THE LITTLE THINGS

Digital designer and self-professed dandy Sergio Ines rolled up his sleeves to design and fitout a perfectly petite inner city loft— all within a compact budget and just a few months.

- DOMINIQUE HERMAN

Getting rid of his appliances was out of the question for Sergio Ines when he relocated from his apartment in Johannesburg to a city centre eyrie in Cape Town. So, despite the doll-like proportions of his new duplex one bedroom, he skilfully and inconspicuously managed to build his six appliances into slots designed with just a millimetre or two to spare.

'I didn't want to feel like I was living in a small space with really small appliances.

So I ended up designing everything around them,' says the advertising agency art director of the 68m² space he shares with his girlfriend, Elzaan van der Merwe.

Although he works in design at Cape Town agency 99c and pens a popular blog called What My Boyfriend Wore, Sergio wasn't accustomed to laying out interior spaces. He inevitably ran into 'some issues' in such close quarters. In one instance, the washing machine wouldn't fit into its designated slot. He hadn't considered the space taken up by the plug on the side when measuring. Luckily it was easy to rewire!'

There was also a tight budget so, in addition to drawing up plans, he did a spot of joinery too: 'I designed the kitchen and gave the spec to guys who built the carcasses. Then I ordered the doors on their own from a special supplier, as well as the handles the tops - and then assembled it all myself. That was a first for me. I was quite keen to figure out how to do it I thought, if I can learn how to build in a small space, then perhaps in the future I could apply what I know to a much larger one'. He considered every nook and cranny as a source of potential space.