Upon entering the home of Patricia “Trish” Panlilio, you get this “to the manor-born” ambience. It’s not one of those residences designed by a hotshot architect and furnished with the latest Italian brands and paintings by popular Filipino modernists.
On the contrary, it exudes a very personal style. The house is modern yet Mediterranean with the tiled roofs, arched entrances and grills. The interior decor is modern eclectic with a dose of English pastoral. Floral bouquets abound, along with large wood pieces with simple, decorative details, mix-and-match furniture, all in earth tones with bright accents. There is a sense of family history with the proliferation of family photos. The mood is kept light by modern motifs infused with quirky finds.
“I don’t want visitors to say the look is by this architect,” says Panlilio.
Five years ago, Panlilio was the Philippine representative to Tatler Asia’s Most Stylish Women event, and rightly so. It’s not just her elegant but nonchalant dress sense that’s striking, but also the way she decorates her home, entertains friends and selects the merchandise for Papillo Fine Stationers.
In this age of smartphones, tablets and other digital media, there is something wonderfully old-fashioned about using stationery as a way of communicating and chronicling events. Panlilio keeps that romance alive with her business.
Words of love
In her home, stationery samples—note cards with vivid floral borders, evergreen trees, bamboos and violets—are laid out on the heirloom dining table. For trendier customers, there are note cards with bold stripes and polka dots and patterned pads with matching mini clipboards.
The look book has invitation cards for all occasions. For a lingerie bridal shower, there are undies on hangers adorning a fuchsia card. For the Sunday wedding brunch of a traditional couple, an invitation card has shoes at the back of a car, along with cans and a “Just Married” sign. A card with a little black dress as the motif is appropriate for a bachelorette party. The invite of an ‘It Girl’ depicts a coquettish corset. Even baptism and First Communion cards are available. Party cards are suffused with motifs of martini and champagne glasses.
For birthdays, the numbers 25, 30, 40, 50 and 75 are done with bold patterns to emphasize the big day. Anniversary dinner cards are painted with grapes, while a 50th wedding anniversary invite depicts cheeses, wine, breads, oils and all that abundance.
There are little notebooks with floral covers and sequins and cute pads, with matching feathered pencils and doodle clips with mini post-it notes and luggage tags. Popular notes reflect Panlilio’s wry humor. One reads: “Dump this to-do list and retain sanity.” Another note card pictures a lady with mismatched patterned clothes, stockings and boots, and carrying the sign “Keep it simple!”
Panlilio comes in towering in Cesar Gaupo platform sandals. She is in flared jeans, not her usual shorts or slitted gowns. A Missoni tank shirt, she says, is her uniform sando.
She has just rearranged her house, she reveals, since she and her sons preferred books over television, and books are now favorite decor motif all over the place—though with a twist. For instance, a bookshelf with classics such as “Moby Dick,” “Anna Karenina,” “Words of Love” and “Little Lord Fauntleroy” is punctuated with such titles as “Now Panic, Freak Out.” One corner displays “Heaven and Hell, Mademoiselle” by Harold Carlton, a reflection of Panlilio’s self-deprecating humor.
The place is also enlivened with floral bouquets and candles. “I love candles, aromatherapy and flowers. These are the joys of my life,” says Panlilio.
Time-worn look
Like the designs in her stationery, merienda fare served is aplenty—barbecue, siomai, dip, bite-size breads, a fruit basket, salad and homemade iced tea from her secret recipe. The table is laden with her arrangements of asters, chrysanthemums, pompoms, gingers on vintage flower pots from a flea market.
More cutesy vignettes fill the house. The staircase is lined with traditional wreathes, pines and giant socks that have been used by Panlilio’s sons since they were children. Above them are oil paintings done by the eldest, Quintin, 20, when he was nine years old. Beside the Christmas tree are Santa’s cookie plate and an Eeyore doll.
A Santa Claus doll and his moose sits on top of a big wooden holder filled with corks from bottles. Another vignette presents old luggage with wooden boxes resembling books. Behind it is a shelf adorned with three bears whose skins have a time-worn look. Panlililo says she likes objects that exude the weathered look because they have more character.
The powder room is like a boudoir, as it has a shower curtain of contrasting black and off-white stripes and a bowl of beautifully arranged soaps. The main living room, meanwhile, is furnished with a comfy sofa set against an Oriental coromandel, a two-seater and a divan. They coexist with Chinese warrior chairs and the black glass coffee table.
An informal corner is arranged with custom-made cane-backed Art Deco chairs and a wooden table with a profusion of her favorite casablancas, plus spider mums, chrysanthemums and asters. As a finishing touch, Panlilio sprays the room with an orange scent that’s both calming and uplifting.
Panlilio is proud of her individualism. “It’s better to be Rocky Road than vanilla,” she says.
For details, contact Papillo at (+632) 8105295, 0929-3652328 or 0918-936 9854. Twitter: papill_statio or visit website www.papillofinestationers.com
