SCANDINAVIAN DESIGN HOME IN MANILA

This gorgeous Scandinavian design home in Manila belongs to my Filipino friend, Ayessa. She and her husband used to be expats in Jakarta, Indonesia, where I met them, and Berlin, Germany, where their son was born. After having lived abroad almost for 6 years in total, they returned to their home in Manila, Philippines a few years ago.

Their current two-bedroom apartment in Manila is decorated with the furniture and decorations mainly from Indonesia, Germany and the Philippines. I had a privilege to visit her home in Jakarta many years ago which was featured on Living ETC Indonesia. Five years later, I had a chance to visit her beautiful home again this time in Manila.

ORGANIZING + DECORATING FOR CLEAN & EFFICIENT LIVING

Ayessa has an eye for design and special skills for organizing. You can read and learn from the number of blog posts written by Ayessa on decorating home. The articles can be found in Diplo Home under Diplo Picks on the blog Undiplomatic Wife. (I will explain to you later why she is undiplomatic wife.) Not only are her tips helpful for expats, they will help anyone who want to make their home organized and beautiful without breaking a bank.

During the time in Germany, Ayessa’s style which was impeccable to begin with, seems to have evolved even more. Having lived and been exposed to Europe and the designs there, she seems to have adopted the aesthetic and style that exist in the region.

10 IDEAS TO LEARN

Ayessa’s home itself is inspiring to look at, but how does she create her home?

Here are 10 ideas you all can take from Ayessa’s home so that you will successfully decorate your homes, whether owned or rental, to make it your original.

LIVING ROOM

1. VERSATILE FURNITURE

Ayessa is all about design and versatility.

The white book shelves are used as part of the entertainment center. Multiple side tables can be used as decorative shelves to put plants, coffee tables or side tables. These pieces of furniture can have different roles depending on the layout of the house. Versatile pieces are practical for rental homes especially overseas where you may not be able to buy furniture easily.

BOLIA

Sofa was purchased from Bolia, Ayessa’s favorite Scandinavian design brand.

2. NO GARDEN? BRING A GARDEN INSIDE!

The added greens bring more life and charm to the interior. Since they live in an apartment and has no space for a garden or balcony, they brought the garden inside with potted plants. We have also lived in apartments longer than living in a house with a yard. When you miss seeing greens, decorating with potted plants is a good compromise.

3. CHOOSE A FEW MAIN COLORS FOR DECORATING HOME

It’s hard to pick just a few colors of your favorite. However, pick one color as your canvas and add a few colors for your decoration. Even if you have various items collected from different parts of the world, you will make your space look cohesive.

Ayessa’s home has a color palette of a light natural wood and white with an accent color of gold throughout the apartment. White walls with white furniture makes her apartment look brighter and more spacious. Having a theme with a few main colors allows your room to look clean and less cluttered.

4. CREATIVE KIDS PLAY AREA FOR LESS CLUTTER

KID’S PLAY AREA BEHIND THE SOFA

Living with kids means that you just have to put up with clutter to a certain degree. If you have young kids, especially toddlers, you want to keep their play area near where you spend the most time. At the same time, you don’t have to allow toys to invade your relaxing living room area. In other words, the adult space and kids space can coexist without merging even if you live in a small space.

One method to contain clutter with toys is to allocate a play area behind a piece of furniture such as a sofa.

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SPINKIE

The cutest stuffed toys from Spinkie. Their Instagram feed is an eye candy.

5. PRACTICAL STORAGE SOLUTION

Ayessa uses storage cases from MUJI to organize Lego pieces. When the child outgrows Lego in the future, these storage cases can be used in many other ways in different rooms. I find storage cases like these are a wonderful companion for rental home living and those who move quite a bit. They are the key to keep your home more organized.

MUJI

Ayessa is a big fan of MUJI, a lifestyle brand from Japan. MUJI has many storage solutions that you can use to organize while displaying them.

