Real Living Space

The launch of our 5th book, Real Home Ideas 5: Small Space Solutions coincided with our designer exhibit with SM Homeworld. Three of RL’s fave designers came up with space-saving setups for living, dining, and bedrooms using SM products. (That’s RL stylist Issa Villar’s setup for the stage, above, inspired by our cover.) Here’s makeover designer Grace Moslares’s bold, opulent bedroom setup—done in an instant, and under extreme duress!!! (grace under pressure, hehehe)

And featured designer (he has a project in the book) Frenjick Quesada’s elegant, tropical-modern take on a small living room. Beautiful!

Here’s designer Kristine Neri’s cute, mixed-seating dining area. Would you believe her dining table went missing two minutes before the scheduled setup? They found it, eventually!!!

All exhibits will be up til tomorrow, June 30. Hope you can check it out! (Real Home Ideas 5 is available at bookstores and newsstands for P195. All furniture and accessories are from SM Homeworld, Megamall)

Real Living’s 7th Anniversary Issue is out already! Check out our special cover with designer Kristine Neri’s condo project. Here’s more of that small but beautiful home inside!

Other fab article in the issue: A special feature on Real Living through the years—my, how we’ve grown! I started reading Real Living even before I worked here, and of all the shelter magazines in the market, it was one of those I always looked forward to getting (hey, we even preceded Domino!)

Another fave article that month—Mabel David Pilar’s different tips on using trays. Pretty!

Since our theme is Budget this July, Coni Tejada shows us how to dress up our dining room in stages, and when you can afford it (this is the “Budget” setup—it still looks great!)

We’re doing a lot of budget makeovers in this ish as well. See how Gwyn Guanzon transformed this chair for under P1,000 (this is the “before” pic):

And how makeover designer Kat Villanueva made this sad kitchen happy and bright:

Check it out now! Grab a copy of the Real Living July 2010 issue for P140 at bookstores and newsstands nationwide. (Photos by Ocs Alvarez, Miguel Nacianceno, Vincent Coscolluela, Jun Pinzon)

As we always have photo shoots for the different sections of our magazine, we often use our own things as props for the shoot. But for the same thing to be used in a shoot every month? Hmmmm… there must be something about it.

In my case, my printed canvas bag was the superstar of different shoots. Well, not a superstar in a sense that it was the main focus, but because it’s photogenic, we cannot help but use it to bring more life to the setup being photographed. Here is the said bag:

Cute, isn’t it? I bought it from one of our messengers in the office. And since then, this bag has been used not just to carry my things but in several photo shoots.

This photo is part of our June 2010 issue’s Decor Ideas: Dress Your Nest, wherein we were tasked to translate our personal style into a corner in the house. I translated my bag into the colorful throw pillow on the Papa Bear Chair.

The highlight of this bag’s superstardom is its having been used in the cover of our fifth book, Real Home Ideas 5: Small Space Solutions, which was launched last Wednesday. Here it is:

There’s my bag! Since I’ll never be on the cover of anything, I’ll let my bag represent me instead. Hehehe

We also used that bag in a shoot for our July and August 2010 issues, photos of which I cannot show you yet. Just wait and see.

Save the date! Get a chance to attend the launch of our book, Real Home Ideas 5: Small Space Solutions on June 23, Wednesday next week, 4:30 to 7:30 PM at the Mega Atrium of SM Megamall Mandaluyong City.

Check out small-space exhibits by our fave designers Grace Moslares, Kristine Neri, and Frenjick Quesada and get tips from them too! Also, a lot of prizes await you at this launch. To register for this event, contact Abigail Pinili at abigail.pinili@summitmedia.com.ph. Special thanks to SM Homeworld and the Mega Atrium for making this event happen. See you there!

Hi all! I’m happy to announce that the fifth book in our Real Home Ideas series is out! Do grab a copy of Real Home Ideas 5: Small Space Solutions:

Now I know must of us live in small spaces—condos, studio units, shoebox-sized apartments—so you’ll definitely appreciate the tips here! You’ll get 101 ideas from our small-but-beautiful homes…

…storage solutions for wardrobe, kitchen , and bath (plus must-have catchalls from SM Homeworld!)…

…and best of all, a DIY floor plan kit so you can pre-arrange your furniture layout before even lifting a finger!

So check it out now! Real Home Ideas 5 is available at newsstands and bookstores for only P195, such an affordable price for a lot of ideas!!! Cover image photo by Miguel Nacianceno, styling by Gwyn Guanzon. That lovely house on the cover is the home of Frances and Vince Sales; it’s one of my fave homes! =)

The LRI Design Plaza shoot was my first official RL shoot and honestly, I was really nervous. During the first thirty minutes, I was chanting “what next what next what next” inside my head. I felt I didn’t know what to do. And another thing, there were too many awesome shops, so little time. Good thing Coni, our assistant stylist called the shots so I just had to follow her lead.

