I spent six years at a firm where a living room cost eleven thousand dollars and four months.
Most of both went on meetings. I would drive across town to look at a wall I had already been sent eleven photographs of, and the client paid for the drive at a designer’s rate. The part that actually changed the room — the plan, the palette, the list of what to buy — took about a fortnight of real work.
So Alcovea sells that fortnight, and nothing around it. You send photographs and a few measurements. A scaled plan, a palette fixed against your own light, a priced list and an install guide come back. Everything a design firm normally bills for in between is the part I removed on purpose, and the price is what is left when you take it out.
People ask whether a room can really be designed by someone who has not stood in it. One hundred and forty-two times now, in seven states, the answer has been yes — provided the measurements are right, which is why we would rather redraw a plan for free than guess.
Nadia Ferrant
Founder · Alcovea Studio
Seven years, counted
Every room the studio has drawn.
2019
04
Opened in March with one desk and two clients from a former employer.
2020
14
Home offices, mostly. The questionnaire took its present shape this year.
2021
18
First kitchen package, and the first trade quote coordinated for a client.
2022
23
Marcus joined. Turnaround dropped from 21 days to 16.
2023
29
Supplier list rebuilt around lead times we measure ourselves.
2024
62
A waiting list for the first time. Intake moved to fixed monthly windows.
2025
51
Fewer rooms, larger ones. Six open-plan kitchens against one the year before.
Counted on the day each pack shipped. 2026 is not here because the year is not finished.
Nadia draws the plan, Marcus takes anything with cabinetry in it, Iris prices every line and checks stock the morning your pack ships. There is no account manager between you and them.