Project Condo: On Interior Design and Home Decor Magazines

Ever since the move to my tiny one bedroom apartment, all I ever really think about these days is how I can improve my small space. Veering away from Pinterest pegs and online searches, I have started purchasing local magazines as a source for inspiration and practical information.

The "in progress" living room interiors at my own small space (32sqm)

I've been going crazy over buying home decoration and interior design magazines these past couple of months. With my current aesthetic, budget and lack of knowledge, I've discovered that the magazines I've hoarded can be divided into 3 categories:

1. Optional - The content is more on company background and brand profiles and topics revolve around luxury and opulence. Think 300+ sqm houses and 100+ sqm condos, big chandeliers, marble floors and expensive antiques. Most brands that are being featured cannot be found in the Philippines or are sourced internationally and therefore, very pricey. While I love me a bit of class and a lot of quality, I feel that these magazines really cater to a different market. I appreciate the furniture designer articles and interviews with the home owners, but it's really more of a nice to know instead of essential info. These magazines go for 200 Php, have little advertisements, but are still of little use to me, my budget and my plans for my home.

Still sleeping futon style. No furniture in here yet! 

2. Inspiring - The featured homes range from classic, rustic/industrial to modern minimalist and are visually delicious.These magazines have a wide range of articles and interviews, from architects to interior designers, business people, socialites and artistas. Of course, their homes provide a standard of which we can look up to, and it is indeed very inspiring. I want to live in those 3 bedroom units and claim them for myself! Oh but I am a mere twenty something with a tight budget but still aims to live better and learn how to improve my own space. What I am missing from these types of magazines is the how-to aspect of achieving the look of these model homes in the most practical and budget friendly way. It's as if what I am buying is simply a source of inspiration, but not a helpful guide to allow me to really take action without the help of an interior designer. The inspirational mags go for around 150-195 Php and I got me a couple of these for constant inspiration.

Obviously, I'm a fan.

3. Very Useful - I've discovered the perfect home design magazine that combines inspiration and practicality. In each page, I learn something new--an interior design term, a furniture designer or a new place for sourcing local furniture. Tips and tricks and DIYs abound in each issue (which I absolutely love, because I am doing this on my own) and their featured homes show real people with real struggles with their space. The magazine details the journey of the renovations and the story behind the decoration and layout. The homes being featured don't look like model units but actually lived in, with photos of pets and people, showing furniture, layout and aesthetic that really say a lot about the owner. The mag provides information about products and indicate the price, or suggest stores where you can find something similar.

Looking at my stack of home improvement and decoration magazines, I found out that Real Living Magazine has the highest pile. I have back issues and recent issues of the magazine and even got myself their of home idea books that go for around 245 Php. I wish I could get my hands on the Real Home Ideas 5 which is their small space issue. This is why I'm super delighted that Real Living now has a website! Similar to what you can see in the magazine, the site has more than 100+ of photos for each room that has a range of different styles from minimalist to industrial to eclectic to asian/tropical to shabby chic or modern. Of course there are featured houses that will never match my style (or budget) but the site packs a ton of useful ideas for storage, maximizing space and simply creating a lovely home.

Check out their site (still in Beta mode): http://www.realliving.com.ph/
Like them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/realliving.ph

Disclaimer: This is not a paid post (haha as if)! Content and opinion about Real Living are mine alone. :)

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Project Condo: A Dining Set, Paper Flowers and Table Styling

Month of April has brought some great progress to my living conditions at the condo. In my last Project Condo post, I was sharing some of the things I learned during my first couple of weeks at my unit. I ended up not buying the furniture that I enumerated in this post because of budget constraints, and so I took a different approach to purchasing big functional pieces and decorating my home. 

