Real Living Space

Our October issue/Shopping special is out!

We’re featuring a lot of interesting home shopping ideas, from choosing the best fabrics, to the best home theater systems, to the best gifts to give your home-design-lover friends (and lovers). It also has our annual you-can’t-miss-this Best Home Stores List where we’ve included home stores that are the most beautiful, budget-friendly, the best in specialty items, among other categories. Click the image below for a free sample of this issue!

Speaking of best home stores, we’re also partnering with some of our favorite home stores this October. They’ll be displaying a “Best Home Store” signage so all you home-design-lovers can enjoy our favorite places too. So when you go home shopping this October (for Christmas gifts, or for any reason!) be sure to look for that “Best Home Store” signage (like the one on the right), so you’ll know you’re shopping at the best =)

We hope you’ll enjoy our Shopping Special, as much as we’ve enjoyed making it!  Do let us know if you’ve made some cool home finds too!

Elusive in the Philippines, at least—even though it’s the most popular home furnishings brand in the world. Why won’t they set up one here? Strangely, it’s been an Ikea week for me. First, my friend Peejo expressed his wish of buying a franchise, if he was ever loaded. Of course, his wife Mabel shot him a cautionary look. And then my other friend Raymond A. texted me, saying he recently stumbled upon a secret Ikea place in an area straddling Makati and Pasay, where he did some mercy shopping after a disappointing Evangelista trip. Now where IS this secret Ikea place? Is it even legally distributed? I don’t care! I’ve seen some Ikea products creep into popular home stores over the past few years. Will investigate this secret spot when I get back.

Our style editor Gwyn hates Ikea, though. I completely understand him, because their no-frills Scandinavian furnishings can look quite generic, especially if you’ve already seen them in dozens of homes. But there’s a simplistic beauty to it. Ikea is comforting, and you tend to crave it, like pie. It’s the first furniture brand you buy when you move into a dorm abroad, when you get married and move into your first home, when you finally leave the nest and rent an apartment. My advice: look beyond the generic storage shelving and pinewood furniture, and go for their beautiful fabric with bold, Scandinavian prints, their kitchen accessories, their children’s furnishings, and their funky bedlinen instead. As with fashion, you can go hi-lo with these pieces, mixing them with flea-market bohemian furniture or modernist designer accessories at home. This way, you won’t get that generic catalogue look.

Of course after Raymond’s text, I had to go to Ikea since I was already in Singapore. I swung by their Alexandra Road branch, and I have to say that I had mixed feelings (I always use this term regarding everything) about their selections this year. Their 2006 collection was lighter, funkier, and had a lot of beautiful, brightly colored Scandinavian floral patterns. But I was still able to get a few items anyway. Here’s my loot:

All in all, including a few kitchen implements and two lint brushes, our bill totaled about less than SGD$80. Not bad for shopping Scandinavian. When I finally get to see the secret Ikea place back in the PI, I’ll let you know about it. Meanwhile, check out www.ikea.com for vicarious window shopping.

Toys for the big boys are generating such buzz these days, and the stuff from Kidrobot has been elevated to collectible/art object/home décor status. But I do miss those innocent days when all toys were meant to be loved, mangled, and actually played with and not left unopened in its box, complete with price tag and plastic, awaiting its sale on eBay.

I was able to revisit those days for a few hours at the recently opened Mint Museum of Toys in Singapore. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t your eccentric uncle assemblage, but a seriously curated collection that tracks all sorts of toys from the late 1800s to the present, and as suggested by the museum name, almost all toys are in mint condition, with a lot of rare pieces. It’s categorized by toy type, age, and its connection to pop culture; each category accompanied with a short social commentary as to how the history and culture of that era spawned such toys.

My brother and I found a lot of childhood favorites, such as the Popeye and Snoopy toys, die cast Sci-Fi collectibles like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Dan Dare, Batman, 1970s Star Wars figures, Beatles memorabilia, and an amazingly cool assortment of robots and vintage Matchbox cars. There were also rare pieces like freaky-looking 1920s Mickey Mouse dolls and original Steiff teddy bears.

