Case Study № 01 — KBF Design Gallery · Maitland, FL

KBF Design Gallery — the AI case study Datum is built on.

Datum Consulting teaches AI to the building industry from inside KBF Design Gallery — a design-build remodeling firm in Maitland, FL that grew from $5.2M to $13.8M in revenue while these workflows went in.6 This page is the full account of the first workflow: one designer, one 7-hour task, and the week of building that turned it into about 30 minutes — with every number footnoted.

Viewing as your trade

Read the story Every number below is footnoted

KBF Design Gallery building exterior, Maitland, Florida — **Exhibit A** · KBF Design Gallery · Maitland, FLHome of the method

7 hrs → 30 min

Per project scope — drafted, then human-reviewed1

490hrs

Returned to one designer in one year2

$41,500

One task · one person · one year3

23%

Of her working year reclaimed for design4

70projects

Run by KBF last year — the test floor7

13.8M

KBF revenue in 2025 — up from $5.2M in 20216

Exhibit 01 · The story

One designer. One task. 490 hours a year.

Before Datum was a cohort, it was a method — built because one number on KBF's floor was too loud to ignore.

“Our lead designer was spending 7 hours per job writing scopes, estimates, and proposals — before a single design decision had been made.”
Adam Vellequette · founder, Datum · runs KBF Design Gallery

She wrote scopes by hand. Every project. Seven hours each.1 Last year KBF ran 70 projects,7 so that one repeatable task consumed 490 hours of her year.2 At her fully-loaded rate of $85 an hour, it cost $41,500 — one task, one person, one year.3

Datum built a purpose-built app in one week around that task. It turns a short project conversation — about 20 minutes — into scopes, pricing, proposals, storyboards, and selections. Not a chat window: a controlled workflow with clear inputs, clear outputs, and a review step a person owns.

Draft — ready for human review

That label ships on every artifact the workflow produces. The AI drafts; a person signs every line before a client sees one. The review step isn't a caveat — it's the workflow, and it's the first thing Datum teaches.

The same scope now takes about 30 minutes.1 The 490 hours went back into actual design work — 23% of her working year, reclaimed.4 Revenue capacity rose over 20% with no new hires.5

The context matters: while these workflows went in, KBF grew from $5.2M in revenue in 2021 to $13.8M in 2025.6 The scope engine wasn't a demo built for a sales page — it runs on a real floor, against real scopes, schedules, selections, and field conditions. Every method Datum teaches ran here first.

Every business has a task like this hiding in plain sight. Datum's work — the cohort, the community, the 1-on-1 paths — is helping you find yours and turn it into a controlled workflow with review where it belongs.

See the design-build work itself at kbfdesigngallery.com →

Exhibit 02 · The floor, x-rayed

Five stations. AI does the drudge work; people make the calls.

The KBF operating floor from intake to handoff. Open any station — the full story is on file, and nothing moves to a client without a human signature.

KBF operating floor · plan view

Scope · 7 hrs → 30 min

Drafted from the intake conversation, labeled a draft, signed by a person before a client sees it.1

Selections govern pricing

The selection sheet is the pricing source of truth, so scope and price can't drift apart.

Price-shopped before the PO

Identical SKUs hunted across suppliers, quoted vs. street price, line by line. A buyer approves every swap.

One file to the field

Scope, selections, exclusions, assumptions — the same file the client signed. The paper trail is the warranty.

01IntakeSource: KBF project files

Every project starts as a 20-minute recorded conversation — the client, the space, the wish list. That conversation becomes the single source of truth the rest of the floor reads from. No retyping, no relying on memory: the file is opened once and never re-created.

02Scope7 hrs → 30 min · footnote 1

Scopes were written by hand — 7 hours per project, every project.1 The workflow now drafts the same scope from the intake conversation in about 30 minutes, labeled Draft — ready for human review. A person signs every line before a client ever sees one.

