A living room with a navy wall, gold ring pendants, white sofas and velvet chairs, an interior by Apel Design

Interior Design · Procurement + Installation

The room is finished when the last piece is placed.

Apel Design specifies, sources and places the furniture, fixtures, finishes and art for private homes in Malibu, Los Angeles and Southern California, managing orders, lead times, deliveries and installation day under one design team.

The idea

A design is only as good as what arrives.

A drawing can promise a room, but the room is made of objects: a sofa made to a particular depth, a pendant hung at a particular height, a stone that matches its sample. Procurement is where that promise is kept or lost. The studio writes the furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) specification as a design document, so every piece is chosen for its place in the plan, its scale and its finish, not picked from a catalog later.

Installation is the other half of the same idea. When the furniture is carried in, the art is unwrapped and the rugs are laid, decisions still remain: which way a chair turns, how high a canvas hangs, where a bowl sits on a table. Those choices belong to the designer who drew the room. Apel Design stays through that day, so the house is handed over composed, styled and ready to live in.

Knowledge + experience

Every piece specified, tracked and placed.

Six parts of the work that carry a design from the drawing to the finished room.

FF&E specification

Schedules for every furnishing, fixture and finish, with dimensions, materials, quantities and placement keyed to the plan.

Sourcing and custom orders

Trade sources, workrooms and makers for pieces that must be made to measure, from sofas and rugs to lighting.

Lead times

Orders sequenced so the longest-lead pieces are released first and nothing arrives after the room needs it.

Tracking and receiving

Every order followed from the maker to the receiving warehouse, inspected on arrival and held until the house is ready.

Installation day

Furniture, rugs, lighting and accessories placed to the plan in a set sequence, with the designer present throughout.

Styling and art hanging

Books, objects, flowers and art composed and hung at heights and spacings set for each wall and surface.

Selected work

Rooms completed down to the last object.

Finished interiors where the furniture, lighting, art and objects were specified and composed as one design.

Blue tufted sofas and a brass-based table facing a backlit stone bar wall, an interior by Apel Design — **Backlit bar lounge**Seating composed to the bar wall

Round white lounge chairs around a stone table, with a billiard table beyond, an interior by Apel Design — **Lounge and billiards**Furniture zones in one long room

A wood console with a lamp and vases below a large wave photograph, an interior by Apel Design — **Styled console and shelves**Styling as the final layer

A white sofa, stone table with orchids and a woven wall disc facing the ocean, an interior by Apel Design — **Woven disc and orchids**Pieces scaled to the view

A white dining table and black chairs beside a large dark canvas and steel-framed glass, an interior by Apel Design — **Dining room and canvas**Art hung to the room's scale

The path

From specification to a finished room.

Specify

The design becomes schedules, finish boards and approved samples for every piece the room will hold.

Source

Pieces are priced, ordered and made, with custom work reviewed at shop drawings and finish samples before production.

Receive

Deliveries are consolidated, inspected for damage and matched to the schedule, so installation starts with a complete set.

Oversee

The studio directs installation and reviews the installers' work against the drawings until every piece sits where it was designed.

Design-Build interiors

Designed by Apel Design, built through Design-Build.

Rooms from Maliview, Mintcello and The Aviator, 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 white sectional and carved round table facing mountains at dusk, at Maliview in the Malibu Mountains, by Apel Design — **Maliview**Malibu Mountains

A concrete-floored sitting area with woven-back chairs and a driftwood sculpture, at Maliview in the Malibu Mountains, by Apel Design — **Maliview**Malibu Mountains

A stone-walled sitting room with a white fireplace, arched windows and potted trees, at Mintcello in Malibu, by Apel Design — **Mintcello**Malibu

Striped cushions on a curved banquette under stone walls and arched niches, at Mintcello in Malibu, by Apel Design — **Mintcello**Malibu

A yellow sectional and a kitchen island beside a red stair wall, at The Aviator in Malibu, by Apel Design — **The Aviator**Malibu

A game room with a vintage pinball machine and a round window, at The Aviator in Malibu, by Apel Design — **The Aviator**Malibu

Questions

Useful clarity before the first conversation.

What does interior procurement include?

Procurement covers everything a room holds once the finishes are in: furniture, lighting, rugs, window treatments, accessories and art. The studio writes the FF&E schedule, gathers quotes, places orders, follows production, arranges freight and receiving, and checks each piece against its specification before it reaches the house.

How long do custom furniture and lighting take to arrive?

Lead times vary widely. Stocked pieces can arrive in weeks, while upholstery made to order, custom lighting and hand-knotted rugs often take several months. The studio orders the longest items first and plans installation around their arrival, so the house is completed in one coordinated sequence rather than room by room.

What happens on installation day?

Pieces come from the receiving warehouse in a planned order. Rugs go down first, then furniture, lighting and art, with the designer placing each piece to the plan and adjusting it in the room. Styling follows, with books, objects, bedding and flowers, so the house is ready to live in when the team leaves.

Can Apel Design oversee the interior if another contractor builds the house?

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. Under Design-Build, construction is by Creative New Dimensions Inc, in conjunction with Apel Design for Design-Build.

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

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