Real Living Space

My former boss made me visit the home store Borders when I was a young designer back in the 90s; he knew even back then that Borders was the place to buy sophisticated, designer furniture and accessories off the floor. I especially loved their woven-headboard beds—very Ernest Hemingway.

Thankfully, Borders is still around, and it’s just the right place to get instant chic. They’ve recently moved from their main store at the GE Building to nearby LaFuerza Building along Chino Roces Ave., (near PSID), and they also have a stylish branch in Greenbelt 5. Check it out for now, and read more about it in one of our future issues.

Borders is now located at WH-C1, G/F, LaFuerza Building, Chino Roces Ave., Makati City, tel. (02) 893-2905 and 893-2908; and at 3/F, Filipino Home Zone, Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati City; URL www.borders.com.ph. Photos by At Maculangan. *

Have you heard of the term: “The customer is always complaining”? Well, I can say with all honesty that the term can apply to some of our local home stores.

I never pull out the editor card whenever I go shopping in hardware and furniture stores. I shop like everyone else—anonymously, and at the mercy of the salesperson in front of me. On that note, I’d like to gripe about the bad, bad service I recently got. Here are my top three “blind items” (in other words, marami pa sila out there):

IN A MAJOR HARDWARE STORE: I asked to see a mobile wardrobe rack that was displayed outside the store. I approached the saleslady that was stationed near the rack, and she didn’t know what I was talking about. She brusquely turned me over to the next salesperson, who also didn’t know what I was talking about. They finally referred me to a very nice man named Jojo who went out to check the item, went into the stockroom, and announced that there were no more stocks left. Wait a minute—if you’re out of that item, why are you still displaying it? In that case, I’d like to have a word with your merchandiser. Whoever you are, visit me in the office, and mag-kape muna tayo.

IN A MAJOR FURNITURE STORE: I approached two salespeople and asked for a specific brand of orthopedic mattress. They both scratched their heads and said it wasn’t available. I was suspicious, so I walked them over to a stack of mattresses, where lo and behold, the mattress I was asking for was lying there for all and sundry to see. When I asked how soon they could deliver, the second salesman answered, staring straight at my face: “Hindi ko po alam,” and didn’t bother to ask anyone else.

IN A MAJOR HOME APPLIANCE STORE: I chose a ref, checked it out, and decided to buy it. When the salesperson asked for my address, he said that he had to add on a P300 delivery charge (most major appliance stores only charge P100 to 200, anywhere within Metro Manila). Get this—I found out the warehouse where the ref was coming from is located a mere 1.2km away from my house. I asked, as a joke, that if I’d pick up the ref myself if I could charge them the P300 instead. When he couldn’t answer, I went to the next appliance store that only charged me P100 for delivery.

I feel bad about these stores, and I worry about the poor homeowners who’d get the same lousy service! If you want to find out what home stores have excellent customer service, please email me at editor@realliving.com.ph. And if you’re my very close friend, I’ll tell you what the bad stores are. Just kidding. Email me, anyway.

I love shoes. But I also love interiors. Will the twain ever meet?

My friend Mabel showed me this wallpaper from Olli and Lime, a UK-based wallpaper line for children (hmm,this one isn’t for children!), which merges both. How cute. Aww.

I think I have that many shoes na. How embarrassing.

Pierra, what do you think?

If you’ve read our shopping feature on Evangelista and Bangkal in RL’s May ish and then actually go out to these haunts, you’d probably notice that there are thrice as many stores and garahe shops than during the time RL first featured the area in 2003. The prices are a lot higher as well, and I see more designers and high-end design shop owners—out of their element—doing some bargain hunting of their own (hmmm).

But one thing remains constant in Evang: bizarro items. I don’t want to buy them, but I just love looking at ‘em. Here’s a sampler of stuff I spotted at the “bodega” near Hizon Street:

A very Renaissance-style-looking dining chair. It’s pegged at P3,800. Based on the wear and tear, it does look like it’s from that era, hehe.

Also, busts of our Bayaning Third World, Jose Rizal. The one in front has anatomically correct colors, and Rizal has actual eyelashes, which is freaky:

And by far the strangest stuff for sale ever, an assortment of ceramic sugar bowl covers—without their bowls. They’re only P5 each, but what would you do with them? Maybe I’d make a sugar-bowl-cover mosaic.

