Neriza Mathay’s: House of Style

"A place is supposed to glow." That’s what the designer says. This is no truer than in this home which looks elegant without even trying. In fact, this is a house of contrasts: of sophistication and casualness, of textbook perfection and laid-back flawlessness, of faultless details and flexible arrangement, of global influence and ethnic charm, of timeless good taste and modern appeal, of nature and urbanity.

Whether looking at the room as a whole or at the smallest ornament, the picture doesn’t change. It is luxurious in its simplicity. It is a haven, a retreat, a place to recharge and all those clichés that we use when we just want to get away from it all. It is far from the hectic urban life but the house is no more rustic than if it were in a penthouse above a city skyline. In short, the appeal is universal, not countryside. The fact that it is surrounded by hills and forests just adds to the restful ambience flowing through the space.

This is how the owners wanted it. Neriza Reyes-Mathay, wife of QC Congressman Chuck Gandoncio Mathay, wanted a home that would be filled with her beloved oriental accents that she has collected over the years and yet it should also be a home that would stand on its own modern legs in more ways than one. More importantly, it should be a home in every sense for the family. Neriza and Chuck Mathay’s brood consists of sons Macky and Chris, and daughter Nicole. "Of course, I have a brand-new daughter, Hazel, who’s 22." Hazel is the real name of popular movie actress and singer Ara Mina.

To achieve all this, Neriza collaborated with long-time friend and favorite interior designer Anton Mendoza.

"Filipinos have arrived at the point where they don’t mind experimenting," says Anton. "It’s now more lifestyle than just for show so they fix the entire house, not just the public spaces like living and dining rooms."

The house took three years to complete and still there are rooms owner and designer are working on. Neriza and Anton relate with laughter that it was good it took them that long. For one, the project didn’t break the bank and Neriza saw the evolution of her own personal style.

Neriza says that in the past, architects and designers took charge of everything. Now she feels that homeowners are more aware of what they want. They want their soul to come out, their personality to be stamped all over the place. And it is her personality that is evident in this house. Anton says he took inspiration from Neriza, wife, mother and traveler.

As authoritative as her husband may be, it was the wife who took charge of this project: a resthouse in Subic the family escapes to on weekends. "I’m afraid Chuck didn’t have anything to do with it," she chuckles. "But he loves it as much as I do. In fact, he likes it more than our home in Greenhills. Subic is our home away from Manila. It’s our sanctuary."

The only requirement Chuck Mathay had when they began the project was that it should not be too ostentatious. After all, throughout his life his father, former QC Mayor Mel Mathay, was in public office, and he himself has only recently followed in his father’s footsteps.

As for Neriza, she prefers to keep a low profile – if that were at all possible for political wives nowadays. Of course, she does her share of socio-civic work in Quezon City. She took up the chairmanship of Pusong Makabayan Foundation Inc. (PMFI) from her husband Chuck. PMFI recently celebrated its 6th anniversary as a foundation geared toward poverty alleviation through programs in housing and livelihood, advocacy of women’s issues, and delivery of medical and dental services.

"It sounds like a very big responsibility, I know," she says. "But I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished through the years. Now that I’m the chairperson, the challenge is not merely to surpass Chuck’s accomplishments as the chairperson but to carve my own niche with the foundation and to ensure the sustainability of the services we offer – beyond politics and 2004."

Neriza likens running a socio-civic organization to building a home. "You first work on the ‘foundation’ on which your home solidly stands and then proceed to the structure, the shell, the roof and the finishing touches. Working with people entails the same amount of patience, perseverance and dedication. You need a blueprint of ideals, plans that get revised now and then, and yes, the tenacity – loads of it! The secret weapon is love…gotta put your heart and soul in it, that kind of stuff. That’s exactly what I’m doing with PMFI, which I coincidentally call my ‘happy home with a heart.’ I am molding it into the kind of home I share with Chuck and my children, a place that one can come home to and call their own."

The Mathays’ vacation house is a good example of how much one can do in a house lacking remarkable architecture. The house was originally two separate units, so they tore down the walls between them to make it one. After that, nothing else was touched of the structure

When Neriza met with Anton, she told him, "Do it slowly as budget becomes available. I want to do this right. I’m not in a hurry. Let’s do it one by one. I don’t want to finish it in one go and compromise because of budget constraints."

Anton, whom she met in 1985 ("I was at Clothes Shop with a friend who was going to introduce us and I said, who is this designer Anton Mendoza that you want me to meet? There he was standing right in front of me."), went to work. He put up the curtains first, an unusual practice since they are usually the last thing to be hung, together with paintings and accessories.

"Why did we do that? Because curtains set the feel of the place," says Anton, who is known for his love of playing with lighting and curtains. "Then we did the bedroom, the sofas, lamps, accents, paintings and then the carpet." The carpet, incidentally is sisal, a natural fiber that adds another layer of texture to the living room and softens the white ceramic tiles.

Neriza’s most basic requirement for the house was that Anton should work with a white palette. White for the walls, the floors and ceilings. White as the canvas for the interior magic they could employ – and there was a lot they could do in this five-bedroom space!