I recently bought a sturdy 2-seater dining set made of malaysian rubber wood and it has been my place for work and eating. I love that it's made of dark wood, although I am contemplating on having it painted in white. The table is square, sized 30x30 inches and I've been looking for one exactly like it. I knew my space could not afford fitting a bigger table, so I jumped at the opportunity to buy this set.  I still plan to add a couple of eames-inspired DSW chairs so that I can use them as accent chairs to this rather dull set up, but I tried to look for them at Mandaue foam, Dimensione and Dwell and they were out of stock. Oh well, in time. :)

Lately, I've been channeling some of my creative juices with styling my new dining area. I chanced upon a utility scale placemat from the Bleach Store in Greenbelt 5 and bought it immediately. Then made a bunch of paper flowers to add some color and softness to the table. Since I haven't done my plant/flower shopping from my mother's garden yet, I made these paper flowers using yellow, black and white crepe paper. 

Because of the placemat, the table had a sort of industrial vibe to it and the grey background and yellow flowers juxtapose themselves against the dark wood. 

With the end of April came in the start of a brand new month, and I suddenly felt tired of the table setting above. It seemed too dark and too warm, so I made another bunch of flowers with greens, violets and blues. For the blue flower, I used white crepe paper and colored its edges with watercolor. Oh the thrill of the blue bleeding into white sent my heart giggling! I changed my gray placemat with a white and black kitchen towel which served the same placemat purpose on my table and it gave a sort of shabby chic feel to the whole setting.

What do you think about these two themes? Are you into the whole industrial movement, or are you more of a shabby chic kind? :)

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Project Condo: Moving In Expectations vs. Reality

The idea gathering phase is easy. Just pin some interesting pegs in Pinterest and go crazy over these sleek mono chromed Scandinavian interiors. In my first Project Condo post, I was so excited about buying furniture that I didn't realize I had to consider a whole lot of other things before making these big decisions. See, I didn't plan on moving into my unit right away because I wanted to do the whole shebang of inviting family and a few friends over to celebrate my big move and of course have the place blessed by a priest. My mom will bring lasagna. I'll serve it on my new Corelle plates and we will eat it using my sparkling cutlery. My sisters and brother will share their thoughts on the awesomeness of my place and I will gush at how my condo really looked exactly how I imagined it. We will have coffee and cupcakes on my Eames-inspired dining set and we will sit on my cozy gray couch while watching T.V. They will marvel at my small albeit beautiful space, and I will tell them how fun and amazing it was to decorate and move in.

The dream living room

But of course, that scenario's all in my head. When the keys to my unit were handed over mid-March, I realized shit just got real. Let me share with you what my moving in experience was like and how different my expectations were from my actual reality...so far. 

The Turnover

The developer, Robinson's Residences emailed me early March to schedule the condo viewing and turnover. My bank loan has been approved and I had set up my account for auto-debit. The engineer showed me around the building--the lobby, mail room, trash chute at the lower ground, function rooms, gym and pool! I had an idea what the pool would look like, but it was even better than the mock up 3d photos they showed online! Expectation < Reality! 

Then we arrived at my unit's door, I was nervous and excited at the same time. I got a one bedroom apartment, and I knew it was going to be small. When my mom and I got in, I was flown back to reality. This is my 3 years worth of downpayment. While my reality matched my expectations because the flooring, kitchen and cabinet finish were great, there was a lot of natural light coming in and the bathroom was spacious and the developer has provided built in aircon slots in the bedroom and exhaust  slots in the kitchen, I had one thing on my mind: How am I going to fit all my dream furniture in this small space?! See, 32 sqm is not a lot. In fact, it's really tiny. In my head, I was already reducing my bed size from Queen to Full and my L-shaped sofa to a 2 seater love seat. I will probably have to scrap 2/3 of my pins in my Project Condo board. Expectation = Reality.

I then started researching on small space interiors from Apartment Therapy and the site has a lot of resources on how apartment owners can style their homes to maximize space. Some featured homes come even in 20-24sqm! That's when I knew my small space had hope. It was all in the layout and design. 

The Move

As I've mentioned earlier, there was no urgent need for me to move in, until that week when I remembered I have a 3-day Project Management training in Eastwood on April 2-4. I knew then I had to take advantage of my condo so that I can at least cut my commute time in half if I come from Mandaluyong instead of Paranaque. There was an immediate shift of priorities because of the urgency of the move, so I recalculated. Remember this post? Not one of those items enumerated were bought during the week of my move. I guess taking a more practical route took first dibs because I didn't have an endless pool of moolah to fund all my dream furniture at once. Expectation > Reality.

