Patti Sunio on How to Make Home Feel Like a Hideaway
Courtesy of Patti Sunio
Patti Sunio recommends home goods that can imbue the home with a sense of adventure.
For most people, to travel is to escape into a different world. Urbanites, when in need of a break, escape to seek out the views of mountains or beaches instead of skyscrapers. Provincials, when in need of a different pace, go to the city for a rush. Similarly, we retreat to our homes to escape from the outside world. If you know where to look and what to welcome in, your home can likewise be your hideaway and your beautiful escape. Think of cool, crafty pieces and campy, clever designs that let your imagination roam free.
Below, see home goods recommendations from lifestyle editor and writer Patti Sunio, who often seeks out life outside the city.
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Patti Sunio is a Manila-based lifestyle writer and editor whose work has appeared in Vogue Philippines, the South China Morning Post, and Cosmopolitan Philippines. In this feature, she recommends home pieces from Filipino makers A. Garcia, Arden, Vanessa Gaston, and Prizmic & Brill that evoke a sense of adventure.
The featured pieces use traditional Philippine craft materials, including bamboo and abaca paper in A. Garcia’s salakot lamp, natural seashell and cast brass in Arden’s centerpiece, and pineapple paper with acacia wood in Vanessa Gaston’s drinks table, reflecting local weaving and shell-craft traditions.
The salakot lamp is made by A. Garcia from bamboo rings and abaca paper. It draws on the salakot, a traditional wide-brimmed Filipino hat once used for sun and rain protection, reinterpreted here as a woven lighting fixture for the home.
Pinyapel is paper made from pineapple leaf fiber. Designer Vanessa Gaston uses it alongside acacia wood in her drinks table, part of a broader movement among Filipino furniture designers to incorporate indigenous and agricultural byproducts into contemporary design.
The story features four Filipino studios: A. Garcia, known for woven bamboo and abaca lighting; Arden, for cast brass and seashell centerpieces; Vanessa Gaston, for pineapple-paper furniture; and Prizmic & Brill, for mahogany, leather, and brass mirrors and desks.