The owners, Filipino-Chinese entrepreneurs, loved to travel. When they planned their five-bedroom, 500-sqm home, they told interior designer Sigvard “Jigs” Adefuin that the bedrooms should replicate the ambiance of a boutique hotel. Moreover, each room should reflect the personality of their three children.
Hence, Adefuin drew inspiration from design details of a hotel guestroom. First, the dimensions. The bedrooms are 25 to 30 sqm, the typical size of a guestroom in a businessman’s or five-star hotel.
“Hotels follow a formula—huge bed, a plasma TV, a desk, a storage area, and a bathroom,” adds Adefuin.
To create a cozy ambiance, hotel guestrooms always take the safe, neutral palette with a few bright colors and minimal patterns. For the bedrooms, Adefuin favors modern palettes of cream and gray, complemented by warm brown and taupe. The feeling of intimacy is created by touches of wood, lush patterned carpets, and the inhabitants’ personal preferences.
He then delineated the sleeping space with eye-catching headboards. The accent walls behind them added another layer of texture and color to the room. Just as guestrooms incorporate a lounging area for guests to relax, the clients’ bedrooms include a seating area, such as a comfortable chair to chill.
Then again, hotels add a bench to the foot of the bed to keep things within easy reach—to lay out clothes, or to sit while putting on the shoes.
The overall theme of the house is contemporary, a design that is current and dynamic. Unlike modern design, which is either a 20th- century period feel or an industrial interior, contemporary decor isn’t pegged to a definite look. It mixes elements from various styles and periods.
The contemporary look is interpreted in the large windows for sunlight, furniture made from new materials and metal, white walls to bring attention to the accessories, clean lines in the furniture and interior architecture, and emphasis on comfort.
“Since the couple is young and their children live with them, I wanted the interiors to be very ‘now,” says Adefuin. “We used their possessions to personalize the house—their paintings and their coffee-table books.”
As in hotel rooms, there are paintings above the bed that personalize the space. Adefuin made use of the owners’ collection of Filipino artists whose works harmonize with the interior architecture. For instance, the boy’s room is decorated with a geometric abstraction by National Artist Arturo Luz to blend with the clean and strong lines of the space.
“Colors from the painting enliven the rooms, yet also create a restful but joyful atmosphere,” says Adefuin. “Art not only embellishes a space, but also adds that missing sparkle.”
On his design style, Adefuin says: “I don’t look at visual pegs. I base the design solely on the clients’ needs and preferences. Still I want the design to be timeless. Ten years from now, the house should still look current. Owners invest so much money in building the house and buying furniture and accessories. They should get their money’s worth.”
Read more on how each room was customized to the owner’s preference and character inside the magazine, available in all leading bookstores nationwide or downloadable from Magzter.
Photographs courtesy of Adefuin Design Studio
