Home tour: inside an eclectic Manila abode designed for family life

Still, they knew they eventually wanted something of their own. They looked at other units. They even made an offer elsewhere. At one point, they had all but accepted that they would have to leave the building they loved. Then, one sleepless night after returning from a trip, Monica found herself scrolling at 3 am when an online listing appeared: a rare penthouse in the very place they had hoped to stay.

“At first I thought, is this real?” she recalls. “You never know with real estate here.”

But it was real. The broker responded. A viewing was arranged. And when the couple walked in, they knew immediately that the home had a particular magic.

“From the moment we stepped inside, we felt transported to another place,” they later wrote in the original design brief. Guests, they noted, often said they had never seen a place like it in the heart of Manila. The apartment had already been lovingly renovated by its previous owner. It came with pine walls and floors, bold wallpapers, terraces wrapped in greenery, generous proportions and a strong visual identity.

“It was the kind of place where you could just bring your toothbrush,” Monica says. “It was ready.”

But ready did not mean finished. At least, not for them. The apartment had been designed for a different stage of life than the one the Garcias were in. There was the couple, their teenage son, their young daughter, their dog and the daily workings of a busy household. They needed the home to function for family life without losing the atmosphere that had made them fall in love with it.

So they began with a brief. Both husband and wife come from marketing and advertising backgrounds, and rather than approach the renovation with scattered ideas, they distilled their vision into a document. The operative phrase was simple: “Embrace and lean in.”

They did not want to erase the apartment’s character. They wanted to deepen it. The brief called for the pine and bohemian warmth of the main living areas to be embraced, but made more polished. The maximalist wallpapers and textured combinations in the bedrooms were to be kept, but the rooms needed clearer zones and cleverer solutions. They wanted an “enduring classic design with interesting architectural details”, but not something so over-designed that it became rigid. They wanted iconic furniture pieces, but they did not want the home to become precious. Above all, they wanted to avoid the feeling of an afterthought.

That is where de Borja-Samson came in. The architect and designer, and a longtime friend of Monica’s, had previously designed the family’s BGC apartment. These days, she is involved with the Filipino furniture brand E. Murio, but agreed to take on the project for the Garcias. Her role was not to impose a new identity, but to help the family refine what was already there.

“The great thing about working with Tisha is that she’s so collaborative,” Monica says. “We talked about everything.”

That spirit of collaboration is visible throughout the home. De Borja-Samson introduced a series of unifying architectural gestures, most notably the recurring arch. An existing archway between the living and dining spaces was enlarged dramatically, correcting the proportions and allowing light to move more freely through the apartment. Elsewhere, new arches were introduced to soften transitions and create a sense of rhythm. In one hallway, the owners suggested repeating the motif in a corner; their designer agreed. The result is a home that feels connected without being overly matched.

In the living room, the original pine walls were preserved, then sanded back to reveal a softer, more natural finish. The walls and ceiling were wrapped in a green limewash-like Vasari finish, creating an enveloping effect that feels both tropical and quietly sophisticated.

“A lot of people forget the ceiling,” Monica says. “But it’s another piece of wall.”

Here, it becomes part of the mood. The green moves across the room like atmosphere rather than paint, softening the architecture and grounding the mix of wood, art and furniture.

Many of the home’s most elegant decisions are rooted in practicality. A terrace door with a bulky sliding casing was replaced after months of research, reclaiming precious inches of wall space. In another area, a sliding service door was changed to swing doors for the same reason.

The staircase leading to the upper den was reworked into a spiral form, both as an architectural focal point and a safer solution for children. The bannister was redesigned with vertical railings after Monica watched, concerned, as children climbed the previous horizontal ones during a gathering.

See also: Home tour: a renovated Victorian abode infused with Japandi design elements in London

“It’s all about inches,” she says. “It makes a big difference.” The kitchen, too, was carefully reconsidered. Its original tiled character was retained, but its interior was completely redesigned with SieMatic. Monica wanted integrated storage, concealed bins, a dishwasher, a pantry, a coffee nook and a more efficient flow.

She replaced the gas range with induction, choosing a Miele hob with an integrated extractor after seeing something similar in a London Airbnb. “I don’t really cook,” she admits, laughing. “I bake. But I may have overdone it with the ovens.”

Still, the kitchen now works exactly as she wants it to. Everything has a place. Everything fits. It is not a decorative kitchen masquerading as a functional one; it is a working family kitchen with the visual language of the original home still intact. This balance between beauty and use is what gives the apartment its soul.

