If we won't install it, we won't sell it.
Every porcelain, stone, and floor we carry has been laid on a job site by someone on staff. If a product can't be installed cleanly, it doesn't make it to the showroom.
The studio
A small studio with a long memory.
Datumly grew out of a renovation that taught its founders, in the most expensive way possible, that material and labour belong under one roof. Eleven years later we are still arguing about grout, in a working studio in San Mateo.
Origin
Founded by people who finished the work themselves.
The studio was started in 2014 by Aleksandr Wynne, a former hospitality builder, and Helena Thorvald, a tile setter who came up through her family's lineage in Northern Italy. They had each spent a decade discovering, separately, that the prettiest specification in the world is worthless if the installer can't get it onto the wall.
Datumly is what they built to close that gap. It's a small studio because closing the gap is harder at scale — and because we'd rather know every project on our schedule by name.
How we work
Three rules that have not changed since 2014.
Direct mill relationships, not stockists.
We buy from the people who make the material. It means longer lead times occasionally, but it also means we can pull from the full range, troubleshoot batches, and fly samples in a week.
One specifier per project.
You will speak to the same person from first studio session to closeout. No relay races between sales, design, and operations. The handoffs are where projects fall apart.
The team
Six people, no juniors, no sales floor.
Everyone in the studio has hands-on experience with the material they specify. We hire slowly, train deeply, and pay people to stay.
Aleksandr Wynne
Co-founder · Stone & Tile Specifier
15 years in residential builds; certified TCNA Master Installer; reads grout joints for a living.
Helena Thorvald
Co-founder · Studio Director
Third-generation tile setter; led the bath programme for two boutique builders before opening the studio.
Renata Cho
Senior Specifier
Trained at Politecnico di Milano; runs the wood-floor and large-format porcelain programmes.
Beau Yamashita
Lead Installer, Crew One
22 years on the trowel; specialises in waterproofing and sloped wet-room substrates.
Mireille Fonseca
Lead Installer, Crew Two
14 years on engineered hardwood and large-format slab; came to us from a flooring mill in Porto.
Quinton Adair
Studio Manager
Schedules every crew, batch, and sample round-trip. The reason your delivery actually arrives.
Drop by the showroom.
The kettle is usually on. The samples are always out.