A Major Renovation Turned This 65sqm Unit Into a Gallery-Inspired Home

Marco Antonio Misa Torres bought his 65sqm, one-bedroom unit ten years ago, but he's only gotten around to living in it last October 2016. He said that one of the reasons why it took him that long was because the unit was in bad shape. “When I bought it, the condition was so lousy because it was used as an office. The ceiling was like those acoustic boards. The floor was like vinyl tiles that were a bad color, really ugly…I had my sister renovate it so that it was in an acceptable condition, and then I had it rented.”

The renovation was enough to get the unit a lessee for a good five years, but not good enough for Marco to live in. He made it his home base in Manila whenever he wasn't working in China, but he wasn't exactly happy with it even after the renovation. “It was still ugly, you know, I couldn’t stand sleeping here! But why bother fixing it? I’m only here every two, three months,” he says. Everything changed when he needed a permanent place to stay in and so he made it his mission to fix the place according to his liking: “industrial minimalist with Scandinavian inspirations.”

“It was all me. I’d be meeting with contractors, I bought everything. If I can’t find anything I exactly like, I’d have it made. And if I want something, I’d scour all the home depots, department stores—everything, every possible place so I can see before I settle for one,” he says. He also reworked the unit's layout to get as much natural light from the windows.

The end result is a clean, modern space designed like an art gallery where Marco's impressive art collection from artists like Orlina, Luz, Castrillo, and BenCab, among many others, are on display.

Living Area