Real Living Space

The Relaxed Home by Atlanta Bartlett (144 pages) is my recommended Sneak Read for this weekend. The one thing I really like about this book is that it doesn’t have the New Age-y, Zen-Asian spa vibe of most books with the same topic. Instead, Bartlett divides half of the book into her recommended “relaxed styles” (Relaxed Elegance, Relaxed Eclectic, Relaxed Sensuality, etc.) that fits specific personalities, and the other half is about how to apply the laidback lifestyle to every room in the house.

Though the casual text can sometimes veer towards the fluffy (an example: “Geisha Girl and English Rose make a heady mixture”), it’s got some of the most beautiful and soothing interior photographs I’ve seen. Plus, Bartlett’s philosophy is quite lovely—she emphasizes that all you need to create a lovely home is to keep things simple, comfortable, and fill it with things that make you happy. Available at Bestsellers and Powerbooks. (Photos by Ocs Alvarez)

I’ve noticed that most Pinoys are willing to spend an arm and a leg on their interiors, but will leave their gardens and exterior spaces out in the cold. They don’t want to plant trees because it’s makalat. They end up planting hectares of Bermuda grass whose watering needs are taxing to the environment. Or, God forbid, they end up paving their entire yard in concrete!
Aside from traviesa (old wooden rail ties), paving bricks, or plain gravel, another beautiful floor/walkway material for outdoor spaces is wooden decking. Admittedly, decking can be a bit pricey especially if your floor area is large, but the advantage is that you can produce a cleaner-looking, seamless outdoor surface. Decking is installed like a false floor, so it can skim over uneven rocky areas, dips in ground levels, and it can be customized to go around trees and other plantings. Plus, wood has the warmth rocks or pavers can never give you.

This decking is by Out D’Or, available locally from Filtra, Inc. It’s made out of golden mahogany or yakal, which is pretty hardy against the elements. Filtra, Inc. is located at ground floor Le Triomphe Building, 322 Sen. Gil Puyat Ave., Makati City, tel. (02) 813-8186.

I’m happy that some local department stores have stopped selling oriental Chatuchak-like things you can find in the tiangge. I also want them to put a ban on fuddy-duddy granny stuff, but apparently, there is still a big market for that. If you want cheap but cool looking home ware, you have to buy clean-lined things.

These cool lamps (left) are actually available at SM Homeworld—clean-lined but still feminine, and tiny enough for the smallest night table—and each are under P1K! The pretty silver one is P899.75, while the red one’s P999.75.

Here’s a trio of serving bowls (right) I found at my favorite cheap thrill haunt, The Landmark in Makati. I love the retro-esque colors of chocolate, grayish blue and muted red, very 50s. The shape also reminds me of those Hug Mugs that were popular a few years back. These bowls are great for serving nuts, cereal, or ice cream. A set of four will only cost you P369.75.

Good news: The Landmark will open another branch soon at TriNoma Mall in QC! Thank you, Landmark people—I’ve been praying for 15 years that another branch would open! (Photos by Ocs Alvarez)

British socialite and former model India Hicks recently launched a beach-inspired line of body and room fragrances for Crabtree and Evelyn called India Hicks Island Living. The Casuarina room scent is crisp, clean, and floral with a slight tinge of citrus in it. It doesn’t smell like your regular yucky room freshener (I’ve encountered expensive room fresheners that still smell masangsang), in fact, it smells more like your going-out perfume.

Here’s India in her Bahamas beach house (left). Her style is very Ernest Hemingway-meets-tropical island, and is very much different from the style of her late father, the 1960s-70s interior designer David Hicks.

As you can see from the picture here (below right), David does bading-deluxe interiors, and loves mixing classical furniture with crazy, acid-bright colors and modern, abstract artwork. I personally like Daddy David’s style better—it’s very now, no?

The Hickses are like design royalty in England, with son Ashley also an interior designer, much like the Conrans (Terence and Caroline Conran of the Conran Shop, fashion designer Jasper Conran), except for the fact that they really are royalty—India Hicks is the granddaughter of Lord Mountbatten, and a direct descendant of Queen Victoria.

The Casuarina Room Spray retails for about P900. India Hicks Island Living available locally at Crabtree and Evelyn outlets in SM Megamall, Shangri-la Plaza Mall, Greenbelt 1, Robinsons Place Malate. (Images courtesy of Crabtree and Evelyn)

I love bargain hunting, and don’t mind going to 3-for-P500 décor dives and second-hand swap meets, but if I’m just window-shopping, I don’t want to go to a store where I have to step over the merchandise!

So therein lies the beauty of “lifestyle” showrooms—those swanky, sprawling stores where furnishings are set up like in a real home. And the best of the lot is a11 at 2680 FB Harrison, designer Eric Paras’s collection of Filipino-designed, export quality furniture and accessories styled in the chicest setups, and housed in 1950s-era homes within a quaint compound. Here’s a sampler of what you can see:

Vienna furniture in an elegant, dark finish, and resin coral tabletop accents in the second house.

A robins-egg-blue tufted chair, olive-green sofa and a dramatic Ricky David pendant lamp in the third house—looks like a Park Avenue apartment!

And across the street is Albert Avellana’s gallery. He has a new annex, it’s behind the main gallery, where you can walk and sit around the artwork.

I’m sitting next to a Mac Valdezco sculpture, which looks like a malformed Michelin Man! Cool! (Photo by Issa Villar)

Read more about 2680 FB Harrison in Ron Gonzales’s article in the September 2007 issue of Real Living magazine.

Welcome to Real Living magazine’s official blog, your regular source of home finds, tips, cool design links, and the occasional snarky comment. Now instead of starting out with shameless self-promotion for the mag (that’ll come later), I’d like to share my Sneak Read for the weekend:

ASIAN APARTMENTS, published by Page One

This isn’t a recent book—it’s a few years old—but it’s a good read for the mere reason that it’s got great decorating ideas for Pinoy apartment/condo owners. A lot of mid-range apartments and condos here do not have the sprawling floor areas, high ceilings and large windows that we see in European and US home apartments; Asian Apartments works around modestly-sized, basically furnished spaces and shows the reader how to inject it with style. Plus, all the featured homes have that clean, modernist, yet distinctly oriental aesthetic we should all embrace. Available at Bestsellers and Powerbooks. (Photo by Ocs Alvarez)