is checked against the drawing, hardware is adjusted, and the last hour is given to the things you will notice every day. The kitchen is only finished when it works the way it was designed to.
The person behind it
You deal with me, start to finish.
I founded Apex Designs because high-end kitchens kept being handed along a chain, from designer to salesperson to installer, with the detail lost somewhere in between. Here, I keep that chain in one hand. I design, survey and coordinate the specialists, and I stay on the project until the details are right.
A few commissions a year, each treated as if it were going into my own home. If that is how you would like to build, I would like to see your plans.
What I will and will not do
Kitchens only
No wardrobes, no vanities, no shopfitting. One room type, done to the end of its detail.
Nothing rustic
No farmhouse profiles, no distressed finishes, no reclaimed timber. High-end surfaces exclusively.
A handful a year
The calendar is limited so each commission gets the site time and attention it needs.
One point of contact
You brief me, and I carry that brief to every specialist on site.