High way to Dwell

Home shouldn’t just be a chamber of comfort. Aesthetics is a key aspect when settling in a desirable living space — one that you’ll find trouble parting with when it’s time to leave for work and one that your houseguests might consider lengthening their stay for. When it comes to playing house decorator, however, the rule of thumb is that you’ve got to be cash-flush in order to furnish your personal space with design-desirable pieces.

To dwell is an art, as new lifestyle center Dwell seems to advocate, but having an admirable place where you can put your feet up at the end of the day doesn’t have to cost, well, an arm and a leg. Nestled on the ground floor of the Grand Eastwood Palazzo in Eastwood City, Dwell covers a whole lot of ground when it comes to high-luxe interiors (from daybeds to paintings) and home accessories that serve to accentuate and illuminate one’s habitat like it was a fine art gallery. The bright red awnings that line Dwell’s exterior suggest Manhattan boutique store, but upon entering this lifestyle store, you uncover an expansive 1,100-sqm., high-ceilinged space devoted to all the “good things in life” that proprietors and the store’s design team Eugene and Marga Lorenzana wish to adorn people’s homes with.  

“We wanted to create a lifestyle center for people who love design,” says Eugene, who declares the modern classic style prominent in Dwell as most ideal for the sophisticated urban home. “Which is why we are located in this area and not in a mall — like an outpost that is highly focused on products and furniture for all parts of the home. The thing is, when we talk about great design, it’s usually Italian furniture that comes to mind. What we have here at Dwell does evoke that sleek Italian feel — but the pieces are certainly not at Italian prices.” 

Dwell’s rebel yell towards the barrage of cost-crazy Italian-design houses resounds with the store’s display of conversation furniture pieces that won’t elicit gasps from price-shocked customers. Various furniture installments are spread out like a walk-through catalogue.

By the store’s entryway is an astro-inspired Arco lamp that swoops like a mini palm tree over a mocha-colored sectional couch and an exquisite daybed where, burrowed into a couple of pillows, you can fall asleep while flipping through a paperback. In another intimate nook is a bedroom setup where a baby-grass rug gives the espresso-colored Silva king-sized bed beside it a midnight-in-the-garden appeal. From tripod floor lamps to red Egg Chairs, guitar pick-shaped Noguchi tables to metallic-based Eiffel chairs — all are locally reproduced design staples plucked from carefully selected Asian suppliers.

What’s more, kiln-dried Philippine mahogany can be customized to suit a customer’s personal tastes and needs.       

Habitat For Home Amenity

Of course, “dwell-being” isn’t just about Italian-inspired home furniture pieces. While home is where Dwell’s heart is, it also offers pieces that grant elegance to one’s workspace — pieces like an Edo executive table with an almost-suspended desktop in black glass and ebony veneer, banishing any sort of occupational drudgery when you’re sitting contentedly behind it. Even Dwell’s storage boxes and wastebaskets (from Primitiv) are assertions of clean, contemporary style. All these design-centric “good things in life” include paintings from independent American artists and the store’s array of products for your domain of choice.  

Top-of-the-line European coffee machines (De Longhi, Saeco, Bialetti), affordable tableware (Multiple Choice) and cookware (Dupont, Analon. Prestige), Oregon alarm clocks that project the morning’s wake-up time on the ceiling — Dwell’s all about upgrading the way everyone eats, lazes, and lives.

“We edit the home accessories that enter the store to ensure only the best designs hit the shelves,” says Eugene Lorenzana of the aesthetic appreciation your houseguests will conjure up when they spot that snazzy clock by your Silence bed; the gold-flecked Asian pots by that jute rug; or the Moroccan plates spread out on your exquisite walnut dining table.

“When a customer shops at Dwell, not only will they find everything they need for the home, they’ll also be confident knowing that what they purchased is at the forefront of style and design.”  

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Dwell is located at the ground floor of Grand Palazzo Condominium, Eastwood City, Libis, Quezon City.