In the living room, Anton used another favorite trick: Mismatched furniture pieces in strong, solid colors, where the only things matching are the throw pillows. His reason: To make the room look like it was furnished with different things from around the world, even though most of the pieces were designed by him and were locally made. There’s a nice piece of sofa here, a nice lounge chair there, a checker board armchair there that have different textures and styles, but somehow it all works beautifully.

The idea of a room filled with accents gathered from countries is not such a stretch since Neriza Mathay is quite a traveler and a collector. She’s a typical bargain hunter. If there’s a good piece available, she’ll buy it in the hope that one day she will get to use it. Meanwhile, her things are up in storage. Neriza has a passion for collecting, and fortunately, so does her designer. On one of Anton’s trips to New York, he found an old sitar or Indian guitar that he immediately bought for her.

"Every time he’d find a piece, he’d call or text," says Neriza. "So I’d buy it and keep it. I’m a hoarder! There was one time, we were fixing the family room and I realized there were six chairs we bought at an auction in Christies’ in London."

Anton says this is actually a good practice since it’s hard to start from zero when building one’s dream house.

"I’m forever looking into stores for all these beautiful finds and collections. One day, I’ll get to use all of them," she says.

For Neriza there isn’t the problem of being tempted to use too many things in the house. Thank God, she says, the time is over when people collected things for the sake of simply showing them off. "I remember when people had collections that they would just display in china cabinets. It’s a house: Everything has to be functional."

"I don’t collect a particular thing. Just anything I like. When people go abroad, they shop for me. When I’m abroad, it’s more like family time, my attention is undivided for the family so I can hardly shop."

Anton Mendoza calls Philippine design and Filipino houses the "hidden treasure of the East," which the Western world is now discovering through local coffee table books and magazines. "Filipinos have taste," he says, pleased at how the design industry and the designers have evolved through the years.

The evolution of the Mathay home is, in a sense, similar. Building the house for Neriza was a process of discovery: Discovering what her own design style is and the changes in her outlook toward things she considers beautiful. For instance, in her first partnership with Anton for the Mathays’ Greenhills home back in the 1980s, she told him: "There are two things I don’t like: Dark wood and dark wood." Oh and how they lightened everything, including antique wooden pieces. A Japanese Tanzu chest was bleached, tables were in light wood, and everything they could lay their hands on they bleached.

In this second outing for the resthouse, she discovered an entirely different side to her sense of aesthetics. "I discovered that I like dark wood."

So now the pair brought forth furniture pieces inspired by the world’s best designers such as Philippe Starck and Christian Liaigre. Darkwood consoles, side tables, chair legs, bed posts, coffee tables and cabinets. Anton also imported real African wenge furniture to complement locally made ones.

"Anton brings out the best in the individual. It’s very important for him to know his clients and their habits, their lifestyle. We’ve known each other for so long he already knows what I would like and what I wouldn’t like."

Anton relates the story of one of his sourcing trips abroad. He saw this earthenware piece and called up Neriza. "I told her, you know what, I found an animal that’s your birth sign (she’s a Taurus). When she saw it, she said, ‘But this is a ram.’ Oops, I forgot she was a bull!"

Neriza still loved the piece which is now atop the buffet table in the dining room. The room is another example of how a space can host such a contrast of materials and design sensibilities. The table legs are made of aluminum designed by Philippe Starck, the top is glass, the chairs are Japanese and the buffet table is topped with a medley of material, from earthenware sculpture to aluminum vases by Frenchman floral master and designer Christian Tortu and Murano glass.

Asked what her must-have accessory is, Neriza has a ready answer or should we say two answers: Candles and flowers. She loves candles so much that Anton Mendoza says if there was a brownout in her house, one wouldn’t even notice because there are so many lighted candles – always.

"That’s the only house where you wouldn’t smell cigarette smoke," says Anton, who admits that he has taken to mixing scents like Neriza.

"Anton always asks me what scent I’m using and the truth is, I don’t know. I use so many scents it must be a combination of all. Everywhere I go on a trip, I must have at least two candles that I bring along. I go to somebody else’s office and there’s no candle, I leave one."

Candles are the only thing Neriza will admit to spending a lot on, "I light candles when I’m happy, when I’m sad. I like the energy that they give out, and of course you add the scent and it becomes perfect."

Her favorites are Manuel Canovas, Acqua di Parma, Porthault and Christian Tortu candles, the last, she says, she "can’t afford" because they are expensive. These brands she buys from Anton’s Artemis shop on Pasong Tamo Extension in Makati.

Okay, so these stuff are expensive. Do what Neriza has taught her maids to do: Melt the excess wax and buy wick from the market and you can have a brand-new one in a container. "I’ve mastered the art of making tipid the candles," she says with laughter. Yes, she also loves to collect snuffers.

Another luxury is flowers. "My favorite is the white Casablanca lilies. They’re beautiful, plus they last a long time, almost a week."

In the end, of course, it’s not just the candles and flowers that make the home beautiful, it’s the work that she put into it and the relationships that deepened during the process, between family members, and between owners and designer. "My home is a reflection of my aesthetic taste, my deep friendship with Anton, not to mention my enormous respect for his talent, and my commitment to put my heart into the things I put in its every nook and cranny."