Ideas to style your home at Westgate

MANILA, Philippines - Furniture and furnishing make or break a space. First of all, they have to serve their practical function; chairs should be comfortable while shelves should be roomy enough to accommodate everything you put in them. These furnishings should also be interesting enough to leave a lasting impression to visitors to your home.

This lasting impression is first and foremost for Ideas for Living which has now gone South and opens a showroom at the Westgate Hub in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

 â€œWe like the idea of the store being practical and fun. You don’t need to go from shop to shop because you can all find it in ID,” says Bertrand Ng, owner of ID Ideas for Living.

The store showcases interesting, modern furniture pieces in an industrial warehouse concept. “Obviously, we got the concept from our very first location, but we brought it over to our other stores, including the one in Alabang. We like the idea of our customers going into the store as if they’re picking from treasures we’ve curated,” adds Ng.  “My business partner Eugene Lorenzana and I have both run furniture stores and lines. With ID, we want to bring modern furniture pieces to the public at more reasonable prices.”

  Expatriates are another of the store’s most avid clients. “Expats are very money-conscious since a lot of times, they’re only in the country for a few years. Expats love our pieces because they’re very much great value for their money,” he states.

Ng says that the edge of ID over other furniture stores is how all the items in the store have been carefully pre-selected before being part of ID’s collection.

The store is divided into different sections according to the different parts of the home. There is also a separate section for home wares such as bath essentials, pots and pans, plates, and bed linen. The store also has a more high-end line called Black and White and a special section of global finds called Flea Market.

“Flea Market’s a great place to find accent pieces. For example, we have replicas of Chinese cabinets. If you want to add some world flavor in your home, you can find it in Flea Market,” he adds.

The Westgate store is 1,300 square meters, a great size according to Ng, for showcasing their products.

“Furniture really demands space to be shown properly. This Westgate store allows customers to really see the set-ups as it should be with the correct spacing,” states Ng. “Westgate also feels like a community there with everything from restaurants, recreation, and stores. It’s sort of a mini-destination, and we’re proud to be part of it.”