03SelectionsSource: published KBF scope sample

Cabinetry, counters, tile, fixtures. At KBF the selection sheet governs final pricing, so it can't drift from the scope. The workflow keeps scope, selections, and pricing pointed at the same numbers while the designer makes the actual design calls.

04ProcurementSource: KBF procurement runs

Before a purchase order is cut, a price-shop agent takes the approved selections list and hunts the identical SKUs across suppliers — quoted vs. street price, line by line, with links. A buyer approves every swap. The agent never orders on its own.

05HandoffSource: published KBF scope sample

The field gets the same file the client signed — scope, selections, exclusions, assumptions. Unforeseen framing or sub-slab conditions become a change order with photos, not an argument. The paper trail is the warranty.

This floor took years to wire. Yours takes a 1.5-hour call to map — where the hours go, and which station to x-ray first.

Map my floor — Book Discovery · $1,500

Exhibit 03 · The math on one task

Here's what scope-writing cost our designer. What does it cost yours?

At KBF Design Gallery · Maitland, FL

Our lead designer wrote scopes by hand. Every project. Seven hours each.

Last year, she ran 70 projects. At her loaded rate of $85 an hour, that's $41,500 spent on one task, by one person, in one year.3 After Datum built the workflow around that task, she does the same work in about 30 minutes. She got 490 hours back — about a quarter of her working year — for actual design work.2

$41,500

One task · one year

490 hrs

Back · for design work

7 → 0.5

Hours per scope · measured

Adam reviewing project plans in the KBF showroom

Run the math for your team

How many jobs does your team run per year?

How many hours does someone spend on admin/coordination, per job?

5 hrs

What does that person cost you per hour, fully loaded?

$65/hr

In hours

—

In dollars

—

In bodies

—

Numbers this big? You have multiple bottlenecks. Book a Discovery call — this is not a one-workflow fix.

Book a Discovery Call

And this is just scope writing. The same controlled workflow pattern applies across the operating areas the cohort covers.

Exhibit 04 · The field record

Shot on the floor, not in a studio.

The room this method comes from. Where a frame doesn't exist yet, the slot says exactly what gets shot — nothing here will ever be stock or generated.

Client consultation at KBF Design Gallery — **Client consult · KBF showroom** — the 20-minute conversation every scope starts from.

Architectural Digest cover featuring KBF Design Gallery work — **Architectural Digest** — Excellence in Design · KBF work on the record.

Asset to shoot The selections library · where the sheet governs pricing

Selections library · KBF — the pricing source of truth.

Asset to shoot The review pass · draft → signed · a human on every line

The review pass — 70 projects last year, one designer, every line signed.7

Asset to shoot The price-shop run · procurement before the PO is cut

Procurement — quoted vs. street price; a buyer approves every swap.

Florida Design magazine Seaglass Awards 2025 issue featuring KBF Design Gallery — **Florida Design · Seaglass Awards** — the design work the hours went back into.

Exhibit 05 · Honest comparison

Sure, ChatGPT is free. But what's it actually built for your team?

Most owners who experiment alone are no further along a year later. Here's the difference.

Capability	Datum	ChatGPT / Claude direct	Generic AI consultant	DIY (in-house)
Built specifically for the building industry	✓	✗	✗	depends
Controlled workflows with clear inputs, outputs, and review	✓	manual	varies	depends
Source-grounded work against your actual business context	✓	if you build it	depends	depends
Built by an operator who runs a real design-build firm	✓	✗	✗	n/a
Practical first workflow selected before tools take over	✓	✗	sometimes	maybe
Your software stack evaluated for useful connection points	✓	✗	varies	maybe
Knows what "punch list" or "rough-in" actually means	✓	sort of	✗	✓
Your team learns the practical operating pattern	✓	✗	varies	maybe
Human accountability and review points stay explicit	✓	manual	varies	✓

Bottom line — Datum is for controlled AI capability inside real building-industry work, not generic advice detached from the business. Book a Discovery Call

Exhibit 06 · The operators

A design-build operator and a brand operator. Both still in the work.

