Real Living online features

Our home was featured a few months ago in the August 2015 issue of Real Living. This time, they also published two articles about it on their website!

The first one is basically a photo gallery of the different areas of the house. Read the entire article HERE.

The second one has some DIY decorating tips including some of my own personal projects like making your own wall stickers and creating silhouette portraits. Read the entire article HERE.

So again, thank you to Real Living for all these features. Really makes all the efforts in making my DIY projects and decorating on a budget worth it! :)

Our house is featured in Real Living!!!

If you know me or have been reading this blog for quite some time now, then you know that Real Living Magazine has been a constant source of inspiration for me for many, many years. Even before I got married, I was already reading this magazine, just dreaming about the day when I would have my own home and get to decorate it.

When we finally moved into our house 3 years ago, I initially wanted to hire an interior designer. I actually inquired among several decorators whose style I liked from Real Living and even had an ocular at our home to know the costs. Well, it turns out we couldn't afford it then, but I guess it was a blessing in disguise since I was able to fully exercise my creativity and DIY skills to the maximum level.

Hubby and I bought furniture on sale and had some custom made to save on costs. I went online to find inspiration from websites like Houzz and Project Nursery. I discovered so many blogs that inspired me to do my own DIY projects (which I blogged about as well!). I discovered places like Dapitan and Uniwide which were treasure troves for budget conscious people like me.

All these things led us to have the home that we have today, a home that I'm extremely proud of. And what makes it even more special is that I didn't need an interior designer after all! Like the title of the article says, this really was my "PERSONAL PROJECT". And this just proves that you don't need to spend a lot in order to have a nice space. I think it's just a combination of inspiration, imagination, and a little bit of hard work too (hindi madali ang magpaint ng room ha!).

Before, I would just read Real Living magazine, gushing over the beautiful houses page after page. Who would have thought that I would eventually be able to see our own home inside the magazine? I swear, it really is a dream come true!

Real Living Space Tea Party & Walkthrough

I have been an avid reader and fan of Real Living magazine for so many years now, so I was beyond happy when I received an invite to their Real Living Space tea party. During the event, Associate Publisher Tom Castaneda and Editor In Chief Rachelle Medina personally discussed and showed us the spaces that some of Manila's best interior designers have created at the Trion Towers in BCG.

This was the lovely office / craft room set-up that greeted us, with furniture from Heima. The free DIY workshops during the weekend were also held here. Out of all the spaces, this was probably my favorite since I just love all the colors, prints and patterns. Everything just looks so happy and girly! Gosh, I wish I could have a room like this at home where I can do all my DIY projects. Heaven!!!

This is the living area styled by Van Acuna. Hubby was with me and he instantly gravitated towards the aquarium on display (he's been wanting to get an aquarium for the house ever since before). Well, we found out that the aquarium was from ADA Nature Aquariums and it costs a whopping P140,000! That's because all the plants used are real (and imported), the glass of the aquarium is some kind of special crystal (it was so clear!), and the best part is that someone comes to your house once a week to clean the whole thing! So sulit naman pala hehe! ;p

This is the dining space designed by Wilan Dayrit, which is where cocktails was also held.

We then headed upstairs to check 2 of the condo units that were styled for the event. In the first unit, the living / dining area was by Wilmer Lopez featuring furniture from Space Encounters. I really loved the whole vintage, retro, funky style of this area.

The bedroom inside the unit was styled by Pam Tan. My favorite part in the room was probably the butterfly decals on the wall from Dimensione. According to EIC Rachelle, the designer placed them there to cover paint chips on the wall (great idea!).

In the next unit, the living area was styled by Kristine Neri-Magturo. I really like the mix of feminine and masculine elements in the space. If you noticed, there are a lot of antlers used as decors in the room, just like in the other unit, which was purely coincidence from the designers. ;p

The bedroom in the unit was styled by Elle Uy. This room is also one of my top picks since it has that whole bohemian vibe (very Urban Outfitters!). I especially love the curtains and the wall gallery.

It was such a great afternoon and the whole time, I felt like I really stepped inside the pages of Real Living. I love how all the spaces have their own distinct style - there really was something for everyone. Now, I'm even more inspired to start redecorating! Although I need to wait a couple more years before I can start placing breakable accent pieces anywhere around the house with my toddlers running around hehe! ;p

Real Living Space at the Trion Towers

Real Living will unveil the Real Living Space, the ultimate shopping and design showhouse, at The Trion Towers in Bonifacio Global City this weekend, on Saturday, September 14 and Sunday, September 15. During this FREE two-day event, you'll get to experience the pages of Real Living like never before, with help from noted designers like Wilmer Lopez, Pam Tan and Wilan Dayrit, in four stylish spaces! But that's not all... You'll get to take part in DIY workshops and a mini trade fair, as well as speak with designers and Real Living editors about your design concerns. 