Another great thing about Mint is that it’s housed in a super-cool building, which I believe won a design award this year. It has this amazing, undulating blue-glass façade fit into a narrow area that’s about the size of a regular shophouse. It’s got clean, quiet, minimalist interiors as well, that sets off the vibrant colors of the toys quite nicely. Plus it has this “skywalk” with tempered glass floor on one end that makes you think you’re walking above the street. It’s also got a cute café in the basement, where we ate Nutella pie while the schoolkids above at street level threw potato chips at us when they passed by.Mint Museum of Toys is located at 26 Seah St.in Singapore, located next to Raffles Hotel. Entrance is SGD$10 (approximately P300+), and is open from 9:30am to 6:30pm daily.

A license, that is. Who would have known that a simple 2″ x 3″ plastic card with a fuzzy mugshot that embarrassingly divulges your birthdate yet establishes that you are an architect or interior designer would cause so much furor over the past few years?

This culminated quite recently in the legal battles and the ruffling of some feathers amongst the designer set. Writer Alex Vergara related it recently in an Inquirer article, reporting firsthand accounts of homeowners being duped by shysters masquerading as professional designers, and explaining PIID’s current handling of this issue, and how they are dealing with the remaining long-time practicing unlicensed designers who have yet to avail of RA 8534’s grandfather’s clause.

If the law gets strictly implemented, many homeowners and other clients will be spared the pain of having to deal with unschooled practitioners who are out to make a killing from markups and commissions. Admittedly, there are quite a few of them out there—and a lot of them aren’t even formally trained as designers, nor have even taken a diploma course!

But what about those unlicensed designers whose portfolios not only show professionally and correctly executed design works, but exemplary (as in, internationally-acclaimed) design as well? Now that’s something to think about. Take note: a Pritzker Prize-winning architect, Tadao Ando, was self-schooled and trained, and admits to having a past job as a carpenter!

This issue on the interior design side seems to be on the road to being settled, but much has to be said about the architectural license side. It seems to have gotten even more ugly over the past year. To top it all off, our office received two inch-thick document envelopes from the UAP (United Architects of the Philippines) Cebu a few months ago, without them even having the courtesy of calling up this office to explain it. The cover letter accused this magazine of violating RA9266 for “…helping, confederating and conniving (name of designer) in perpetrating and fulfilling his illegitimate desires…” (Click on image to read the rest)

My reaction:

The senders of this letter accused us of having our writer issue a certification stating that we had used the term “architect” loosely in one of articles, in order to protect the said designer. The writer that they stated was not our contributor, and Real Living issued no such certification for that purpose. I was also dismayed to learn afterwards that similar “threat” letters were sent to other home and design publications and the clients of the said designer.

Why can’t the UAP Cebu people who sent this letter settle it in private? Are the clients going to turn against this designer, as most of them have hired him many times in the past to execute their residences? And if you guys win, are his clients going to hire you, letter-senders? Hmm?

What about going after those international design firms who practice in our country, get paid several times more than our own designers and who hire our licensed Filipino designers to become “architects of record?” Why don’t you go after those foreign guys instead? Or instead of wracking up those legal bills, why not allot the money for the education of a deserving design student or a licensed UAP member who wants to have further design studies abroad?

How about settling this decently and focusing on something more important: our young interior designers and architects in their 20s and 30s. They have fresh ideas, tend to not get into the politics of the profession, and just honestly want to produce excellent design. They also do not have a chip on their shoulder or accumulated baggage, and a lot of them are pretty damn good.

Now that’s something to think about. Comments are welcome.

If you’re currently living with your parents and have been dying to get a city condo or home of your own, then check out my Sneak Read for the week, Urban Pads: Hip Living in the City by Page One. As editor Kelley Cheng explains in her introduction to the book, the featured houses are a reaction to the old Asian tradition of parents having their grown children live in or near their family homes.

From the featured homes, it seems that young adults in Asia and the Pacific now want to live apart from their parents and in clean, modern spaces that are an expression of their personalities, their generation, and lifestyle, yet are still representative of the Asian country they are living in. Some of the Singapore and Hong Kong apartments seen here have raw, industrial interiors, but a few traditional oriental accents like Chinese yokeback chairs can still be seen. Meanwhile, the Australian apartments all have large, nearly seamless picture windows to accommodate the pretty Aussie views. And check out the Philippine homes—we have two of them here. Available at Bestsellers and Powerbooks.