Adam and Ashley have run the workflows they're teaching — from demo and trades all the way to $13.8M in revenue.6 Everything in the cohort is grounded in operating work at KBF.

Founder · Datum · KBF Design Gallery

Adam Vellequette

Adam grew up in his family's remodeling business — demo in high school, then tile, cabinetry, and framing alongside KBF's tradesmen before moving into sales and operations. In 2021, he and his sister Ashley bought the company at $5.2M in revenue; by 2025 it reached $13.8M. Every bottleneck he solved along the way became part of the Datum method.

Florida Design · Seaglass Award · 2024, 2025 Architectural Digest · Excellence in Design Orlando Magazine Home Design Awards · 2022-2026 Golden 100 · Top Private Cos. · OBJ Qualified Remodeler Top 500 · since 2012 Custom Builder Online · AI in Building and Design · 2026 Revenue · 2021 → 2025 · $5.2M → $13.8M

Datum Collaborator · KBF Design Gallery

Ashley Sheaffer

Ashley started at KBF as a receptionist straight out of college, earned her NKBA certification as a kitchen and bath designer, rose through sales management, and became co-owner alongside Adam in 2021. She knows the workflows from the ground up — which is exactly why she understands what AI should and shouldn't touch.

Women of the Year · Orlando Magazine · 2022 40 Under 40 · Pro Remodeler · 2025 NKBA Certified Kitchen & Bath Designer NKBA Essence of Luxury · 2025 Women at WIRC · AI workflow feature · 2026 Parade of Homes Orlando · award-winning work Orlando Magazine Home Design Awards · 2022-2026

Exhibit 07 · The proof chain

Every number on this page, accounted for.

Marketing sites round up. Evidence rooms cite. Here is where each figure comes from — and the arithmetic between them, labeled as arithmetic.

Footnotes · chain of custody

7 hours → about 30 minutes per project scope. Measured on KBF project work before and after the workflow went in; drafts ship labeled Draft — ready for human review and are signed by a person. Source: KBF Design Gallery project logs.
490 hours per year. Arithmetic: 70 projects × 7 hours per scope.
$41,500 per year. Arithmetic: 490 hours × $85/hour fully-loaded rate. Source: KBF payroll basis.
23% of a working year. Arithmetic: 490 ÷ 2,080 working hours.
20%+ increase in revenue capacity, no new hires. Source: KBF Design Gallery operating records.
$5.2M → $13.8M in revenue, 2021 → 2025. Source: KBF Design Gallery company records.
70 projects run last year. Source: KBF Design Gallery company records.

Sources on file at KBF Design Gallery, Maitland, FL — the firm itself is at kbfdesigngallery.com. Want the backup? Bring your skepticism to a Discovery call — it's welcome here.

Your floor is next.

KBF started with one loud number, one week of building, and a review step a person owns. Pick the way in that fits how you work — every path starts small and stays practical.

Map my floor — Book Discovery · $1,500 Reserve the Cohort — $2,500

Datum Community

Private Discord · cancel anytime

Weekly workflow drops, office hours, and the exact prompts KBF runs — learn alongside peers before buying anything bigger.

$200/mo Join the Discord

Foundations of AI — Live Cohort

July 21 + 22, 2026 · 4–6 PM ET · live virtual

Two hands-on evenings: setup, prompting, workflows, and the judgment that carries — taught on the tools KBF actually runs.

$2,500 Reserve Cohort

Discovery Call

1.5 hrs · virtual · 1-on-1

Your floor, x-rayed the way KBF's is above — the three workflows worth automating first, with the math on each.

$1,500 Book Discovery

Private Training

Scoped to your team

Your team, your workflows, your data — trained privately on the tools KBF runs, without learning in public.

$1,500+ Private Training

Custom Build + Staff Training

Custom quote · starts with an intake

Datum builds the workflow with you — like the scope engine above — then trains the staff who run it.

Custom Start an intake

See the full paths register on the homepage →