In their daughter’s room, the existing wallpaper was kept, and the space was transformed into a bedroom-playroom with a built-in loft bed, a jungle gym and room for imaginative play. Monica jokingly describes the bunk bed as “over-engineered”, but the room captures exactly what the brief had asked for: not just a sleeping space, but a world for an active, social child. There are toys, costumes, playthings and, recently, a fish that came home from school and required its own place in the household.

The bathroom beside it is one of the most charming expressions of de Borja-Samson’s thoughtfulness. A custom E. Murio vanity includes an integrated pull-out step so her daughter can reach the sink. It is a small gesture, but one that says everything about the project. The design is done well because it understands who it is for.

Their son’s room has a different energy. Now a university student, he wanted something more neutral, more independent and closer to the entrance. Once a cinema room, it has been transformed into a space that functions almost like a studio apartment without a kitchen. There is room for gaming, music, friends and storage. A new closet was added and matched so seamlessly that it looks as if it had always been part of the room. His bathroom retains the apartment’s original maximalist wallpaper, balanced with new lighting, an E. Murio piece and updated fixtures.

The upper den, once an underused space, has become a family retreat with a projector and screen. It is part TV room, part guest room, part escape. Andrew uses it often, but it is also a space where the family can come together for movies and downtime. In the original brief, the Garcias imagined a snug or family room that could accommodate a projector, listening bar, speakers, gaming consoles and even the occasional guest. In the finished home, that idea has become a warm and useful reality.

Andrew was also deeply involved in the home’s smart systems, audio and lighting. The apartment needed to be a smart home, with strong Wi-Fi, no dead spots, great lighting, good air circulation and technology that supported comfort rather than complicating it. Working with lighting designer Jeje Maddatu, the Garcias created a home that can shift mood throughout the day. Lighting, music, air-conditioning and atmosphere can be adjusted with ease. In the morning, music comes on automatically. In the evening, the rooms can soften for dinner, a film or a quiet glass of something at the bar. The technology is present, but discreet, less gadgetry than invisible infrastructure.

The art throughout the home is deeply personal. Monica is quick to say they are not collectors in the formal sense, but almost every piece has meaning. A red abstract painting by her mother, made around 50 years ago, now hangs prominently after years of moving between homes. Guests often ask who the artist is, assuming it must be someone known. Monica’s answer is more intimate: it is her mother.

Nearby, a kinetic artwork by Humans since 1982 tells the time. Monica and Andrew first saw a larger version at Ham Yard Hotel in London, then later rediscovered a smaller version at the MoMA shop in Hong Kong. After researching the studio, they commissioned a piece in the right size and colour for their home. Andrew likes to joke that no one can be late, because the time is always there.

A quilt by artist Marita Ganse hangs where a tapestry once did, its colours unexpectedly harmonising with the kinetic piece. A photograph by Steve Tirona, now based in Los Angeles, occupies another wall. A functional artwork from The Art of Ping Pong doubles as an actual ping pong table. A skateboard edition, linked to Monica’s earlier work in public art at BGC, commemorates a mural festival she helped lead. A painting of the family dog by her niece adds another layer of affection. Nothing feels chosen simply to impress. Everything has a reason for being there.

One of the most striking pieces in the home is a custom bar cabinet made in collaboration with E. Murio, Rita Nazareno and Gabby Lichauco. It is both beautifully crafted and quietly practical, a duality that runs throughout the apartment. Closed, it reads as a sculptural woven cabinet, adding texture and warmth to the room. Open, it becomes a bar or buffet, a generous, convivial piece designed for bottles, gatherings and the small rituals of entertaining at home.

“I can’t imagine anything else in that space now,” Monica says. That sentence could apply to the entire home. Monica wanted “a place for everything”, but she also wanted personality, quirks, flowers, plants, art, warmth, travel finds and room for life to evolve. That is exactly what the apartment now holds.

Achieving what the owners intended is the highest compliment a designer can perhaps receive. That this penthouse is polished, but not precious, considered, but not rigid, layered, but not chaotic, is exactly what the Garcias described when they first set out to refurbish it. Perhaps refurbish is not the proper term. There is a sense of adaptive reuse in the property, as they admit; they retained a proportion of the home’s original features. It embraces the pine, the wallpapers, the terraces, the inherited plants, the existing spirit of the place and then leans further in.

For the Garcias, that is what makes it home. Not perfection. Not performance. But intention. A home that carries memory, shaped by friendship, where children can play, and where music fills the air starting in the morning. A home where friends can gather, art can hold family history and the beautiful mess of life is not hidden away, but welcomed in. The Garcias are living their vision.

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