Purposive Placements
Delicate yet decisive touches in this wellappointed space reflect a seamless agreement of the owner’s personal tastes and the design studio’s clever craftsmanship
The decision to leave an ancestral house to create a new space for one’s own unit is a milestone moment for any homeowner’s life, one that needs a meticulous eye in the search for the perfect nest and a discerning taste to find the right accouterments for an elegant and timeless home. This particular home is one that took years of careful planning, from the choosing of the right creative partners, down to the eventual construction of the given area. Jigs Adefuin, the Creative Director and Principal Designer of Adefuin Design Studio, sat down with the Lifestyle Asia team to discuss how this well-designed home came to be.
The owner, a wife and mother of two, called the studio—after a thorough process of looking at several design agencies, aligning her own aesthetics with each of these studios, and finally, after much deliberation and a series of eliminating other options, she decided to work with Jigs and his team. “They called. They saw my website a few years ago and then they went to meet me. Several meetings after, we were able to close the transaction and then they let me design the unit for them,” Jigs tells us. The unit of mention is a space inside one of Bonifacio Global City’s luxury condominiums. Two units were merged to accommodate a family of four.
An essential step that should never be missed is the part where clients discuss their personal preferences with the interior designer. This is crucial as it determines whether both their visions for the home are aligned and if the set of ideas formulated is feasible. Jigs took the time to get to know the homeowner, and in the series of conversations they’ve had, he was able to determine certain characteristics that would inspire the design of the place. He shares, “Based on my interviews in the getting-to-know process with the client, I realized that she is a very fashionable person and that she loves jewelry. She admires the workmanship that comes into place and how each part of the jewel is designed. So basically, with that in mind, and in considering what she wants and what she admires, I tried to translate it to her home.”
The result is a sophisticated home that exudes a sublime allure and a delicate resplendence. “I would say it's modern glamour or simplified Art Deco,” Jigs says of the design scheme. “So I have bits and pieces of art deco-inspired geometric shapes and some mid-century-inspired lighting pieces. So mixing and matching all these surfaces and details, I tried to create something that is very cohesive.” From the doorknobs to the wall details, to the cornice and floor design, one could surmise the incredible handiwork involved in ensuring each detail is perfectly placed.
Muted colors of neutral shades with subtle pops of color exhibit a classy and timeless aesthetic. Inside the bedrooms, an exhibition of personal preferences occurs—the blue
wallpaper with gold embellishments for the master bedroom sets a relaxing mood, and playful prints for the children’s rooms connote the different personalities of its occupants. In choosing the furniture pieces, Jigs points out that most of the furniture is new as the homeowner wanted these to be made and bought for the sole purpose of perfectly fitting their brand new dwelling’s specifications. “We individually chose the furniture pieces that were brought in. They came from different suppliers. The chairs came from Roch Bobois and the table came from Furnitalia. We have Giorgetti for the sofa and the chairs and we have a coffee table from Knoll. So it’s a combination of different lines, textures, and shapes. I don’t want to go to one place and get everything there,” he explains.
It also helped that the homeowner has a discerning eye for art pieces. Her fascination for paintings and sculptures from many Filipino greats not only comes from her sophisticated taste in art but also from a deep understanding of art’s purpose and meaning. Jigs enumerates the pieces, “We have different works of the masters, like here in the living room, we have a Joya. And then there in the hallway, we have an Alcuaz and an Olazo. And then here in the foyer, we also have another Joya. A Malang over there in the hallway and some works of Justin Molina.” The homeowner shares that her attraction to the Orlina sculptures comes from her own interpretation of these pieces. For her, each piece depicts a mother and child scene and this is something she can easily relate to. Several of the paintings are also purposive, one evokes a feeling of calmness upon entering the room, another conjures a variety of emotions—one she says depends on the eye of the beholder.
As for Jigs’ go-to places for furnishings, he shares, “My favorite furniture places are those that offer great quality, great proportions, comfort, and selection of materials. There are brands that I try to use most often, and there are also local brands that I patronize.” He lists down B&B Italia, Furnitalia, Living Innovations, and KUYSEN as great brands for luxury pieces. “You won’t question anymore the quality of the furniture pieces they have because a lot of them or if not, mostly come from Italy or Germany which are known to produce superior quality pieces,” he says.
The success of the project depends not only on the creative idea that serves as the foundation of the design but also on the seamless cohesion of styles and techniques incorporated. This paves way for a harmonious blending of two visions, of the clients and of the designers. “Whenever I start a design on a project, I make sure that the floor plan and the furniture layouts are all very well thought of that when I
present it to the client, more or less, it's going to be quite near to what they really want. I also make sure that in my mind, the design that I'm completing is achievable and already complete at the same time,” says Jigs.
The beauty of a wonderful client-designer relationship lies in how they complement each other. While it is the duty of the client to provide enough information for the designer to start with, it is also the designer’s job to pull as much information as possible from the client—especially if the client cannot express themselves fully. As Jigs relays, there’s a psychology component in the creative process that exposes a designer’s skill in bringing out and highlighting the client’s personal preferences from a series of conversations and meetings.
How one accomplishes this is a feat on its own. Jigs, however, shares some tricks up his sleeve, “First, the client should give their 100% trust to their designer—that the designer has the capability to design and bring out what they want. That's the important ingredient there. Secondly, the client has to do his or her assignment as well to at least have an idea of what he or she really wants. It would be my responsibility to bring together all of these things in a way that doesn’t look like an afterthought. For me, it's important that everything has to be cohesive, it should have function— function, before aesthetics.”