A curving stair and white balustrade seen from above, under globe pendants, an interior by Apel Design

Interior Design · Interior Architecture

The room begins with its plan, section and light.

Apel Design provides interior architecture for homes in Malibu, Los Angeles and Southern California: the plans, ceilings, stairs, openings, fireplaces and millwork that give each room its shape before any furniture arrives.

The idea

Decoration sits on a room. Interior architecture is the room.

Most interiors are finished from the surface inward: a color, a sofa, a lamp. We work the other way. Interior architecture sets the height of a ceiling, the width of a doorway, the place where a stair turns and the depth of a window reveal. Those choices decide where light falls and how a person moves, and no amount of furnishing can correct them once they are wrong.

So the studio draws the interior in section as well as in plan. A stair becomes a sculpture at the center of the house. A hall of arches becomes a gallery. Cabinetry is set into walls as part of their thickness rather than placed against them, and a fireplace is composed with the ceiling above it. The furniture, when it comes, has a room worth answering.

Knowledge + experience

The parts of a room that stay when the furniture leaves.

Six elements the studio designs as architecture, drawn and detailed with the same care as the house around them.

Plan and sequence

The order of rooms, the width of halls and the line of sight from the entry, arranged so the house unfolds rather than simply connects.

Ceilings and volume

Coffers, beams, vaults and patterned planes, with heights varied between rooms so a lower passage makes the next space feel generous.

Stairs as sculpture

Floating treads, curved stringers, glass and timber rails, designed as the one object every floor of the house can see.

Openings and thresholds

Arches, pivot doors, window reveals and glass corners, proportioned so each passage from room to room, or room to garden, registers as an event.

Fireplaces and hearths

The fireplace composed as a wall, in stone, plaster or metal, with its mantel, hearth and flanking shelves drawn together.

Architectural millwork

Cabinetry, paneling and bench seating set into the walls, detailed to the reveal so storage reads as part of the room's structure.

Selected work

Stairs, halls and openings, drawn as architecture.

Rooms from the studio's portfolio where the plan, the stair and the ceiling carry the design, including two halls at Merritt Estate.

Timber treads on a steel spine rise inside a glass stairwell beside the entry, an interior by Apel Design

A hall of white arches under orb chandeliers, opening to living and dining rooms, an interior by Apel Design

Black treads beside a glass rail and a black wall plane in a white hall, an interior by Apel Design

Glass balustrades and black angled panels frame an open stair beside a dining area, an interior by Apel Design

Floating timber treads rise along a collaged wall beside a black-framed glass door, an interior by Apel Design

A curving timber landing with metal rails holds a grand piano above the living room, an interior by Apel Design

Open timber treads climb a stone wall toward an arched window, at Merritt Estate in Malibu, by Apel Design

Vertical timber slats screen a stair and cast bars of light across a white wall, an interior by Apel Design

An upper hall with cable rails above a timber stair and a graphic wall, an interior by Apel Design

A glass floor panel looks down to a planted light well beside an open stair, an interior by Apel Design

Timber treads and glass rails rise over an indoor garden in a double-height game room, an interior by Apel Design

A long hall of black-framed glass under dark beams, ending at an ocean view, an interior by Apel Design

A living room under a geometric patterned ceiling, with arched glass doors to the garden, an interior by Apel Design

A tall black-framed glass door and a corner of floor-to-ceiling glass facing a garden, an interior by Apel Design

A stone-walled hall under timber beams, lined with cabinetry and arched windows, at Merritt Estate in Malibu, by Apel Design

A living room under a curved ceiling cut with an oval opening, at Sycamore Meadows in Malibu, by Apel Design, shown as a design visualization

The path

From section drawing to finished room.

Survey

We measure the house and study its light, views and structure, noting what each room could become.

Plan and section

Plans, sections and ceiling drawings fix heights, openings and the stair before a finish is chosen.

Detail

Millwork, fireplaces, rails and reveals are detailed at full scale, with samples and models to test proportion.

Review

The studio reviews shop drawings and visits the site, checking that every dimension and detail matches the design intent.

Design-Build interiors

Designed by Apel Design, built through Design-Build.

Rooms from Mintcello, The Aviator and Maliview, where the studio carried its own design through Design-Build, with construction by Creative New Dimensions Inc, in conjunction with Apel Design for Design-Build.

A curving white stair with patterned tile risers climbs beside a stone wall, at Mintcello in Malibu, by Apel Design

A sculpted white planter curves out from a stone wall beneath the stair, at Mintcello in Malibu, by Apel Design

The tiled stair rising past a stone wall to a round screened opening, at Mintcello in Malibu, by Apel Design

A red and gray stair climbs a double-height room beside glass walls, at The Aviator in Malibu, by Apel Design

A corridor framed by nested red and blue portals edged in light, at The Aviator in Malibu, by Apel Design

A round window set in a deep curved reveal frames the mountains, at The Aviator in Malibu, by Apel Design

A stair with a stone-clad underside and a patterned iron rail, at Maliview in the Malibu Mountains, by Apel Design

The stair hall and rooms beyond, across a polished gray floor, at Maliview in the Malibu Mountains, by Apel Design

An entry hall with a lit niche set into plank walls, at Surfside in Malibu, by Apel Design, shown as a design visualization

Questions

Useful clarity before the first conversation.

What is interior architecture, and how is it different from decoration?

Interior architecture shapes the room itself: its plan, ceiling heights, stairs, openings, fireplaces and fitted millwork. Decoration works within that shell, with furniture, fabric, art and accessories. Apel Design does both, but begins with the architecture, because a well-proportioned room makes every later choice easier and a poorly proportioned one limits them all.

Can you redesign the interior architecture of an existing home?

Yes. Many projects start with a house whose rooms feel wrong for reasons furniture cannot fix: a low ceiling, a cramped stair, a hall with no light. The studio studies the existing house and proposes changes to openings, ceilings, stairs and millwork, from one room to the whole interior, working within what the structure allows.

When should interior architecture start on a new house?

As early as the floor plan. Ceiling heights, stair placement, window positions and wall thickness are set in the first drawings, and changing them later costs time and compromise. When the interior is designed alongside the architecture, the fireplace, the millwork and the light belong to the house from the beginning rather than added to it.

Does Apel Design stay involved once the house is under construction?

Yes. Apel Design can lead an interior from the first sketch to the final placement, whether the house is delivered through our Design-Build practice or built by a contractor of the client's choosing, with the studio overseeing the interior work. Design-Build projects proceed with construction by Creative New Dimensions Inc, in conjunction with Apel Design for Design-Build.

Let’s shape the experience: from room to object.

Start a project

Or ask one question, or call (310) 317-0500.