To be able to move in with the bare minimum, you have to buy the following: 

The bed

1. Mattress - There are so many things that one needs to consider in buying a bed frame and I didn't want to rush into the purchase just because of my 3 day training. I want my bed fame to be made of solid wood, in white or dark wood and with a couple of drawers for storage underneath. So I went futon style and  bought an Ambassador Ortho Prestige mattress in semi double. I knew right from the start that I didn't want a single bed, but a queen seemed too big for my room. A double was a good choice as well, but the OC in me wanted the edge of the mattress to fit a 50 inch frame. I took off the plastic cover on one side but kept the cover underneath to protect the mattress from dust. It has 15 year warranty service and I got it at a discounted price. 

Note: I have yet to give a review of Ambassador sales people from SM though. The mattress is awesome, but the service from SM was horrible

2. Pillows, pillow cases and bed linen - Apart from receiving keys during the turnover, Robinson's also gave me a standard sized pillow. It's soooooo fluffy and soft, I wanted to hug it all the time! Since they only gave me one, I wanted to get the second half of the pair so that my other pillowcase won't be lonely in the cabinet and I have something to hug when I sleep. I also purchased a waterproof mattress protector from SM and a 4 piece bed set that include 2 pillow cases, a fitted sheet and a flat sheet. Buying a duvet or comforter seemed impractical at this point because I haven't bought an airconditioning unit yet!

4. Electric fan - I got a black stand fan for 1,250 bucks in Handyman. It has a 5 year warranty and the fan generates good breeze that I only set it at the minimum setting. The downside is that it has a rather audible whirring sound as well. I will most likely use it for the living room once I install airconditioning in my bed room. 

5. Entry way and bath rugs - I bought two rugs for the bath and for the entry way, just so I won't have to tiptoe around my space and keep the dirt at a minimum. I kept my shoes near the entry way and made sure I use only my indoor slippers (a couple of pairs were provided by Robinson's as well!) when I'm in the unit. Still, I learned it the hard way that no matter how nice a white rug looks in pictures, it won't be white for long in real life. 

6. Trash cans for kitchen and restroom - I got a step on stainless steel trash can for the kitchen and a plastic grey bin for the rest room. If the bath room gets flooded (God forbid!), plastic might fare better in the restroom than the stainless steel kind.

7. Dinnerware and glass containers - I was seriously planning to eat out all the time, but when I came across the Corelle 16pc dinnerware in black and white, I had to take a second look. And what do you know, it's on sale! I also got myself 4 glass containers from Lock & Lock and I got them on a buy 1 take 1 bargain as well. I used it for storing sugar, creamer, oatmeal and ground coffee. 

The Perks and Trade Offs

It's only my second week at my new space and I definitely had a change of lifestyle. My constant concern is the number of furniture and house hold items that I still need to purchase, the utility bills and association bills that I need to pay for and well, my new perspective on independence. I bought groceries thinking of the value that I can get for my money. In short, I became more mindful in consuming. The biggest perk of living in a condo is the convenience. I save time and effort in the commute going to work (I it's a 5 minute walk plus tambling to my office because it's just right across my place) and I get more things done within 24 hours. I get to swim every 7 am and still have time for breakfast and coffee in the morning before going to the office.  Depending on the developer, the building can also offer pretty rad facilities. The trade off? It comes with a price, of course. 

A Thousand Things More To Do

Contractor meet up, check. Suppliers for blinds/curtains, check. Furniture research, check. Appliance canvassing, check. It's a lot of work, living on your own and establishing a life in your own space. I've been learning a lot these past couple of weeks and one thing we need to remind ourselves during the move in process is that there is no rush. You don't want to get trapped into the false urgency of having everything at once. The key is to research, discern and decide carefully so that you will have no regrets with your home improvement purchases. The important thing is to fill your home only with things that you really love and finding a purpose for everything. It's having the balance between function and aesthetic that is essential to making the dream a reality.

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