MF Lifestyle: Transforming a place into a space made just for you

MANILA, Philippines - This easy, breezy afternoon, we step right into the bedroom of Azkals’ heartthrob Phil Younghusband. Yes, Phil is still loveless after breaking up with actress Angel Locsin about two years ago. And yes, he has moved on and has moved into his own condo, which he is now busy furnishing. What matters most to Phil is his bedroom. “I spend most of my day out so when I come home, I want a bed that invites rest and good sleep,” he says with his dreamy eyes that can put you to sleep. “I like to spread out so I want a soft, comfy bed.”

And so, to bed, with Phil who confesses he’s found the love of his life in MF (Mandaue Foam) Lifestyle, a line of fashionable and functional customizable furniture and furnishings to suit different lifestyles.

Aside from Phil’s bedroom, here at the Rockwell Tent at the launch of MF Lifestyle hosted by Tessa Prieto Valdes and RJ Ledesma, we also get to invade the spaces/places of actress Mylene Dizon, radio jock Sam YG, model/actress/blogger Saab Magalona-Bacarro, fashionista Nicole Andersson, host/beauty columnist Kelly Misa-Fernandez, and travel bug Kryz Uy.

There’s nothing dramatic about award-winning drama actress Mylene Dizon’s living room. As single mom to two hyperactive boys, Mylene likes to keep it as simple and clean as she possible can. “Because my kids are boys and they can be messy,” she explains. “They eat popcorn and pizza and their hands are dirty and full of cheese.” Which is why she opts for neutral colors over immaculate white (“puting-puti”) that are easy to clean. No need to worry about the stained walls or furniture as she hangs out with her boys in the sala to watch TV or play games or Lego with them.

Mylene goes for an English country theme — classic and muted pastel colors. She really doesn’t need a lot of color in her home. Her kids and their “wall artwork” are enough to color her world.

“I’m renovating my home and I’m happy that with Mandaue Foam, I can choose the dimension, size of furniture to cater to my needs,” says this visibly content mom. “MF has little decorative items to cater to your personality. Like I need a vase to put flowers, ’pag may nanliligaw kay Mommy.”

It’s not every day that you see Sam YG step out of the booth of Boys Night Out and show you his living room that he himself designed “hopefully, para magka love life,” he says with a mischievous wink. He’s the familiar voice you hear on the radio, dishing out advice to the lovelorn and broken-hearted (like that despondent guy whom he stopped from jumping off a building because his girlfriend cheated on him). Sam, who could perhaps use a little love advice himself, doesn’t need any advice when it comes to decorating his bachelor’s pad. He likes to keep it sexy, throwing in a lot of greys (could Sam be a fan of Fifty Shades of Grey?) and dark hues. He likes to keep it homey. “I’m always out the whole day, so when I come home, I wanna relax and be comfortable.”

His taste for furniture is the same as his taste for girls, “I like simple things in my home, I like simple girls.”

As she awaits the visit from the stork, soon-to-be-mom Kelly Misa-Fernandez found time to visit the Mandaue Foam factory/showroom on Ortigas Avenue Extension so she could fix her home office in her three-bedroom townhouse. She was doubly amazed at the great decorating options and the incredibly affordable prices she found at Mandaue Foam. For her home office, she got an L-shaped desk and cabinets, where she could tuck away everything into the drawers to keep her workspace always nice and neat. And there’s a little seating area by the desk so she can work and entertain at the same time.

What Kelly loves most about Mandaue Foam is that it is open to making customized furniture, which is just perfect if you already have a design in mind. “Furniture is made to suit your space.”

Not a pink kind of girl, newlywed Saab Magalona-Bacarro says yes to earth colors — brown with touches of green. Her husband Jim Bacarro totally agrees with her choices so no need to make compromises, which is what marriage is about.  “I got a love seat (a two-seater) from Mandaue Foam for our two-bedroom apartment, di pa namin kayang mag house,” says Saab. “My husband lets me do what I want.” Apparently, it’s a give-and-take relationship — he gives, she takes.

Nicole Andersson is living on her own now and she’s furnishing her entire apartment with Mandaue Foam items. “I’m getting a rug, sofa, chairs, dining table, coffee table, lahat talaga,” she enumerates. “I like a lot of pastels and white. I want something that screams my personal style — girly-girl and modern. I have some designs in mind and I’m just so happy that Mandaue Foam has got it spot on, like this white cabinet, which I’m just gonna take home.”

Kryz Uy loves the outdoors, which shows in her dining area that’s got a beach vibe. She loves to eat, too, and have endless conversations over good food and great coffee.

Kryz describes her dining space, “The whole feel is resort chic-clean, natural and effortless, with little decorative instagrammable pieces I can pull out for a quick shoot.”

Asked to describe the other showcases at the MF Lifestyle launch, she says, “All came up with spaces that were so, well, us!”

Ryan Uy, Mandaue Foam head of marketing, wasn’t even born yet when Mandaue Foam was founded in 1971 by his father and grandmother in Mandaue City, Cebu. “We had a grocery store named Rosita’s after my grandmother,” Ryan begins to relate. “My dad would come to Manila and buy foam and bring it back to Cebu to sell. It was a lot of hassle because the foam was bulky. So, instead of buying foam in Manila, my dad and grandmother thought, ‘Why don’t we make it here in Cebu?’ Kaya naman. So, they tried making foam in Cebu. At first, they were just selling in the grocery store, but then people started inquiring and they wanted to buy. So, they opened a factory and it got bigger and bigger. We opened a factory in Davao. We had so much foam, so what else could we do with it? We started selling home mattresses. Since we were making mattresses, why not spring beds, too? After the spring beds, why not make pillows, too? Since we already have pillows, let’s make seat cushions. After the cushions, why don’t we make the entire sofa? Now that we have sofas, why not make a dining set and then accessories? We were not selling accessories (like flowers, vases, etc.) then, but the customers would insist they wanted to buy.”

From a humble grocery store, Mandaue Foam is now a one-stop shop for home furniture and furnishings — basically, everything you can sit and sleep on. Today, it has seven factories nationwide — two in Manila and one in Cebu (the main factory that’s all of four hectares), Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Gensan, and Iloilo. It has 5,000 employees and 23 stores nationwide.

Listed as one of the country’s top 1,000 companies, this Cebu-spun business has been known for its high quality products offered at budget-friendly prices. “When you go to a furniture store, sometimes you’re like, ‘Why is this so expensive? How can a table, for example, cost P200,000 to P300,000?’ At Mandaue Foam, everything is reasonably priced,” Rayan stresses. “Prices are reasonable because when people buy, they buy it straight from the manufacturer, they don’t have to go through a broker. For example, a single-sized spring bed would cost you only P4,300 while a king-sized one that comes with a five-year warranty is only P6,500. Most of our materials are sourced locally. But the raw materials for making foam are all sourced from abroad because we don’t have local sources. Our foam has been tried and tested, especially our flex foam, that’s really a good quality foam — when you sleep on it, it has a very good balance of comfort and support.”

Mandaue Foam is proud of its in-house designers, all graduates of interior design and furniture or industrial design from different schools. “But some customers bring a photo from the Internet and tell us, ‘Can you make something like this?’”

MF has launched its customized kitchen line. “Most people think customizing furniture is expensive,” Ryan observes. “Not with us. We bring the same level of craftsmanship and value for money into our customized kitchens as well.”

Surely, there’s no place like your very own customized space.