Shanghai World Expo 2010 (part 3)

Day 2. Country Pavilions. Finally! Here are some of my favorites:

China Pavilion

"The roof is made of traditional dougong or brackets, which was widely used in 770 BC-467 BC. In the dougong style, wooden brackets are fixed layer upon layer between the top of a column and a crossbeam. The result is interlocking wooden brackets"  

Yes, that entire tidbit is brought to you by your friendly neighborhood Wikipedia provider. *claps*  Despite not going inside we were still able to appreciate the massive 7 story Pagoda style structure by China.  After the Beijing Olympics, they are truly screaming to the world how much they've arrived.  I love how they managed to integrate the traditional style with such a sleek design. 

Canada Pavilion

It is said that the pavilion is about the size of 2 1/2 NHL ice hockey rink. And, that Cirque de Soleil will be performing.   Me thinks, the overall pavilion design was plain awesome.  Very nice architectural details, clean straight lines with a monochromatic light color that showcases the every inch of the design even more.

More Kitchiness

They also have it in blue.  Love love!! 

 

Ground Floor, Shop 33

Cubao Expo, Araneta Center

Cubao, Quezon City

Contact Info:

+63 2 911 3540

+63 916 694 7631

 

More Home Ideas

I love the tufted cushioned chairs.  It manages to look really modern despite its Old-World-esque style.

Ahh. My love for white still hasn't diminished.  This despite knowing better now how freakin' difficult it is to maintain those white furnitures.

River rock  lines the floor of the shower area.  Made me smile!  It's actually the same detail the fiance and I used for our master's bathroom

The double layered white lacquered coffee table rocks!

Window draperies.  Floor to ceiling curtain always creates such a dramatic effect

 

Photocred: elledecor.com

Perfect Pieces Photo Shoot

Guys, I'm sorry it's been mostly about house post of late.  I am quite the frustrated designer, you see.  Anyways, two Saturday's ago I had the pleasure of shooting for the catalog/brochure for Perfect Pieces.

Design Inspirations

Lately, I have seriously been giving going back to school a second thought. This after swearing to the heaven's up above that there's no way in hell I'm going back after graduating. But the more I think about it, the more certain I am that this is the next illogical step. A reverse natural progression of sorts.

Design Hunting: Cubao X

Last April, the design geniuses behind Heima opened its doors to us mere mortals. Soon, word of mouth quickly spreads, as quirky and kitchy designs became the IT items in every household.

The fiance and I have been enamored with the whole Cubao X scene. And not for pseudo artsy-fartsy cravings mind you, but rather for a far more glutton-like affair -- pizzas at Belinni's!!! So one lazy Saturdays, when we were back at Cubao X to satisy our tummies' desire, we stumbled upon this happy little store, Heima, and the rest as they say is history. Love at first sight still happens in this time and age, my friends.


Here are some of my favorite finds:

Happy couch. Who wouldn't be with this fabric detailings, right?


Sun Jars (LED lights inside)



More awesome stuff on their online store, www.heimastore.multiply.com





Perfectly located at the heart of indie spirit in Manila, Heima can be found inside Cubao X, Marikina Shoe Expo.
Contact Info: 0917-561-4346
Website: www.heimastore.com

Current Obsession: Our Home

It's far from being done. So let's call this a progress report card of sorts. Major construction and renovation has officially ended last week. There are still a lot of tweaking here and there that needs to be taken care of but all in all the Fiance and I are absolutely loving the changes. Of course now we are entering the really exciting part - decorating!

Last Thursday we met with our furniture maker (no more disastrous unopened locks this time around!) I'm glad to say that the meeting went very well and we're just now trying to negotiate the price (although he did give us a pretty good $$$ already, we just wanted to see if we can haggle some more, you never know right?)

So here are some pics from our on-going house project

Dirty Kitchen: We used high gloss white laminates for the cabinets, black granite tiles for the counter top, 60 cm cook top and range hood, noticed that really cute sink - hehe we decided to buy this tiny sink since there's another "dirty kitchen" in the house - that mini sink is basically for washing chicken, as the Fiance puts it. Not featured, the space on the right corner for our refrigerator.

"Clean" Kitchen - For our cabinets and pantry, Wenge laminates were used, White agglomerate stone was chosen for the counter top, bar handles instead of the usual drawer handles, circular sink from Home Depot, Powder Blue graphic coated glass was installed to serve as the splash board. Note: except for the pin lights we haven't shopped for lighting fixtures yet.


We, ok this is all me, I wanted our walk-in closet to have a store feel to it so we asked our dear friend Ricky to install this frameless sliding door. I love the striped graphic coat detail on the glass that we had designed. We initially thought of 3 partitions (clear, frosted, clear) however after having our master's bedroom painted we decided to add the beige stripe detail on the glass. The clear striped part of course is there in order to not block the natural flow of the light onto our room.



It still needs lights, appliances, furnitures and other frou frou items.  I can't wait to fully furnish the place.  Keep you guys posted!

Design Hunting: Ikea

I remember when I was in Hongkong with friends last year, we spent one night scouting for good finds in this gigantic IKEA store. Thank gawd someone wisen up and decided to bring those wonderfully quirky items here in the Philippines.

The online store for IKEA items was by Eugene Enriquez way back December 2007 - www.ikeaph.multiply.com but even better there's an actual physical store (unofficial of course) that's super near my place. Love!


It doesn't go with our theme for the house but I just adore this unique shoe rack that they have.