FOLDABLE SHELVES FOR AN EASY MOVE

This shelves pack flat! This is a dream furniture for people who move often. Ayessa purchased these shelves from Dimensione in Manila. You can see their products on Dimensione’s Instagram feed. This foldable shelves were imported to Manila from KOI Indonesia, Ayessa’s and my favorite furniture store in Jakarta.

DINING ROOM

EVOLUTION OF AYESSA’S DINING ROOMS
Ayessa designed the furniture for her home in Jakarta. I would have not done it myself knowing how challenging it was. She’s incredibly talented.

See how Ayessa has decorated her 3 dining rooms in 3 different countries with the furniture she designed.

JAKARTA, INDONESIA
DIPLO HOME FEATURED ON LIVING ETC INDONESIA

BERLIN, GERMANY
OUR BERLIN DINING ROOM

PAINTING by NAKA BALI

If you are curious about the gorgeous painting of a girl, you can learn about it from a blog post by Ayessa of Undiplomatic Wife.
NAKA BALI PAINTING

Even an exercise ball has a beautiful cover which allows the ball to blend in beautifully with the rest of the dining set.

6. A CORNER FOR DIGITAL DEVICES

Digital devices need to be charged somewhere in your home. It is not the most aesthetically pleasing site. Ayessa also told me that when her husband was diagnosed with rare bone cancer last year, she researched and found out that wireless devices emit radiation that can cause cancer. Therefore, she keeps all her devices as far away from her son’s room as possible. You can read an article about “Cell Phones and Cancer Risk” published by National Cancer Institute.

7. GROUP TOGETHER FRAMES IN THE SAME STYLE & COLORS

You might have frames from different styles and colors. Different colors would go together just fine if the style is consistent. Here you see simple style frames in different designs. Some are thick, some are thin. Some have mats, some don’t. They look as though they were coordinated because they are all in white. You can mix and match, but it’s easier to pick one color and stick to it.

If you don’t know what to pick, picking either white or black is the easiest because you can alway add other frames later very easily.

CORRIDOR

8. CORRIDOR = SOLUTION FOR LIMITED STORAGE

Apartment living has limited storage. If you have a wide corridor, why not use it as storage? White shelves are great to convert corridor as storage.

Ayessa’s apartment in Jakarta also had the same problem with storage. You will be floored to see the storage furniture that she designed herself in Jakarta. Her hallway looked amazing!

JAKARTA, INDONESIA
BESPOKE TEAK HALLWAY FURNITURE

BERLIN, GERMANY
TIPS FOR A FUNCTIONAL YET BEAUTIFUL HALLWAY ENTRANCE

 

KID’S BEDROOM

BOOKS BY COLORS

When you sort books by the colors on the cover, the book shelves look super organized, don’t they?

9. ORGANIZE YOUR CLOSETS USING CLEAR BOXES & STORAGE BOXES

Ayessa uses clear plastic boxes and white storage boxes that she purchased in IKEA overseas. (IKEA has not opened a store in the Philippines.)

STORE & ORGANIZE IN A WAY THAT EVERYTHING IS VISIBLE

Ayessa follows the KonMari method by the organizing and declutter sensation, Marie Kondo. When it comes to kids closet, it’s easy to pile up the old outgrown clothes and new clothes. Organizing kids closet so that you can see everything will help you save money. Why? You won’t buy the same thing twice.

Everything is visible. It’s the key to an organized living.

MASTER BEDROOM

HABITAT

The beautiful winter tree painting on the wall above the Alain Berteau’s Nightclub Armchair is a purchase from Habitat Manila.

INSTAGRAM

ALAIN BERTEAU CHAIR

This is Alain Berteau’s Nightclub Armchair. Ayessa used it as a nursing chair when her son was a baby. She let me sit in the chair and it was incredibly comfortable as well! Since it can be taken apart, is a perfect chair for a move.