I recently read an article in Vanity Fair about how collectors currently subject the work of famed pop culture artist Andy Warhol to the Andy Warhol Authentication Board for “approval” before the pieces can be touted as genuine. Now take note, Warhol used a fleet of “Factory Workers” or studio assistants to do the silkscreening of his colorful portraits of famous people, and all the work he did on some of them was sign it (though he would take the original photograph of the famous person himself). This process, in turn, produced unsigned overruns, some of which were copied, so the Authentication Board claims that there are a lot of counterfeit Warhols out there. Much to the dismay of some collectors, many presumably authentic Warhols have been stamped with a “Not a Warhol” stamp by the board, and some of these prints have fetched six to seven figure prices in auctions!

I wouldn’t even dream of having a real one, and my teNeues Andy Warhol notebook is enough. But for those of us out there who have delusions of grandeur, or are simply dreaming of their own Warholian portrait, there is Gallery 7 Digital Studio.

Gallery 7 will grant you your 15 minutes of fame by turning your lowly mugshot into Warhol-inspired, high-contrast, multi-color portraits, among many other styles. (Click on the images to read more.) I personally like the quirky-funky “Caricature-Style” portrait (left). Gallery 7 is located at 4/F Shangri-la Plaza Mall, Mandaluyong City, tel. (02)-727-1983.

I have mixed feelings about TriNoma mall. For one thing, it’s too sprawling for me. I am tamad to walk through long corridors with endless stores. I know, that’s weird for a woman who likes to shop, but I like my malls small and tightly edited, like Podium, which is the perfect size for me. MOA frightens me, of course, because the first time I went there I got lost in it with three small children in tow and I couldn’t even find the carpark.

There’s also this thing about its EDSA façade being too big and block-y, a massive butter-yellow stretch of wall when you approach North EDSA. It’s forgivable though, because once you get past that and go inside, you see this:

And another good thing about TriNoma is that it has the new Home Zone. I’m glad that they resurrected this, because QC has quite a dearth of one-stop shops for home furnishings and accessories, aside from Our Home at The Block in SM North, or Dexterton at Sgt. Rivera.

If you can navigate the circular layout of this mall, you’ll find it on the third level. It has all of our fave shops we used to see in Makati like Firma, Restoration, and Dimensione.

As well as new ones like Domicillo, Vayu, and Loft Details.

And this lovely bed linen place called Aussino. Don’t you just love bed linen? This one’s trendy, but the prices are quite affordable. Plus, the kids’ beddings are super-cute.

There’s Crossings as well on the ground floor, and the first ever branch of The Landmark to open outside of Makati. TriNoma is located at the end of EDSA, near SM North EDSA; it’s also accessible by MRT. (Photo of Firma by William Ong)

As they say, “matira ang matibay.”

This can definitely apply to Pablo, one of the few remaining arts-alternative furnishings shops in Marikina Shoe Expo. They’re celebrating their second year anniversary tomorrow, September 15, 9PM, with an exhibit by Pepper Roxas, Mike Sicam, and Paolo Lim. Drop by if you have time!

Photo by At Maculangan.

“I feel fat.”
“I’m broke.”
“He doesn’t like me.”
“Zara isn’t on sale!”

Tama na ang whining, go out and buy this book na lang! New York Apartments by Angelika Taschen—my suggested weekend read shows apartments where I’m going to live in when I get that big-ticket editorial job in NY (dream on). I will wear black, go to my high-rise office, and then go home to my apartment with organic-modern furniture, 15-foot ceilings, brick walls, and an artist-guy hanging out in the loft…oh, it’s just the book pala.

Seriously though, you can ignore the sprawling luxury Fifth Avenue apartments in Taschen’s popular look book and go straight to the smaller downtown apartments and apply what you see: industrial-chic finishes, open-plan layouts, tiny yet functional kitchens, and a decidedly eclectic way of furnishing rooms. Like most Taschen titles, this book is definitely worth escaping to over the weekend. Available at Bestsellers and Powerbooks.

Our friends from Yummy magazine will be holding their first-ever event this September 30 (Sunday), 2-5pm, at the Shangri-La Plaza Mall Grand Atrium. The event is entitled The Yummy Cook-Off, which is a fun and friendly cooking competition among different sets of foodies—from moms, food bloggers to chefs, all ready to “out-cook” each other with their yummy meals!

Click on the image (right) for more details. Click here for inquiries and seat reservations.