ITO KISH, the enterprising designer with a flair for mixing and matching, pulls off an eclectic look in this 1,200-sq m home of a client, a loyal customer of his eponymous store. The client had wanted a sophisticated but comfortable home.
“I didn’t want it to look like a showroom,” said Kish. “It’s all about combining different textures and styles.”
He pointed out that just as his furniture designs have a story, so does his home decor style.
“It shouldn’t look too ‘art directed,’ but as if the lady of house knew how to put everything together herself,” explained Kish.
Adding depth to a cavernous house, he favored printed and textured wallpaper and wainscoting, or wood panels.
“I didn’t want to fill the huge walls with artworks,” Kish added. “The house should evolve. Today, it’s filled with wallpaper; later it can display more art.”
The kinds of wallpaper defined the mood of the room. The younger boy’s bedroom has light blue wallpaper with subtle cloud patterns.
“It’s the only room that faces the tree and the sky,” the designer noted. “I said, why don’t we come up with clouds so there is continuity from the outside to the inside?”
The neutral background with bright floral prints cheer up the girl’s bedroom, while the bamboo prints in her bathroom create calmness.
The guest room, with its canopy of palm leaf prints, evokes a tropical feel. Then again, a wallpaper of textured feathers on the ceiling of what would have been an ordinary guest bathroom elicits a wow.
“It’s an unexpected detail,” he said.
Hotel suite
Since the client and her husband were frequent travelers, they wanted the master bedroom to resemble a hotel suite. Kish created a private living room with an accent wall lined with exotic reptile skin.
“The beauty of wallpaper is that they clean up the walls. If the walls are not straight, they hide the cracks and the warps,” said Kish.
The key furniture pieces are of varying styles, ranging from traditional to retro, contemporary and Filipino.
Many tables, cabinets and sofas were sourced from Organic Modernism, an American company known for designing furniture with mid-century modern aesthetics. These pieces are characterized by clean lines, slender legs and the use of walnut and oak.
To add a light-hearted touch, Kish integrates chairs and tables from Cebuano designer Kenneth Cobonpue.
In the boy’s room, a mid-century-style armchair is placed alongside Cobonpue’s Chiquita stool made of rattan poles.
As counterpoint to the sleek furniture, Betis Crafts, the Pampanga exporter known for intricate lines, built the girl’s bedframe and living room table with scroll patterns, chairs with rounded profiles and intricate mirrors.
“We needed to put in some breaks from the linear designs by adding a few classic elements,” says Kish.
An accent piece in the double-height living room is Kish’s award-winning Gregoria Lounge Chair, inspired by antique balusters.
As companion to Gregoria, Kish’s Juana chairs, crafted from PVC and rattan rings reminiscent of mid-century chairs, make a strong impact in the terrace.
The variety of styles generates a dialogue between pieces. These make the rooms more interesting, not flat and boring.
Similar elements
Kish then combines random objects and furniture by finding similar elements in the room such as color, shape or texture.
In the living room, the glitter of metal is repeated in the cubist chandeliers by Dutch artist Marc de Groot; the brass inserts in the veneer accent wall, the trim on the Carrara marble flooring and the brass handle of a marble box on the table.
“They all visually connect and pull everything together,” claimed Kish.
The accessories in the dining room are visually linked by the repetition of the circle. These are echoed in Tom Dixon’s copper bronze pendant lamp, the convex mirror and the round dining table with the classic Lazy Susan.
Once the main color theme and the key furniture pieces are in place, Kish shakes up the space with lively geometric patterns and conversation pieces.
The brass, cubist Helix hanging lamps by Dutch sculptor Marc de Groot lend an industrial effect to the living room with its mix of modern classic and contemporary pieces.
Reversible silk accent pillows from Turkey can change the mood, from Art Deco chevrons on one side to ethnic geometric patterns on the other side. These prints break up the solid greyness of sectional sofa.
Kish spices up the living room with unique pieces such as alabaster lamps by French designer Gills Caffier, a diamond-accented
shagreen table by Janina Dizon, antlers and mesh hats from India.
An escape from the urban jungle, the guest room is decorated like an oasis with a soothing green color scheme with organic materials such as paper art by Japanese designer Wataru Sakuma, abaca lamps by Milo Naval, a woven rug, native hats and fresh flowers, naturally.
“It’s like being on the beaches of Cebu,” Kish said.
The randomly selected elements have been accumulated by the owner for more than two years, with the aim of living in a house with personality.
“When you put different things together, there has to consistency in your aesthetics,” said Kish. “This home is an example.”
