Apt Kitchen & Closet Installations Pty Ltd

This is the story of the Musocha family's kitchen—a project that became a personal mission to conquer the very specific challenges of renovating in Zambia. It was a journey that pitted professional design principles against local realities, and one that ultimately proved that with the right skill and perseverance, it is possible to excel. View of the new kitchen's cooker section The desire for this renovation had been simmering since the mid-2010s. An initial attempt around 2016 ended in disaster when an unqualified installer butchered a perfectly good order. The evidence was undeniable as I dismantled his handiwork; a mishmash of chaos where he had re-cut professionally finished boards, creating a puzzle of dysfunction. The old kitchen's badly structured and sagging sink unit, shortly before replacement The project was, rightly, abandoned.  Its revival in early 2025, during my visit to Zambia following the passing of my wife, presented the perfect opportunity to do things ...

Over the years, the APT Team has delivered quite a few phenomenal kitchen projects. For instance, there was Aviel's and Makenosi's, where we were literally handed a blank canvas to get creative with. And speaking of Makenosi's kitchen in particular – who can forget the almost perfect symmetry wrought by the delicate interaction between the kitchen floor tiles and the laminated flooring in the dining room, captured in that near‑iconic  image ?  On the other hand, the Mtambisis' kitchen was a lesson in optimal utilisation of tiny spaces. But the Molipas' kitchen, in the Vaal, will be distinguished for a different reason. In fact, I was literally running out of suitable adjectives trying to describe this kitchen. Suffice to say: it's stunning. A view of the sink unit from the dining room  --- A Kitchen Born from Word of Mouth and Pinterest Regular readers of this blog will recall that my team did a kitchen for the Mphahlele family in Teanong Section, Tembisa. It so...

Considering the number of Blogs in the works - that I just seem not able to complete due to other work pressures - I really was not planning another blog and certainly not one that has to be published right away. But, after the conversation that I've had lately, with one potential Client in Northmead, Benoni, on Plastered Ceilings, I think it would be helpful, not only for him but also, other Homeowners who might have similar questions in future. In that sense, this post certainly would be a good starting point to unravel the subtle differences between the two.  So what is the difference between the two?  Ceiling Plastered And Downlights Installed As Part Of A Complete Kitchen Makeover Project, Tianong Section, Thembisa  Well, put simply, a Plastered Ceiling is a Ceiling that has been skimmed with a finishing plaster product such as, Gypsum commonly referred to as Rhinolite in South Africa. It has to be noted too that, the best board for use here, is the thicker (12mm Boa...

In the course of my work as a Property Renovator, I occasionally e-hail to make site visits. And for a while now, Bolt has been my first choice for such visits.  And so it was that on Friday, 26 November, 2022, I e-hailed a Bolt to Glen Marais, Kempton Park for a project preparation meeting with a client. However, something quite odd transpired both on the outbound and inbound trips and I'll explain in a moment. I have to state, however, on the outskirts that, I'm loathe to summon a car and have the driver waiting unnecessary. In fact, even when I have to travel with my wife, who - because of a motor vehicle accident, years ago - walks with the aid of a crutch, I always ensure that we're both on the kerbside before summoning a car. Really, I loathe to have a poor Bloke turn up only to find that the the customer isn't yet at the rendezvous point. And so, this drizzly Friday afternoon, I went to my pavement and summoned a Bolt, watched it start off from wherever it was, d...

For the past couple of days, we had been busy with a bathroom makeover unlike most others – this one at Jean Gardens. And if the Mtambisis' kitchen makeover in the same complex was an ideal example of optimal kitchen space utilisation, then Mmapitsi's bathroom makeover stands as its perfect counterpart for bathroom space. Now, incidentally, while handing over the apartment to Mmapitsi after completion of the work, Ina – the caretaker – confirmed what had been my assumption all along: the Jean Gardens apartments are a product of the late 1950s to early 1960s. The evidence? Cast iron bathtubs and all those other archaic cast iron accessories. For this makeover, our brief was simple: rid the bathroom of all those bygone‑era fittings and accessories, create a passage leading to the bathroom and bedroom, and finally, brighten up the apartment overall. The finale: "Large Mirror on the wall, tell me..." 😊 --- Structural Surgery: Breathing New Life into Old Walls With regar...

It was 2005 – or somewhere around there – when I executed my first home improvement project in Tembisa. The section was near Moriting and Makhulong, one of those predominantly Sesotho‑speaking corners of the township. I cannot say for certain whether it was a Sesotho, Sepedi or Setswana area – the boundaries have blurred over time. What does stand out in my mind, though, is that my client – a lady – worked for Tembisa Hospital, situated in an aptly named area: Hospital View. The project itself was relatively minor. A tiling job. A typical, apartheid‑era Matchbox house, given new feet. But even then, even with that small job, something stuck with me. I remember thinking: I want to come back here. I want to do more than tiles. And for years, that thought sat quietly at the back of my mind. Then, late last year, an opportunity finally knocked. The Call That Came Through a Brother A mutual friend and brother, Mogau, mentioned to me that his parents had just finished tiling their kitchen fl...

To work with a gutted space – whether a house or an apartment kitchen – can be as fulfilling as a blank canvas is to an accomplished oil painter. I had that rare fulfilment with a project in the Kew area of Bramley, Johannesburg. It started on an unusually cold morning. Phakama, Sis' Melody, and I turned up at Tenerife Court, responding to an online request for a proposed kitchen makeover on the north side of Joburg. The gentleman who had called himself Aviel happened upon one of my adverts and put through a call. He wanted a site visit. I arrived, and soon learned to my delight that there were not one but two separate renovation jobs. First, two water‑damaged units at Tenerife had to be removed and replaced. But the real deal – the one that would haunt my dreams for weeks – was at Vaude, an apartment down the road, just off the famous Louis Botha Avenue. --- The Blank Canvas That Stopped Me Cold Arriving at Vaude, the sight was surreal. Here was an apartment completely hollowed ou...