An eclectic refuge in the south, the weekend home of Donnie and Crickette Tantoco is designed according to the flow of their lives.
For someone who’s running a retail empire most of the week, a rejuvenating escape on weekends is essential. Such is the case for husband and wife Donnie and Crickette Tantoco, who, five years ago, have decided to start dual living. The couple spends four days in their apartment in the city and three days in the suburbs, where they built a weekend home designed with each of the family members in mind.
“My weekends are all about detachment. In our city home, we rest so we can be ready to work hard again the next day. In our house in Alabang, we get deep rest, so we go back to the city fully recharged,” explains Donnie, who indefatigably helms one arm of their family-owned business, Rustan Commercial Corporation.
Their second home down south is where they indulge in guilty pleasures: relaxation and quality time with the family—something that the couple look forward to every week. “It’s more lived-in. All the rooms are used,” says Crickette. The expansive house is designed according to the flow of each of the family members’ daily routine. “She was very thoughtful. I noticed that’s what she did, apart from making the house beautiful aesthetically— to study how each of us flows through the day, creating spaces based on that. For example, she knows that I start [the day] a certain way, so she made a nook with a table overlooking the pool for that. It’s the best place for me to do my morning rituals like having coffee and reading the Bible,” he tenderly speaks of his wife. This particular spot in the home allows him to just look out into the garden and gaze at the birds that he says “he might definitely not see anywhere else”.