I was so fortunate to be invited to a special tea party yesterday where I was given a walk through to the spaces by Real Living Associate Publisher Tom Castaneda and Editor In Chief Rachelle Medina. Everything was so beautiful and I got so inspired to start redecorating again. Here's a preview of my favorite spaces from the event:

 Anyway, I'll be blogging about the tea party in the coming days and show you more of the gorgeous details from each of the rooms. But please do drop by the Trion Towers this weekend to take part in this event and see these amazing spaces for yourselves. :) For more information, visit www.realliving.com.ph/rlspace.

We won a REAL LIVING makeover!

Ok, just to clarify, the makeover wasn't done in MY house. Rather, my sister and I won the monthly makeover contest of Real Living magazine for my mom's living room area which you can read all about in the AUGUST 2013 issue. :)

Just to give you a background, I've been reading Real Living for so many years already. It has been like a bible of mine on how to achieve having a stylish, affordable space. I especially love their makeover section where you can see how they can really transform a room or even an entire house into something you wouldn't even dream possible.

I've always thought of joining that contest back when I was still living at my mom's house, but it seemed like such a long shot. My sister and I always dreamed of giving back to my mom, and one of the things we had always wanted to do was fix up her living area. It used to be such a nice sala when we were younger and back when my lola was still alive. But then through the years, it has become such an eyesore already with our dog Rusty literally taking over the space. Budget for improvements went to other areas of the house like the kitchen, and that's where everybody would just hang out and watch TV. So the kitchen/dining room sort of became the living room as well and this space just became a storage area. In the rightmost picture below, you can see a bulky wooden cabinet that my mom had made to house some of our wedding gifts, among other things. And the rattan sofa and table beside it used to part of a complete set, but somehow that is where our dog sleeps now.

I don't know why, but my sister and I decided to join the Real Living Makeover contest last year. It was exactly a year ago on July 2012 when my sister sent in the entry to Real Living. My mom had no idea and we kept it a secret since there was no guarantee we would get chosen anyway.

Fast forward many months later... It was last February when my sister got a text message from Real Living saying that we were one of the finalists chosen (this was supposed to be for the MAY issue) and they needed to do an ocular on the space. It was really unbelievable because it had been more than 6 months since we had sent that entry and we almost forgot about it already! We just couldn't believe it! Well, we had to tell my mom already and of course we were all praying and hoping that we would win. The ocular went really well but unfortunately, they decided to go with another finalist. Of course, we were disappointed but the representative from Real Living said that there might be a chance we could still get chosen in the coming months. We honestly thought they were saying that to make us feel better. But they called again last May to say that yes, we were finally the ones chosen for the AUGUST issue! Thank you Lord!

Everything went really fast from there. They started working on the space around mid-June and I believe everything just took about a week or more. It was too bad I never got the chance to be there during all the oculars, renovation, photoshoots, interview, etc. but I felt like I was there every step of the way. And when I saw the space for the first time after it was done, I was simply amazed. I felt like I was in a different house! :)

Dreams do definitely come true because now the living room looks FABULOUS! I still can't believe they fixed everything up and furnished the space completely. It's really such a blessing. Check out the photos from the magazine below :)

I wish I could have met the interior designer Catherine Cena because she did an amazing job. I love all the furnishings, decors, accent pieces she used. It's just the stuff I would buy for myself. And the color combo of orange and blue is something I've been dying to do (remember my post about ideas for my son's room?). Now I can just raid my mom's living room haha! I love that she did a study area as well so the space is more functional. If you noticed, they also changed the flooring and fixed the lighting as well. I just love, love, LOVE everything about this space! It looks so young, modern, and fresh! :)

But seriously, we can't thank Real Living enough for choosing my sister's entry. We never knew anyone personally who had won before and we thought that they would only choose houses that had been struck by floods or something. But now, we can say that yes, this makeover is real and anyone can really win. We'd jokingly say that "grabe, ganyan pala kapangit un space natin, imagine napili tayo?" hahaha! I guess it's really God's will and in His time that all of this happened. Our mom is so happy and now can't wait to invite people over to check out her new living room. ;p

So please grabe a copy of Real Living's AUGUST 2013 issue if you want to read the entire article. And don't hesitate to join their monthly makeover contest. Who knows, your space could be next! :)