Local Registered Interior Designer Agni Pavlidou Kyprianou may be a go-to resource for a growing number of business owners looking to create unique, welcoming atmospheres — but the real work she does for her growing portfolio of satisfied clients begins long before settling down at the drawing board and involves a lot more than simply churning out creative impressions.

“From the moment we first meet, I am listening,” she recently told The Newtown Bee during a pre grand opening walk-through with her latest clients at Five Corners Bistro in Farmington. “So much of this work, and what the clients say is part of the reason they hire me, is because I’m not only listening to their ideas and bringing them to life, but keeping the project on track by keeping the clients loyal to the original ideas we agreed to pursue.”

So it’s not as much like herding cats as it is simply keeping clients on track as agreed upon once Ms Kyprianou (whose company is called APK Designs) does begin finalizing designs and assisting with compiling the colors, materials, and accessories that everyone originally agreed upon.

“That is not to say we don’t tweak things along the way and occasionally up to the final few days,” she said, “but I look at my work more holistically — creating a particular look and feel to interior commercial spaces and ensuring things don’t get out of control along the way.”

She said it used to be that designers had the keys to the kingdom when it came to materials like paint, wallpaper, accent pieces, furnishings, various lighting fixtures, and floor plans.

“But today, I’m finding clients are going onto the internet and social sites and constantly getting new ideas and information,” she said. “So it’s an important part of my job to keep bringing them back to the original plan and reminding them why we settled on it in the first place.”

Once Ms Kyprianou and her clients do settle on materials, colors, and other design parameters, she is free to switch from surrogate project manager to creative — and then the real magic happens, as evidenced by the many images splashed throughout her company website, apk-designs.com.

And her clients appear to agree.

Her latest rave review came from Christos Theodoropoulos, owner and General Manager at Five Corners Bistro & Craft Bar, who said, “APK designs has accomplished what we were expecting for our restaurant design.”

Mr Theodoropoulos said he wanted to justice to the property’s midcentury contemporary building by keeping in line with midcentury decor.

“It was completely run down and neglected over the years, and it was time to revive our gem,” he said. “Agni’s modern sense of style had appealed to us, and we chose her to fulfill our vision. She came through by doing her research, taking us through her ideas with mood boards, and allowing us to select from a variety of finishes/fixtures for each component of the project.’

And when the project hit a snag over lighting design plans, Mr Theodoropoulos credited Ms Kyprianou for “stepping in and giving us every bit of her effort to keep us on track with our buildout. She is worth every penny and will give any client a design that is modern and timeless. We highly recommend APK for [any] commercial project.”

Local Rave Reviews

More locally, Ms Kyprianou was humbled to hear from various clients. Denise Buzy-Pucheu at the Persnickety Bride on South Main Street, said she was very pleased with the design Agni put forth for her new bridal salon and stationery store.

“It is fresh-looking, contemporary, and inviting,” Ms Buzy-Pucheu said of the design work. “Agni is very meticulous in her work, and her team of contractors were very good and lovely people. Overall an excellent design and strong execution team.”

Melanie Allen at Avancé Spa in the Village at Lexington Garden said APK Designs “worked tirelessly with me for over a year to design the beautiful interior of my new day spa.”

“From conception through construction Agni is the consummate professional: always readily available, responsive, and even heroic at crunch times during construction,” Ms Allen said.

Even the many customers who enjoyed the cozy dining experience of David Cooper’s original Dere Street eatery at the flag pole on Main Street were immersed in an atmosphere of Ms Kyprianou’s creation.

“She proved to be much more than just my designer,” Mr Cooper said. “Agni handled all aspects of the project, including architectural designs, and acted as my General Contractor, overseeing the entire project. Whilst I hired the plumber and electrician, Agni proved to be an invaluable source for all the other contractors needed to complete the project.”

Mr Cooper raved that Ms Kyprianou far surpassed his expectations, designing a bright, colorful interior, the likes of which has never been seen before in Newtown.

“The buzz words I gave her to work with included, modern, hip, colorful, bright, conversational, and boy did she come through,” he added. “She is easy to work, always available and full of great advice and ideas. The greatest thing about Agni is that you can just let her run with your vision.’

Living Her Dream

Vision is something that has always been a key element of Ms Kyprianou’s work — even before she launched her own design firm out of her Newtown home.

Originally schooled in computer programming, she spent her “first career” designing database applications for financial institutions and Wall Street clients. After taking a few years off to be a first-time mom, she decided she was not going to go back to school to catch up with all the technology advances that occurred during her time away.

“So I decided to do something I always loved,” she said. “When I was even a little girl and we’d visit friends and family — in my head, I would look around and move their walls. Space planning came very natural to me. But my parents didn’t see me pursuing an arts field, so they gently pushed me into the computing field.”

But once she decided to live her dream “in [her] 40s,” Ms Kyprianou began to discover she was not interested in the decorating aspect of architecture, “so I found a school that had an accredited program interior architecture and design. So 80 percent of my expertise is geared toward interior architecture versus decorating.”

Ms Kyprianou said she has discovered a lot of interior designers don’t have this accreditation, and it is a make or break element for anyone like her with a flair for commercial design.

‘You become familiar with dealing with fire codes, building codes, commercial grade materials and systems, and how to plan out commercial space,” she said. “The more I immersed myself in that field, the more drawn I became to it.”

The native of Cyprus said she spent some of her childhood witnessing the terrors of war.

“When I was six years old, the Turkish army invaded half the island, and we evacuated for a few days,” she said. Luckily, her family home was not among those eventually occupied by military invaders.

After she decided on her career change, she studied fine arts in Southern California. Then it was back to Cyprus for several years where she began doing commercial design work.

Upon returning to the states, Ms Kyprianou went to work for a Hartford firm for a period of time to achieve the amount of practical training required for her certification.

While she does select residential work for friends and family, Ms Kyprianou said she prefers working in and around commercial construction sites.

“We move into an interior space, do all the construction drawings, we work with the contractors, design ceilings, take down walls, coordinate with the construction engineer, and may even consult unofficially on exterior design,” she said. “Any local person interested in hospitality and corporate work, or select large-scale residential renovations, I’m in town and my rates are very reasonable.’

For more information, or to schedule a consultation, reach Ms Kyprianou at 203-482-6308 or through her website apk-designs.com.