Have a sneak preview of our May issue HERE!

In our May ish, Tisha and Issa produced this feature on recycling paper products. In relation to this, I do love paper products and in this age of emails and blogs, I still make time to send out handwritten notes and jot down stuff in actual journals every so often.

I saw these at Bestsellers, and I must say, I heart these paper products!

The “Eames Office” notebook (P195) is decorated with all of Charles and Ray Eames’s classic mid-century modern chairs. The inside leaves have a grid (0.5cm) so you can actually draw scaled floor plans in it!

This is a set of 50 gift tags (P634.75) called “Cabinet of Curiosities.” It’s full of vintage-y illustrations of natural objects you’d find in an actual 18th-century cabinet of curiosities. It kinda reminds me of the UST museum.

And this is by far one of the most beautiful notebooks I’ve seen (P536.75). It’s decorated with Japanese woodblock designs, and has Japanese Haiku randomly scribbled on the edges. These are my favorites:

“Dragonfly on a rock—
absorbed
in a daydream”

“Autumn leaves
fall upon each other
rain beats on rain”

Available at Bestsellers, Robinsons Galleria and Podium. Photos by Gwyn Guanzon (thanks, Gwyn!)

When you become popular, or notorious, or loathed, you’re definitely gonna end up in the funny papers. In the case of the queen of the “perfect home” Martha Stewart, she got her own parody magazine.

Published in the mid-90s and authored by Tom Connor, Is Martha Stuart Living? is a hilarious over-the-top stab-slash-homage to the iconic personality, patterned after the equally iconic Martha Stewart Living magazine. Its sections and articles are pretty much what one would expect, though wrung in often insidious ways. In fact, the “Martha Stuart” character admits to the reader that the featured projects are undoable. “Yet by simply attempting to do what I do, you will come that much closer to knowing what it is like to be me. And that should be enough for any woman.”

Some of the mag’s inspiring to-do’s:

1) Stencil your dead pet on your driveway. The pet must be flattened first.

2) Make water from scratch. “In the beginning, I brewed a few drops at a time…to produce a full bottle of superlative water, one need to multiply my recipe by 60 billion (see “Recipes”).

3) Get your way in garage sales. “I have had to use my stun gun on only two occasions–both times, I’m happy to report, with unqualified success.”

Truly a gem of a read, even for Martha Stewart fans. It’ll be a challenge to get a copy, though. I found mine in a Book Sale bin, for an incredibly low low price of P65.00.

Featured as one of the “Most Beautiful Stores”, A11 is one of those shops you would want to live in. The furniture pieces are exquisite and the accessories are one of a kind. If you are looking for the finer things in life, then this is your shop. Tags are a bit pricey though… then again, here is your chance to get that wonderful accent chair at a reduced price.  

Trust me, shopping here is an experience.  It is located at:

Image and design by Jojit Lorenzo

My apologies for this but please indulge me… just this once. If you want to see a good and sensible Filipino film, watch “Ploning” being shown now in SM Cinemas. 

I dropped by a delightful fabric store yesterday—Rubenni Textiles. It’s hard to find at first, since it’s a tiny shop tucked unobtrusively on the ground floor of a building that’s a bit off the Kalayaan Avenue area in Makati. But once you get to find it, you’ll be rewarded with rows upon rows of fabulous interior fabrics in its barebones but absolutely cozy showroom.

For starters, they have exceptionally beautiful, designer-looking fabrics in rich colors like eggplant, mustard, and teal in reasonable prices—they have one line that ranges from P100+ to P550 a yard (mostly 60-width). I especially like the cherry blossom-damask fabric Wasabi, in a beautiful sage green, which goes for only P300/yard.

But the best part is that unlike other fabric stores that are strictly high-high or low-low, Rubenni also carries JAB Anstoetz, a line of luxurious, mostly classical European fabrics that are still used in houses of royalty. I remember using JAB working on a home of a certain billionaire prince of an oil-rich Asian country way back then. They also have the bright, candy-colored collections of UK fabric line Designers Guild by Tricia Guild. This is Designers Guild’s Taillandier fabric on the cover of the French home magazine Maison Française:

It was all so sosyal Coni and I were still talking about it while eating lunch in the turo-turo right in front of the shop.

Rubenni Textiles is located at Eduque cor. Salamanca Sts., Poblacion, Makati City. Fabric photos by At Maculangan.