A few weeks ago, my friend Leona Laviña-Panutat and her sister-in-law Char Carlos invited me to their new store, L'Indochine. It's this utterly fab and spacious space in SM Aura that sells carefully selected home finds from all over Southeast Asia.
Now I know I have this reputation as someone who loves decorating the home but that is a reputation that I don't deserve. Our home is really the project of my husband. I'm just really lazy when it comes to keeping things orderly, tinkering, browsing for home stuff, decorating. Everyone thinks that's the woman's job but happily for me, my husband loves that aspect.
I love a nice house, okay. I sniff at monoblock chairs and anything plastic, for instance hehe. Yes, I can be a big snob! I like nice things but my reason for having a beautiful house is this: Vince and I have explosive tempers. Once upon a time, when we had cheap furniture, those things would be destroyed in the wake of our fury. But when we started buying really nice things, we found that our fights just became
verbal hahaha. Hello, sayang ang bahay and mga gamit naming magaganda! So investing in our home means investing in our marriage!
Okay, Vince doesn't agree with me. He says his reason for loving home decorating is simple: He loves beautiful things. He loves living in a comfortable home. He loves creating little spaces for entertainment, for work, for sleep, for play. He's always fussing about the house, wiping, dusting, polishing, vacuuming, rearranging the furniture, changing linens, plumping up the pillows. He's repairing broken appliances, hammering at the walls, installing, tinkering. Right now, he's puttering about. He just rearranged the study-and-play room so that it's now more spacious and kid-friendly. He's so happy!
I am the luckiest wife in the world.
Back to L'Indochine. So anyway! When Leona and Char invited me to drop by their new exotic home store, I immediately knew Vince would love to check it out. The home accessories are from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. Indochina nga! Most of the items are handmade by artisans, craftsmen so they're very unique pieces. These are what caught my eye:
Hand-painted Banjarong jars and bowls from Thailand. These are so exquisite! I love the vivid colors and the vibrant patterns!
Oil on canvas painting of a mommy and baby elephant from Thailand. I like elephants because my husband thinks he's an elephant (big ears and big nose!). This painting is especially beautiful.
Golden tulips for luck! We like flowers and we like luck. But my boys liked these just a wee bit too much. We figured these tulips won't be safe in our home!
Hand-embroidered Oriental Garden pillow from Thailand. Vito couldn't stop playing with the pompoms! It's so brightly colored! So pretty and alive! But then he wanted this next:
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| "I want this, Mama." |
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| I test it. |
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| Iñigo tests it. |
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| "I like it, Kuya Vito!" |
Oh, we liked it. We really did. But Vito, who is just like his father, went around the store one more time. Vito likes nice things, too. I remember, when he was littler, that I was scared to bring him to a furniture shop because he might break things. Nope. He toddled around going "ooh" and "ahh" and nodding in approval. He also likes nice hotels. He likes nice houses. He runs his hands on fabrics and surfaces. He explores the rooms and tests the beds and if he likes it, he laughs. If he doesn't, he'll say... Okay, I won't say what he says haha. He's really very much like his father!
So anyway, my almost-three-year-old boy went around L'Indochine one more time and he found this:
It's a pumpkin pouf from Thailand. He LOVED it. He went crazy about it. Vince loved it, too! I didn't love the price tag haha but it was two against one haha so... I dragged Vito around the store again and asked him to pick out something else! But he went back to the pumpkin pouf and so we decided to buy it.
At the cashier with Vito's new exuberant friend, Berry. She's the daughter of Manila Fashion Observer's Tin Dychiao, who happened to be shopping at L'Indochine, too. In fact, we bumped into a lot of people we know. Looks like L'Indochine is the hottest home store these days!
Here we are as soon as we got home:
And here are the boys enjoying it every single day:
Maybe we shoulda gotten two poufs. Double adorableness!
L'Indochine is at the 3rd level of SM Aura. Shop shop shop!
