BECAUSE HOW YOU DECORATE YOUR HOME REALLY HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THE WAY YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE



Alessandro Squarzi, the Milan-based fashion entrepreneur and street-style regular shows restraint done right

Like fashion, your approach to how you decorate your home is an expression of one’s self, with the furniture and objects you chose directly reflecting your own experience, or a pursuit of a showplace, stocked with attractive yet impersonal objects. It’s definitely not the latter for me.

Frank Muytjens, Menswear Director of J. Crew in his dreamy upstate New York Cottage

I believe there’s a karma associated with decorating and that the people who pursue the first option are ultimately happier. Trust me, in some sense, the way you relate your love seat or a coffee table is, like it or not, the way you relate to the people in your life – because you are either being authentic or you are not.

Fashion regular, Nick Wooster and his tasteful and masculine West Village apartment

How you decorate your home really has everything to do with the way you live your life. When it comes to your own home, do not be afraid to keep it personal and less trendy, just because.

No pretense, definitely real – who knows, it might even make you a happier person.

HOME CRAZY - CRATE AND BARREL OPENS ITS LARGEST STORE IN THE PHILIPPINES

It’s here!

Specializing in furniture, housewares and home accessories, international retail chain Crate and Barrel finally opened its flagship store in Makati. Apart from other home brands, Crate and Barrel has always been a source of inspiration worldwide for the contemporary design enthusiasts like myself. 

Expanding its global footprint worldwide with its stores in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, UAE, Turkey and Singapore, the brand has evolved into a Lovebrand. 

Blending inspirational designs with practical home solutions, Crate and Barrel offers the highest quality of products at an affordable price.

HOME

There are parties that go on all night, every night, all night. If that’s the way you want to live, you never need to see the sun. Or you can be asleep at 10 every night and be up at 6, and never see the night life.

And each one is cool and everyone just does their own thing here. Manila has a way of becoming a real home. It can be the most messed-up place in the world but trust me, it can also be the most amazing.

SNOOP HAPPY AND GETTING BACK ON TRACK

I finally got my energy back after mom’s funeral last March and launching two stores the past six  months. I also have been working on a few projects in-between while taking care of an eight-month old spoiled schnauzer.

Enough about work! Yes, call me nosy (Thanks to Instagram!), but whether it’s seeking imaginative solutions for updating our own home, checking out how the other half live, or just taking pleasure in a good old snoop, obsessing about other people’s house style is one of the great pastime of modern life.

Today, we have plenty of space to ogle, from the pages of ELLE Decoration to Veranda, Domino and House Beautiful. There’s a modern riverside apartment, which layers pattern and color on to a blank canvas, creating  the ultimate in urban glamour to bungalows that are in perfect pitch with the owners’ lifestyle.

My parents always tells me to be myself and the same holds true in your home – be honest about what you love because it is always important to be charmed and seduced by where you live. I definitely agree!

(My apartment always smells good – eucalyptus and Frangipani are two of my favorite scents.)

Previously, I used to use colors quiet forcefully, but now, as I’ve grown up, I realize that less is more.

ON A FLAT NOTE AND MOVING IN

Ok, so I have not been actively posting for a while, mostly due to the fact that I've been pretty occupied at work and yes, my sister and I just moved in to our new flat. Over the past 60 days after Nonno’s departure (our beloved Schnauzer), we decided to look for a new and bigger space to transfer, should we get a replacement (probably another schnauzer). 

Honestly, moving is an exciting and stressful venture packed with mixed emotions and oftentimes a few surprises - the joy of having brand new flooring,  newly painted walls in crisp white, and yes, everything is fresh and clean. 

(My rattan love seat paired with hampton-inspired striped throw, vintage Anton from Chrysara Nest, Diptyque to keep our flat smelling realling good, my vintage water jar lamp and mom's shell tassels and coffee table. More photos HERE)

Moving to a new space also means moving only what you really need and want. Start fresh, so why clutter up your surroundings with unnecessary items? I have given out ½ of my wardrobe for new ones, gave our building guard 6 pairs of old brogues and lace-ups and threw 7 years worth of DETAILS, Esquire, GQ and Vanity Fair - we (I) seriously just had to let go.

Though I was told by a friend to always keep an eye on the market for dual-purpose furniture that offer extra space like a Murphy bed or an ottoman cum storage, I refuse to listen (I honestly think it’s hideous!).  I have always been logical when decorating. Like fashion, both share similar design principles when creating furnishings in a space or an ensemble of clothing like determining a focal point, creating the silhouette, balancing proportion and details.

It’s all about accessorizing the basics and the things you love – neutral couch, 4 panels of drapes for that much added drama and of course, lamps!

Also, there should always be a connection between materials and the story. Hah! I should just shup up and continue decorating.

L’INDOCHINE: RECUERDOS DE MI CASA (MEMORIES OF HOME)

I finally got the chance to drop by L’Indochine yesterday after reading about it in the papers last month and yes, I went home with a huge smile on my face.

(Photos from The Inspiration Seekers) 

Friends who have been following me on instagram @buddhabanana pretty much know that I’ve been busy fixing my pad after repainting the whole unit white, turning it into a perfect canvas for just about anything pretty from my newly hand painted antique rattan table in red to horses sourced all over from Ubud in Bali to the antique stores along Hollywood road in Hong Kong, W17 in La Fuerza to the streets of Bangkal in Makati.

Growing up in a house filled with well curated home accessories like the ivory blow pipe from Indonesia to wooden carvings and Buddha heads from Thailand, antique wooden oar from Tawi-Tawi to framed textiles by the Yakans of Basilan and Zamboanga and wooden Maranaw bauls from Marawi and even coral tombstones from the island of Sta. Cruz in Zamboanga – these exotic one-of-a- kind pieces my parents hand carried during their trips took a toll on me and damnit, I’m addicted!

(L’INDOCHINE’S Leona Laviña-Panutat (left) and Charlene Panutat-Carlos) 

“The opening of L’Indochine just brought heaven closer to Earth. It’s the perfect Doña store!” I candidly shared (hahaha) with L’Indochine’s Leona Laviña – Panutat. Everything in the store were expertly sourced from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar mixed with unique ethnic items from Thailand, the items in the store are sourced directly from local artisans and craftsmen — the hill tribes of Chiang Mai, artisans in the Mekong delta, weavers in Hanoi, craft villages in Vietnam. I drool!

I should really stop myself from spending too much unless I’m willing to crawl home naked and hungry – NOT! Hold on, I still have a Martha Stewart – Lilly Pulitzer themed party to go to tomorrow.