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space matters: inside a z-loft

A couple of weeks ago, we had the privilege of having the first peek into our high school friends’ z-loft condo residence in Makati. While the floor area (around 70 square meters) is comparable to most high-end condominium units, the vertical clearance above the living area created an illusion of a spacious interior.

At the second level, there’s a nook adjacent to the staircase which was made into a study/home office. While a large desk was already in place, there’s still enough room for a slim vertical chest of drawers beside the desk and a set of bookshelves behind the work space for additional storage.

The bedroom is also spacious. It was able to easily accommodate a queen bed, two large side tables, an arm chair, a console table and a built-in closet.

Congratulations A & A on your new “home”!

home tour: fresh love, fresh space

I’ve always liked visiting homes of young couples and young families. Aside from their fresh and youthful aesthetic point of view, I noticed that young couples also manage to make their homes efficient without looking like a huge closet filled with built-ins.

This condo residence in the South is the new home of a young couple after living with their in-laws for almost two years. They told us that this is their first taste of “independence”. Independence means that they now do everything themselves including all household chores! Good thing that they chose to make their home supportive of an independent lifestyle.

Instead of maintaining the three-bedroom layout of the house, the couple decided to convert one into a den/entertainment room that opens to the living area (below), and the other into the masters’ en suite walk-in closet.

In spite of the relatively compact space, they were able to fit in their open kitchen a washer-dryer (hidden inside the cabinet beside the refrigerator), a dishwasher, and an oven. It also has a glass backsplash which they use as a message board where they write reminders, to-do lists, and even recipes.

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Reflecting the couple’s personalities, this home looks simple, easy, and happy. While the interiors are mostly done in basic white, black and gray, pops of color can be seen everywhere through their paintings and accessories, rendering this home with a fresh and welcoming appeal. df

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space matters: jigs adefuin’s home in the city

It is always a treat to visit a designer’s home. Because designers usually adapt to their clients’ style and taste, they don’t usually get to exercise their “creative freedom” when doing design projects. Oftentimes, their home is their venue where they have the liberty to apply all the ideas that have always wanted to try, sometimes to the point of having an idea overload. Surprisingly, this is not the case for my friend, Jigs Adefuin, who knew from the start how he wants his condo to be designed.

Jigs and I were officemates in my first job at Focus Global Inc.(FGI). He now has a successful practice together with his partner, Oliver, who takes care of the construction management arm of the company. I was just supposed to interview Jigs and Oliver for a Condo Living feature. But because Ana and Green Guide were also free that afternoon, I brought them with me to shoot the interiors for df.

Jigs and Oliver share this 3-bedroom condominium residence with their two dogs, Pucci and Krypton. Jigs used a lot of black and gray–two colors that he loves but his clients are not too excited about.

We love his pair of Arturo Luz paintings of the Palitana Temples in the living area (above & top photo), and the paintings of df’s creative director, Lilli Beth, in the dining area and in the hallway. They are the only sources of vivid colors in the entire living-dining-kitchen area.

The bedrooms are full of surprises! The compact office (above) also doubles as an extra guest room with a pull-down bed (below) built under the overhead cabinets. The turquoise guest room beside it, where Oliver’s mom stays when she visits them in Manila, has its own commode disguised as a chair. Because of the limited storage, even the small space behind the TV of the masters’ bedroom was made functional by integrating a pullout rack for cologne bottles and accessories.  Cool!

Jigs was recently named as one of Philippine School of Interior Design’s (PSID) 10 Interior Design Iconoclasts (congratulations!). To know more about Jigs’ past design works, check out his website here. Also, grab the June issue of Condo Living magazine which includes a couple of features about him. {thanks Jigs and Oliver for welcoming us in your beautiful home!} -ardel

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design trail: bencab museum, baguio

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I didn’t get to visit a lot of Baguio’s tourist spots when we went there. Our visit was short but sweet. And the BenCab Museum made the trip worthwhile. We were there for the opening of the pottery show of my aunt, Ofelia Gelvezon-Téqui. Her glazed stoneware works were on display in one of the several galleries in the multi-floor structure.

{lobby/reception area}

There are works by masters like Joya, Magsaysay-Ho, Edades and contemporary pieces by young artists, indigenous crafts and artifacts, and of course BenCab’s own masterpieces. I love how they displayed the bulol rice granary gods on cantilevered shelves along one whole wall from floor to ceiling.

{bulol collection on display}

I also love how they utilized natural light throughout the whole space. They installed skylights, floor to ceiling windows and clerestory windows.The museum also has a little shop which has a nice collection of books and souvenirs and a café (Café Sabel) which overlooks the forest. Below the museum, you can also wander the farm and garden which produces organic vegetables, fruits and coffee.

