My friend Boy’s home sweet home

I first met Boy So of La Carmela de Boracay in 2004 during my Lenten getaway in the beach paradise of Boracay. We were introduced to each other by a good friend.

An entrepreneur and an honest, fair manager, Boy successfully built and transformed La Carmela de Boracay into the resort of choice among local celebrities, tourists and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who visit the island. Boy is a simple man who just wants to work hard to be able to provide his family with the best that he could. And part of his dream was to build a dream house for his wife Loi and daughter Carmela.

I once invited him to my Tagaytay residence. Boy told me, “I want something like this.” He then intimated to me that he was building a house in Pravia, Iloilo. I immediately volunteered to be the interior decorator of his house.

I am a self-taught student of interior design. But the interior design that I do is not academic. My design philosophy is premised around the stories of homeowners. I probably can’t decorate a house of someone I don’t know. And Boy is different — I know him as a person. I know his aspirations, his dreams and his family. I know how he manages his businesses and how he presents himself to other people. I always think that the interior of the house should fundamentally tell the story of the people who live in it. For me, that’s the core idea of the interior design of the house.
I traveled to Iloilo twice to make sure that I was familiar with the space. I spent a lot of time just walking around the place and spending hours in the house of Boy to get me acquainted with the house.

To start with, we got a number of pieces from my friend, world-class Filipino designer Kenneth Cobonpue, such as the little people boomtown lamps,  the Suzy Wong loveseat easy armchair, nobu table, the yoda sofa, the little people rectangular hanging lamp and the dragnet lounge chair which I placed at the entrance of the door. We also used the wave dining table of Kenneth. The decor also includes the dragon tails lamp designed by Luisa Robinson and manufactured by Kenneth Cobonpue.

To add color, I used the architectural floral arrangements of the inimitable Rachy Cuna and commissioned painter Philipp Badon to do the paintings for the house.

I also commissioned some young artists to do pop art of Boy, Loi and Carmela to give it a colorful and vibrant young look. At the veranda in the third floor that overlooks a river, we arranged pieces of native furniture that Loi bought on sale from one of the department stores in Iloilo.

The altar is a combination of the statues of Chinese deities, the Santo Niño and Mama Mary which is common to some Filipino-Chinese families.

Loi has a huge jar collection and she didn’t know what to do with them. She wasn’t sure they would blend with the items we brought in but, we found a way to get the jars into every corner of the house without distracting our design aesthetics. They beautifully blended with the pieces of Cobonpue, Luisa Robinson, and the paintings of Badon. We also used the antique pieces of furniture that Boy and Loi had when they were just beginning as a couple and rearranged them so they blended naturally into all the other things that we put in the house.

There were a lot of contradictory elements at first glance but when you take a look at all these things closer and deeper, you would realize that the interiors of the house basically tell the story of Boy and his family.

What’s the best thing about Boy’s house? I think it’s on how we were able to retain a lot of space in spite of the things that we put into the house. But the best thing is really the story of their life that you will see in every piece and corner in the house.

Boy and his family are happy with their dream house. “It’s very fulfilling! Masarap umuwi ng bahay knowing na nandoon ang pamilya mo at laman ang kwento ng buhay mo. Now, I realized that it’s really good to invest in a house,” he enthused.

Indeed, it’s a sweet home, welcoming, comfortable, and friendly. Just like Boy, Loi and their daughter Carmela.