Sergio Ines is a sharp dresser, but he’s not averse to rolling up his sleeves and getting stuck in. A case in point? The design and construction of his downtown Cape Town apartment, which is packed with stylish ideas for making the most of a compact space Getting rid of his appliances was out of the question for Sergio Ines when he relocated from his apartment in Johan nesburg to a city centre eyrie in Cape Town. So, despite the doll-like proportions of his new duplex one-bedroom, he managed skilfully and inconspicuously 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. Everything had to be designed around them," says the advertising agency art director of the approximately 78m2 space he shares with his project-manager girlfriend, Elzaan van der Merwe.Although he works in design at Cape Town agency 99c and with his style blog whatmyboyfriendwore.com, Sergio wasn't accustomed to laying out interior spaces, so inevitably he ran into "some issues". In one instance, the washing machine wouldn't fit into its designated slot because he hadn't taken the space required to accommodate the plug on the side into consideration when measuring. So he rewired the plug into the back.full_story_image_vleft1There was also a tight budget, so, in addition to drawing up plans, he did a spot of joinery: "I designed the kitchen. I gave the spec to guys who built the carcasses. Then I ordered the doors on their own from a special supplier, the handles on their own, the tops - and then I put up all the doors, all the drawers. That was a first for me. I was quite keen to know how it's done because I thought if I can learn to do it in a small space, then perhaps in the future I could learn to do it in a very big space."He also designed the plywood storage unit under the staircase with slots for his LP, wine and James Jarvis vinyl toy collections. To do all of this, Sergio watched YouTube videos and asked friends for advice. "It's obvious - not a big deal. As soon as you get it going, it all falls into place." He also credits his builder, Adnaan Habib of Tanabaru Construction, in helping to complete the renovations and build most of the joinery Sergio designed in two months.To economise as much as possible, remainder pieces from one room were used in another. Two offcuts from the MDF (heat-pressed with a high-gloss laminate) that was used for the kitchen cupboard doors were duly dispatched to the bathroom for the vanity cupboards and the medicine cabinet, for example. (Sergio also designed the latter.)Screed was too expensive an option. So once the floor tiles were ripped up, raw concrete was installed - at a fraction of the price - to achieve the "even but not flat grey" look that Sergio was after. Fortunately, the apartment faces west so the late-afternoon sun that floods in through the skylight-style, flip-up windows keeps the floor warm during colder months.full_story_image_vleft2story_article_right1The really tricky part was finding a builder willing to open up the cramped space next to the windows, where some drywall was hiding a dramatic architectural detail of slanted steel beams. "The thing that I struggled with was trying to find the people to do the ideas. Everyone just wants to do stuff standard - how it normally gets done. And they've got a thousand reasons why they can't do it the way that you would like it."Sergio had managed a big renovation in Johannesburg and had learnt a lot about what could and could not be done. As a result, he says, he didn't have blue-sky thinking that whatever outlandish idea entered his head was achievable. At the same time, he wasn't dissuaded from not doing things he wanted to do that he knew could be done. "There's got to be a way," he told professionals who came to assess the work. And because he was renting an apartment nearby, and his office is within walking distance, he was able to easily dash back and forth to meet suppliers on site.Sergio looked at a lot of properties before settling on this one at the end of 2013. It had a desirable set-up for a split space (with a guest loo downstairs) and everything he required - other than a large balcony. Yet he has plans to make the matchbox-sized existing balcony a living space anyway, by repositioning the bulky air-conditioning units higher up and constructing a bar counter cantilevered off the edge of the wall. "This was the only place I walked into," says Sergio, "where I could see the ideas straight away."..