{glazed stoneware by Ofelia Gelvezon-Téqui}

{Café Sabel}

{farm and garden}

The same day we were there, a group of about 600 students just visited the place! The BenCab museum just celebrated their 2nd anniversary and it’s already one of the must-see attractions in Baguio. The BenCab Museum is on Km. 6 Asin Road. For more information, visit their site, http://bencabmuseum.org/

space matters: ‘slide’ house

It would be a dream for every child (and maybe for the child-at-heart) to have playtime all the time.

Good news! The guys from Level Architects, a design studio in Japan, just made that fantasy a reality by building this ‘Slide House’, a three-story house with a combination of a staircase and a slide that encircles the interior. With half of the loop in typical stairs and the other half in a 2-level slide, the occupants have the option to descend by the stairs or by slide.

Apart from the slide, the house also has a ball pen in the living room area to be consistent with the playground idea.

According to the designers, by placing the slide along the ‘daily flow line’ of the stairs, instead of just introducing a playground in the building, the home itself becomes one big playground and daily life is like a never-ending playtime.

Don’t you just love how the Japanese think?! They can turn such a profound idea into a fun and amusing design. I guess it also helps that they have an audience (clients) who are also willing to think out of the box.

*images via Level Architects. see the restof the photos here

space matters: a european-inspired california home

When I first saw pictures of my cousin Isadora’s home in California, I immediately thought of sharing them here in Design Folder. What I love most about the decor is the amount of thought put in every detail and element in each room. She created a really lovely, inviting space which she beautifully describes below. I hope I’m lucky enough to get to visit her and her family soon. -Lilli

{Our home is situated centrally in Los Angeles, CA.  It’s technically a duplex, which means that it is legally two apartments, but we’ve transformed it into a single family home. When we purchased the house back in 2003 it would have been cost prohibitive to get as much square footage as we currently have in a home that was actually a single family home.  The layout works out nicely for us, downstairs we have our grown up space, which includes our formal living room and dining room and two bedrooms.}

{Upstairs we have our more kid-friendly space, with a large family room, our bedroom and my son’s bedroom, as well as our office.  You could also say that downstairs is the “tidy floor” and upstairs is the “messy floor”. Guests coming to the house have sometimes commented that they couldn’t tell a toddler lives in the house, that’s because they stayed on the ground floor.  I like giving my son the freedom to play, but I also don’t want our home to be overrun by toys, so the layout of the house has worked out really nicely for us giving us a bit of both.}

{When we first moved into the house I was very taken by the Hollywood Regency style made famous by Kelly Wearstler, a local design superstar. But after living in the house a few a few years, I outgrew the style, but most importantly I felt that the style was too dark and too heavy for our home.  So, I proceeded with a gradual remodel to lighten and brighten things up.  Currently, I would describe my style as Bourgeois Bohème, a style that is more intrinsically my own.  It is strongly influenced by my childhood in Paris, but is less formal and full of vintage and flea market finds.  My downstairs color palette is light; this is primarily influenced by the amount of light the downstairs receives.  Because the latter gets less light than the upstairs, I compensated by keeping the colors light in an effort to make it feel sunny all year round.  After all we do live in California!}

{Since moving to Los Angeles, I’ve acquired a great taste and appreciation for mid-century design.  In some ways mid-century design also relates back to my half-Danish heritage, so we have quite a few mid-century/Scandinavian pieces with clean lines, that live happily with my more ornate French pieces.  Our last home was very different architecturally and lent itself quite well to a more Asian-inspired influence, but I have to say that in this home, the influence is more resolutely European.}

{My favorite room is the guest room downstairs, it’s serene and restful and subtly feminine, it’s luxurious and casual at the same time. I also love our breakfast nook upstairs; it’s cozy and warm and a wonderful place to read the morning paper or sit down for an afternoon tea. It has Emeco navy chairs mixed with an antique French table. The table has a long history and has traveled with us throughout the world, it has played dressing table to my mother, study desk for me as a teenager, kitchen work surface, and is now getting a rest in its current incarnation as a breakfast table.  If I could only save a few pieces in my home, this table would definitely be one of them.  I would also save an antique French mirror that I’ve had since I was a child, and of course, our photographs.  If you were to ask my husband though, he’d probably save his bass guitar, as music has always been a very important part of who he is.}

Many thanks to Isadora for the words and the photographs. She is a modern family photographer and her works can be found at www.thompsonandspring.com.

christmas around the world

We’re taking pangangapitbahay to the next level as we take a peek at the homes of other families to see how the rest of the world spruce up their spaces for the holidays.

First stop is the cotton candy-colored home (above) of graphic designer Danielle Thompson (USA).

Above is an interesting hanging wreath from Veronika in London.

In Seattle, Dottie Angel spells her holiday shout out on her mantel.

