One Stop, Home Shop

In an area that’s known for hospitals and schools – and consequently rush-hour traffic – there’s another destination people should know about. Interior Design Options was perhaps New Manila’s best-kept secret until word of mouth got around that there was this home store tucked at the corner of Doña Hemady and E. Rodriguez Sr. It’s a store that carries everything from inexpensive votive candles to high-end European kitchens. It’s also a destination that homemakers can spend one whole day in and still have something new to find the next day.

Interior Design Options (IDO) is the mid- to up-market retail arm of a group of companies that includes Designer’s World Trade Center, which sells office furniture like modular dividers and office desks and chairs; and Off the Rack, which sells wholesale low-end home furniture to SM Department Store, S&R, Macro, Unimart and Abenson.

IDO itself started four years ago, concentrating on living room, dining room and bedroom furniture. Last year, they started offering accessories, and this year they opened IDO Kitchen Systems, which sells modular kitchens, and IDO Contract Furniture, which offers restaurant seating.

The good thing about IDO is that since it is not located in a mall, there’s no problem with parking, and since the three-floor building is owned by the company president, its prices are very competitive. Plus, there’s the convenience factor – you’ll find everything here under one roof. One doesn’t need to go from store to store looking for a vase and then transfer to another store for a carpet and again to another store for a chair. "You have a lot of furniture and accessory stores in the malls but stores with both combined are very rare," says IDO merchandising officer Lea Disini, who was formerly with BluPrint magazine.

The ground floor is dominated by accessories – vases, candles, animal figures, trays, lamps, wall paintings, throw pillows, linen and glass accents. The choices are varied what with IDO sourcing from local manufacturers and abroad.

The only thing you won’t find here is potpourri because, as Lea says, it doesn’t work in this country. "It’s too humid here. It’s nice as decoration but for its actual use which is to refresh a room, it doesn’t work."

That should give you an idea of how IDO gets its pieces: First, they consider the function; second, the form; and third, the price. "Some people buy certain items because of the function, regardless of the price. Some buy for the form. While some items like votive candles, which you can get everywhere, have to have an attractive price. It’s a balance between the three."

Accessory collections abroad, according to Lea, change at least twice a year. "But we’re in a third-world country, we’re stuck in that economy. We don’t have the luxury to change every season in terms of design. I only buy majority of the items during the latter part and the early part of the year. Like Christmas season, panic buying yan, I have to satisfy all my clients’ needs."

Every month though, IDO comes up with new things to satisfy their regular customers. Some of the local accessories can be found in other stores but IDO also offers exclusively designed pieces. The imported pieces mostly come from Southeast Asia and China.

"We also try to court Filipino exporters to sell in the local market. Surprisingly the exporters agree because export hasn’t been very good since September 11," she says.

On the second floor are the dining and living room furniture from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. When asked why they don’t source furniture from local manufactures, Lea explains, "The president of the company still believes in the craftsmanship and machinery abroad in terms of furniture like sofas and dining room sets."

The floor is divided into contemporary designs and traditional pieces. There are sofas with metal legs in fun colors: yellow, blue, green. Then there are sofas designed along classic lines to blend in any kind of home, whether they’re put in the middle of a condominium or a mansion.

The dining tables are mostly made of beech wood. Because the furniture is put in vignettes, it’s not hard for the customers to imagine how the pieces would look in their own homes. All the flatware and cutlery on the tables are available in the store, too.

The third floor is home to Kitchen Systems and Contract Furniture. It also offers Lane furniture, which are recliners and sofabeds. One can choose the upholstery for both. If you don’t want the this-looks-like-the-choice-of-a-dad upholstery, you can choose a younger-looking fabric. The recliners are very comfortable, perfect for reading a book and dozing off afterwards.

As for the sofabeds, of course, they’re never as comfortable as real beds but with the Lane sofabeds, you’ll find yourself sinking into it and into slumberland. They’re comfortable enough to make one’s guest want to stay an extra night in your home. Hmmm, maybe that’s not such a good thing after all!

Kitchen Systems offers five modular kitchens whose prices range from P100,000 plus to a staggering P600,000. Managing director of IDO Contracts Gilbert Lee says their prices are low compared to the other European kitchen specialists.

The state-of-the-art hardware and materials come from Blum, an Austrian company. The rest of the materials are also imported, like the cherry and maple wood, the granite and acrylic countertops, and then assembled locally.

"People are leaning toward something that’s low maintenance, nice to look at," he says. "They want value for money so they go for the Linear kitchen, the laminate. Some people naman like designs with details."

One thing that Blum is very proud of is that it leads in cutting-edge design. Gilbert says, "There was a study made in Europe that cabinets that are too deep and big are very inefficient, it’s like buying air, you waste space. If you have a shelf and you put in canned goods, it becomes difficult to get the goods at the back. Now, we have drawers for storage. They can hold from 30 to 50 kilos – canned goods, pots and pans, whatever."

Indeed, Gilbert shows us just how much more efficient the new designs are. The drawers can be divided with metal dividers, not like the old plastic holders before.

"The trend now is for smaller, shallow cabinets, but deeper and wider drawers," says Gilbert. "With cabinets that are too tall, you have to use steps or stand on the counter, which can lead to an accident."

Beside the mouth-watering kitchen area is the IDO Contract Furniture. It showcases restaurant seating in three categories: eateries, outdoor and fine dining with materials that meet the needs of the three categories. The furniture here is imported from Kian, a Malaysian-based company.

The chairs from this section are made from a variety of materials: wood, hard plastic and metal. We wonder out loud why they have to import these pieces and Gilbert echoes what Lea earlier said, that the problem lies in the local manufacturers’ lack of machinery – "or if they do have the machinery, they don’t have the mold, which costs a substantial investment."

There are really nice chairs here, and we ask Gilbert if homeowners also buy these pieces intended for commercial use. He laughs and says, yes. Some people spot the pieces in restaurants and then look for them for their own home. IDO has furnished establishments like Bon Appetit, UCC Coffee, and the Podium’s Elbow Room and Niña Restaurant. Lest you think it’s all for fine-dining places, IDO has also furnished House of Adobo, which requires sturdier pieces that would withstand wear and tear. "We’re also working with Filinvest for certain sections of their Palms Country Club."

Lest we forget, there are also a lot of choices for flatware from Bangkok and cutlery from local exporters.

When they say everything is under one roof, they truly are serious. But as mentioned earlier, just don’t ask for potpourri.