Address: 120 Kamias Road Quezon City
Store hours: 8am to 5pm weekdays, 1030am to 730pm weekends

Shopping for furniture

Disaster struck again yesterday. I was supposed to meet up with our furniture maker at our new place. When we got there, I couldn't get the locks to open. WTH! Sigh. We had to reschedule but I bet he is secretly cursing me to hell and back, after all he lives all the way in Novaliches and I had him meet us up at Manila area. Uh-oh

On a brighter side, furniture shopping always cheers me up. Here's a cool dining chair found, of all places, in Crossings Department Store along Quezon Avenue.



I love them! Although I'm not sure it goes with the design concept we have for our house. But if you're doing a modern romantic themed this would definitely fit the bill.

Dining set: Php 32,000 - eight-seater with 60" squared glass dining table

Looking Forward: A House to call Home

I am a wannabe interior designer. And I can't believe that it is only of late that I have discovered this uber fantastic site, www.elledecor.com. Since chancing upon the site, I have been getting loads and loads of inspirations for current renovation project. I just hope dear furniture maker can translate them into reality.

For Dear Fiance and I's house, we've decided to go with a monochromatic theme - only whites, beiges and dark browns. The look we're going for is a Modern Contemporary home. And thankfully my obsession with Elle has led me to the oh so fateful discovery of Poltrona Frau. I am considering having these sofas by Frau (see images below) copied by our dear furniture maker. This, despite numerous advice from well-meaning married friends, that a white couch will cause a lot of heartache and headache, I seem to be developing this sickness that has suddenly given me selective hearing. I will most likely not heed despite their good intentions. It's just too damn pretty! Oh well I guess what better way to solve this dilemma but to just to issue a resounding threat (You spill. You pay!) and pray to the universe that they are not as disastrous as the homeowner.




photo cred: Elle Decor

A Stellar Kind of Education

Last Thursday, despite scorching heat, the BFF and I went furniture hunting all the way to Caloocan City. (You know, seeing that there is not a single day that goes by that this mad obssessed woman does not feel the urge to talk about interior or house designs) After our field trip, decided to tag along to one of her class in De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde. She's become one of those part time faculties in the school's design and arts department. And might I say, WOW! - Not for the BFF's career trajectory, although equally as wowable, but really more for the fantabulous building design that can be seen along the stretch of Taft Avenue.

A Brand New Day

After months and months of planning, canvassing, meeting with architects and engineers, haggling, scoping or just plain 'ol driving the fiance nuts with gazillions of design trivia, TODAY marks the first day of our big house renovation. With just three hours of sleep (blaming myself for picking last night as the night to marathon season 2 of Brothers and Sisters) got up at 7 this morning, excited for the fiance to pick me up to meet our crew. Sigh. It's like the first day of high school all over. Sheer delight!

possible tile choices??

AND I thought I was bridezilla with my OC-madness but this house project has taken the OC-ness to a whole different level. Yes, sometimes I think the fiance wants to take back the ring from sheer exasperation. "Bee, kahit anong color ok lang, promise!" This, after the 5Oth time that I have tried to explain the science behind the dirty kitchen's color scheme. It has actually come to the point wherein I would much rather spent the entire afternoon walking around Home Depot looking for the perfect wood laminates or wall tiles than hang around with actual people. It's a bad case of addiction. With the BFF, who works in publication, as my drug dealer and copies of MY HOME magazines as the perfect drug. Must be strong. MUST MUST try to act normal!


Tiles from Tau Ceramic located at Ortigas Home Depot

Must-Try: Be an interior designer for a day

WORLDBEX 2009

I just spent an entire afternoon roaming the halls of World Trade Center. I highly recommend for those house building to visit the on-going Worldbex at WTC from March 18-22. They have everything there from tiles to glasses, uber fantastic kitchen designs to ideal closet spaces. It also features the newest technology when it comes to contruction. That old-fashion looking screens are now a thing of the past.

Looking Forward: Drawing up some House Plans

We met up with our architect Thursday to show her the floor measurements that fiancé and I have done last week. Measuring was hell. I felt filthy and tired and totally unsure if we were measuring the right things. But when we showed our “drawings” to architect all uncertainty went away. It’s pretty exciting. Our plans of renovating the dream house is finally starting to materialize. Architect will give us a the layout sometime soon, this already incorporating the changes we wanted to input (i.e. bigger bathrooms, powder rooms, breakfast nooks, walk-in closet and a tub for dear future hubby)


Closet Pegs:

Design Hunting: And we're at it again

In my continuous quest to decorate future dream house with dear fiance here are some photos from our latest side trip to Dimensions last night at Boni-Hi after dining at New Orleans (yum!). Best friend was wondering if we were more excited about interior decorating than wedding planning, Umm you think?!? But can you really blame lil 'ol me?!?


Solid wood in red and white high gloss Php 84,000 (red) Php 66,000 (white)

Design Hunting: First Steps

serendra unit

We don't have a date planned out yet for the BIG day... i really don't think i am girly girl in that sense. I havent had the dress all thought out. No idea what the flower arrangements would look like. No preference yet as to what my bridesmaids would be wearing. All i know is that whenever that BIG day is - it has to have a killer band - and an even rocked out after party...

What i have been dreaming about since i was a young girl, is not the big white wedding - but something more achitecturally inclined - the ultimate kick-ass house me and my soon to be husband will be calling home. Lately, conversations with Manongski has turned into an open ended topic. The never-ending debate about the walk-in closet ensues. But this has been cushioned by the sweet victory of securing the L-shaped red couch our friends will soon be lounging around at. It's funny. At some point while discussing possible color combination for the dirty kitchen i just burst out laughing - this was all so grown up. I can't believe we're actually planning to build our own house na!

walk in closet: i want it all white!!