Here’s a find from our reader Lex. Thank you Lex, for your tip and your morbid sense of humor!
A grisly yet cool knife holder designed by Rafaello Ianello from online store A+R
The perfect kitchen tool when you’re in the mood to off your evil ex, bitchy boss, or backstabbing (no pun intended) friend.
OK, “obsession” is stretching it. But for someone who never quite understood how some people could spend hours surfing the net (other than checking my mail, blogging, and—I must admit—Facebook-ing, I have no idea what to do with the net!), the amount of time I’ve spent at this site is kind of out of character.
I had my Ralph Lauren Home phase, and was really smitten with the Venice Beach collection a couple of years ago. But early this year, one of the homeowners I met introduced me to Urban Outfitters. I was taken by the owner’s MDC chandelier and lovely rug, and was thrilled to find the store’s website.
I love their cheeky, colorful, sometimes irreverent products (a Buddha wall hook, for example), a sampling of which can be seen below:
Clockwise from top left:
I can’t wait ’til I go to the US again. Although I’m worried about excess baggage…
Finally! We’re releasing our book, Real Home Ideas 3, this May. We’re holding the book launch at Powerbooks, Greenbelt 4, 6-8pm on May 29, and you’re all invited.
For the launch, we’ve asked 2 very interesting people to do a simple talk on basic home decorating inspired by your personal fashion style– Vince Uy, Creative Director of Preview magazine and Tippi Ocampo, Fashion Designer. Their inspiring, fashionable homes were also featured in the book!
Hope to see you at the launch =)
Real Home Ideas 3 will be available in bookstores (including Powerbooks) and newsstands by 3rd week of May, for only P195. We’ve also reprinted Real Home Ideas 1 and 2, and they’re also available for only P195 each.
Invitation above was designed by Real Living Art Director, Carlo Vergara.
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?
posted in Behind the Scenes, What's In The Mag by Rachelle, Real Living Editor-in-Chief.
7 comments. 
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.
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