I was trying to control my curious self, unfortunately I failed—I found myself checking out anything and everything that caught my eyes. I can’t even count how many times I heard the line “get out of the frame,” (Oh my! haha) If you have read RL June 2010’s Shopping section, you’d know what sent me prying around.

There were a couple of items I fell in love with, including these oh-so-precious-and-girly brushes from Erfe’s Designer Furnishing Shop.

And this reading corner at Triboa Bay Living reminds me I need to find a good book soon and do some serious reading!

The lamp and one-seater from Kish gives out a striking manly aura which I am just simply drawn to.

Definitely an eye-catcher, this red resin divider is a to-die-for piece from Haute Design.

The shoot was fun and tiring, but seeing the June ish makes me more than proud. And yes, it’s my first RL issue too! (Photos by Vincent Coscolluela) LRI Design Plaza is located at 210 Nicanor Garcia St., (formerly Reposo) Bel-Air 2, Makati City.  Click here for more info, or grab a copy of the latest issue of Real Living magazine, for P140 only, at bookstores and newsstands nationwide.

The RL staff was so sweet to surprise me with a whole page in the June issue (my swan song). I was touched to read what everyone had to say, and because of the madness and chaos of the move, I wasn’t even able to give everyone a proper goodbye. So consider this my proper goodbye!

My first ever staff photo with Real Living

Five years ago, I was nearing the tail-end of my stint at a professional services firm, and was about to make the jump back into publishing. My co-workers and I were sitting around a table during lunch, and someone asked what our top three dream jobs were. My first answer was, “Managing editor of Real Living.” It was a job I really wanted because I believed it played to my strengths–time management, organizational skills, people skills, with a bit of creativity. And it was a magazine I wanted to join because it was truly something I was interested in.

It was tough at first because, in magazines, people aren’t at their desks all day. The staff is constantly out, sourcing, doing oculars, pulling out, shooting, so save for turnovers (when we have to close an issue) it’s rare that we’re all in the same place at the same time. So I had to eat by myself sometimes, work quietly at my desk. But over time, through stressful deadlines and shoots where everything seemed to go wrong, I grew close to the other people behind RL, some of the best people you could ever meet.

I think Carl was bored the day he made this mock cover! I seriously wanted to print it out and frame it!

Rach, our editor, once joked that she thought she could retire and leave me as RL editor in chief. But I honestly never thought I could fill her shoes. She has this knowledge and understanding of design that I can’t possibly match. I feel that RL is truly a design authority because she’s at the helm.

Gwyn, with his quick wit, can instantly come up with zingers. I can’t count how many times his one-liners made me guffaw. My fondest memory of Gwyn is of spending a few days in Sumilon, Cebu with him and having a taste of the dreaded interesting torta.

Coni, oh Coni. How I love this girl. There can only be one Coni Tejada, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I once told her that she was my sunshine at the office, and without blinking an eye, she answered, “I think I’m your rainbow. Kailangan may ulan muna!” My very first RL shoot was with Gwyn and Coni. We had to shoot a chair story in a bunch of locations in one afternoon. Tall order, and everyone was stressed out. There we were, standing in a street corner in Malate for an hour, waiting for our driver who had gotten hopelessly lost in the streets of Manila. We were all feeling pretty cranky by then. Things weren’t going as planned, and one of us, in exasperation, blurted out, “Kulang na lang umulan!” And right on cue, there was thunder. And rain followed soon after. We felt so defeated then, but looking back, it’s one of my favorite RL memories!

Kath–I am so happy that she’s back! Whenever Rach would ask me who I wanted to train as managing editor, I would answer “Kath” without skipping a beat. She is one of the most reliable people I know, and she cracks me up sometimes even when she doesn’t mean to be funny. And she always patiently listens and feigns interest whenever I have stories about my butterball niece. (Kath, I’m sorry you’ve had to endure that. Haha)

Arlene, our art director, makes such lovely, lovely illustrations (to go with her lovely personality!). Some of my most favorite RL covers are by Arlene! It’s always nice hearing her talk about her plans and her dreams, and I am touched that she shares these with me and confides in me.

Katherine aka Kaye, so efficient! She would just hear me discussing a shoot over the phone, and next thing I know, I have a vehicle prepared for the shoot already! She always does her work with a bedimpled smile on her face, which is why she’s such a heartthrob at the office.;) And we have a shared passion for Ultimate!

Hannah–I didn’t get to know Hannah much, but she seems like a joy to work with. She always greets me with a cheery “Hi Miss Tish!” I’m glad that I only moved a few desks down because I still get to see her and my other girls.

I’m very bad at goodbyes–I always end up being a bawling mess. I’m kind of thankful that the transition period was such a busy time, because it kept me from thinking about how much I was going to miss RL and my RL family. Because even though they’re still around and I see them all the time (and even though I am happy where I am) it’s not the same. I miss them. Every single day.