SLIPCOVERS

RECOMMEMNDATIONS
All the slipcovers at Ayessa’s home were made by Les Mains de Narisse. She is a seamstress in Manila, Philippines. I have ordered my slipcovers for our sofas through VJ, the son of the seamstress Narisse. Ayessa referred me to her.

Please click below for the information.
SEAMSTRESS RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURNITURE SLIPCOVERS IN MANILA

10. INVEST IN SOME VALUABLE PIECES

We all are attracted to discounts and good deals. When most of us furnish our home from scratch, we have to buy what we can afford. If you were to spend money to upgrade a few pieces of furniture, though, try to select a few items in a timeless design. They don’t have to be expensive.

If you know what you truly love, try not to compromise because of the price. In a long run, your money will be paid off. If you can’t find what you love, try to live in inconvenience for a while in order to wait until you find what you will love.

After all, no home is made over night.

ANTIQUE AMBASSADOR CHAIR FROM THE PHILIPPINES

Ayessa found this antique Ambassador chair on a Facebook buy and sell based in Manila. To go with the rest of the furniture, she had the color lightened by a local furniture maker in Manila.

MEET AYESSA OF MINIMALUXE & UNDIPLOMATIC WIFE

Ayessa is a blogger, professional organizer, and interior decorator. She was also an expat and trailing spouse of 6 years. On top of all these roles she play, she is foremost a devoted wife and mom.

I met Ayessa in 2011. At the time both of us were posted in Jakarta, Indonesia. I was very active in blogging in English about restaurants and shops I learned about in Jakarta. Every time I researched places on Google, there was one blog that always came up at the top: Diplomatic Wife. As the previous name of her blog suggests, she is a diplomat’s wife. That’s how I learned about her and eventually we connected and became friends.

After two tours overseas in Indonesia and Germany, Ayessa and her husband returned to their home base in the Philippines. Thus, the blog name was changed to Undiplomatic Wife. As a trailing spouse, she deeply understands the hardship of the expat lifestyle. She herself quit her former job and followed her husband for his career many years ago. Working overseas was not an option. Even after she has returned home, knowing that she maybe leaving again, she found that she could not be employed in an organization.

MINIMALUXE

As a result, she started her own business. MINIMALUXE was born. There are two parts to her services. She will organize your home and she will sell your items on your behalf.

The concept came from her own experience of a difficult international move. When her husband was transferred back to the Philippines from Germany, she was a new mom with a baby less than a year old. She had to get rid of a great amount in order to fit everything in a much smaller housing arrangement back home. She ended up leaving behind lots of belongings that were worth a lot of money because she could not afford to ship them back home and had zero time to sell them.

CANCER OF HER HUSBAND

Last year in January her husband found out that he had a rare case of bone cancer in his leg. The son of Ayessa and her husband was only 2 years old at the time. During the entire year of 2018 she took care of her husband, raised their son and worked very hard to keep her business, Minimaluxe, going. Honestly I don’t know how she survived it all.

Mere 8 months after the surgery for the bone cancer, Ayessa’s husband found out that he had a colon cancer in February 2019. Literally I felt sick in my stomach to learn about it. I was very worried for Ayessa as well as her husband. To my surprise, every time I saw Ayessa, she never complained and always stayed positive. She even gave a Declutter Your Mind & Life Workshop as scheduled before the surgery. She kept working so that she could pay for the medical bills and continue the education for their son.

I was in awe.

You can read the story about her husband’s bone cancer on her blog post below.
WHY I ATTENDED THE #PERKSOFPINAS WORKSHOP

Life is full of surprises. You may stumble and fall, but you have to get up. You have to keep getting up.

It may throw you a lemon. I hope she will make lemonade with it.

LEARN MORE ABOUT AYESSA

UNDIPLOMATIC WIFE
BLOG
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FACEBOOK
TWITTER

MINIMALUXE – Decluttering & Organizing Business
WEBSITE
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