Kleofe from Switzerland gives her wall a touch of color with a garland of flaglets and some Christmas balls.

In Mexico, Rosa Maria goes natural with a wreath of lavender leaves.

The traditional red color takes center stage in the home of r_okoko20 in Ireland.

It’s a white Christmas (with a touch of red) in Rebecca Wallenta‘s home in Austria.

Finally, in Netherlands, Wood and Wood Stool‘s home goes green with a Christmas tree made of reclaimed wood.

Hope you enjoyed our quick holiday tour! df

space matters: big pieces for tiny spaces

As apartments and homes shrink in size, a lot of people think that their furnishings also need to become smaller to fit their tiny residences and to make the space look much bigger.

Not necessarily.

The common misconception is that by making your furniture smaller, you make the space look bigger. Unfortunately, the opposite happens—smaller furniture requires you to have more pieces of one kind (for instance a chair) to accommodate a certain number of people. This, in turn, will make the space look cluttered because you have several items occupying such a small area.

In dealing with small spaces, the trick is to stick with the standard sizes of furniture (especially for sofas, chairs and beds), limit the pieces to what you only need (avoid “accent pieces” because you don’t have enough room for them), and keep all surfaces simple and clean to avoid visual clutter.

Take this 36-square meter condominium residence for example. This apartment can realistically and comfortably accommodate a couple with a child, or three individuals, at the most. Therefore, the interiors maintained its open plan layout, much like a hotel suite, without any partition separating the bedroom from the living-dining-kitchen area since privacy is not exactly an issue. This allowed for a standard double-size bed, a desk & chair, a wider-than-usual two-seater sofa, a coffee table, and a low TV cabinet to all fit in the small area with just enough space to move around.

The sizes of the dining table and coffee table (above) are much bigger than what you would normally put in a condo. But because they’re both in glass, they don’t seem to take a lot of space.

This apartment comes with an extra room for storage and closet space. Since space is very precious, this space was made into an extra bedroom as well. By making two-thirds of the cabinet into an overhead storage, a standard single bed, which functions as a sofa during the day and a bed at night, was able to fit underneath (below).

As long as you simplify your furnishings, keep everything organized, and minimize possible sources of visual and physical clutter, your relatively small home might just be the perfect size for you. df

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space matters: living room + classroom

It’s amusing how one can alter an experience by simply changing the physical features and appearance of the setting. I think this approach towards space makes it possible for The Living Room Photography Studios to provide an unconventional experience in taking up photography and in “classroom” learning.

Their casual and colorful interiors take out any possible snootiness related with studio photography, while their fun classroom setup makes learning much more interesting and enjoyable especially for the busy and maybe not-so-curious adults.

The Living Room is a fun, laidback, and non-intimidating environment where anyone who’s interested in photography is encouraged to take up lessons and to practice their skills in studio photography. I love how the interior spaces are designed to look like a home. The warm appearance of the spaces makes someone who doesn’t know much about photography feel comfortable and at ease. You don’t have to worry that someone would make fun of you if you don’t know the meaning of SLR!

Apart from photography lessons, the studio is also made available for small-group seminars and workshops on just about any topic under the sun. They call these series of workshops The Classroom. But don’t be deceived by the name. Their classes are definitely not your usual boring lectures in school. Following the concept of The Living Room, The Classroom encourages people to learn something new—a new hobby, a new creative skill, or a new knowledge just to satisfy the curious mind.

Depending on the class, the lecture area could be arranged like a typical classroom with tables, chairs, and writing board (above), or it could be set like a lounge area, by folding up the cantilevered tables (so cool!) and adding a sofa and a couple of side chairs, for a more casual group discussion (below).

Recently, they had classes on the basics of poker with VJ Sianghio, storytelling with shapes with Dan Matutina, and how to console a broken heart with Mahar Mangahas. I told you, they have classes on anything and everything under the sun!

The Living Room is located along P. Guevarra St. in San Juan. For information on their rates, visit their website here. To learn more about the quirky classes in The Classroom, check their website here.

*all images via the living room/the classroom facebook pages here and here.

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best-of series: space matters

It’s Design Folder’s first year anniversary! We can’t believe it’s been a year already since we started

To kick off our celebration, we thought it would be a good idea to revisit what we’ve been up to this past year.  First up, some of our favorite entries from space matters.

Our very first entry was Apple & Jesse’s home

Then we visited the lovely house of Gene & Ache Florendo for Christmas

We also met with one avid antique collector and featured his beautiful casa

Our first out of town assignment was Cebu where we met Ted Gonzales and showed us how you can you integrate art and green building features in your home.

We also found a mid-century-inspired home right inside the UP Diliman campus.

And who could forget Ivy’s white space ?

The rest of our space matters features are HERE. Watch out for more of our best-of series this week! df