I just realized while thinking of what to post today that I haven’t made a proper house tour since I started this blog. So here’s my attempt at showing you some of the rooms in our townhouse. The bedrooms are pretty small since the lot area is only around 53 square meters, but we do have four floors including four bedrooms, a den, kitchen, dirty kitchen, combined dining and living room, three bathrooms, maid’s room, and a roofdeck.
Here goes: Welcome to our home!
gal at home house tour
Let’s go through it floor by floor, shall we?

{All photos that follow are by me, unless otherwise indicated.}
Each of the rooms in our house have already gone through so many style permutations even while we’ve only lived here for a little over two years. Most of our furniture are stuff we’ve had since before my husband and I got married, and others you will see in the photos that follow have already been sold off or given away. But this is basically what our home looks.
On the first floor, you will find our combined living and dining room:

gal at home house tour combined living and dining room
This photo was taken in 2013, for our very first housewarming party. Notice that our wine and coffee bar, crate shelves, and my nephew’s painting hadn’t been put up yet on the dining room walls when this was taken.

gal at home house tour wine and coffee bar
The wine and coffee bar in the dining area, which now take up residence in the far end of our dining room

You might remember our dining shelves which I had made out of wooden crates from this post, and the white console which I improved on with “faux mirrors” (hihihi) from this post. I am having a wooden wine rack made by design studio Morfosis (though I have yet to deposit my payment oops!) so that we could finally get our wine bottles off the floor.
gal at home house tour living room
In this photo of the living room area, we still hadn’t put up the frames with our family B&W photos, and the lampshade hadn’t yet gone through my script typography do-over. Those black cutout chairs are also now at my mom’s house.

These photos were also taken while I was still pregnant with the babycat, so there is an obvious disparity with the amount of stuff that you see here and in the actual rooms today. Now we have some toys, her play car, stroller, and my husband’s bike all squeezed into this small space.
gal at home house tour script typography lampshade
Later on, we hung B&W photos of myself, my husband, and the babycat when she was around three months old. I then did over the dirty lampshade of this old floor lamp with handwritten lyrics of The Cure’s “Lovecats.”

gal at home house tour floor mat white tree of gondor
Love this floor mat that I found buried under other blah floor mats in True Value. It was a bit pricey—I think around P750—but it reminds me somewhat of The White Tree of Gondor, and who am I to let go home decor items with LOTR references (intentional or otherwise)? I loved it so much, I bought two.

You’ll also find our Nana’s (my husband’s yaya since birth—yes we’re incredibly lucky to have her! She’s already in her late 50s but still very much active and sprightly, sometimes even more than me!) bedroom on this floor, as well as a toilet and bathroom, and the kitchen and dirty kitchen. I don’t have photos of our kitchen yet, as I have yet to organize it. That’s one item on my never-ending to-do list.
Now on to the second floor!
gal at home house tour Ikea Holmo lamp
As you go up the stairs, you’ll see this lamp and stack of magazines, and the sectional sofa that we sometimes cover with a customized cacha slip cover.

gal at home house tour den family room sectional sofa with storage
Our den or family room (photo courtesy of Toto Labrado/Cosmopolitan Philippines)

This is still more or less how it looks today, although I’ve already put up a gallery wall above the sofa, which I posted on Instagram a few weeks back.
gal at home house tour gallery wall den
The somewhat finished gallery wall (just one more teeny tiny item to put up! But I don’t know how to drill on concrete, so. Something I’ve been procrastinating on…)

The sectional was bought from a furniture store (forgot the name!) in Robinsons Forum. What I love about it is that it has storage underneath (under the lounge sofa part), and also converts into a bed (it has a pullout trundle), which makes it the perfect spot to hang on movie nights with the hubby.
I didn’t take a photo of the wall with the TV and record player, because that is still such a mess. I plan to have a sideboard custom-made for it, but haven’t had the time to find a contractor or supplier for it yet.
gal at home house tour master's bedroom
Our bedroom, which we now share with the babycat at night (photo courtesy of Toto Labrador/Cosmopolitan Philippines)

When we moved in, all the walls were painted with Davies Antique White, while all the ceilings were painted in flat white. For our bedroom, I wanted a calm, serene feel, so I had the ceiling painted a very soft powder blue (I’d forgotten the paint color, but it is also from Davies). I chose to limit the blue to the ceiling, to imitate the sky, and decided to leave the walls as they were because I knew I’d eventually get tired of too much blue. So far, I’m happy with our sky blue ceiling.
Our bed is something we’d had from our very first apartment, which we bought from Mobler along Wilson Street in Greenhills. It’s the Leirvik bed from Ikea. The bedside lamps are also from Ikea, which I had a friend bring home from Ikea in Singapore. You’ll find out that I am slightly Ikea-obsessed, and I follow several Ikea resellers on Instagram (@creative_moms, @momsdepotph, @furnituresourcephils, @ikeagoodsph, and @ikeashopmanila).
Our night tables were a steal at P2500 each from this Japanese discount store called Kenko. My full-length mirror is also an accessories cabinet which holds all my jewelry. The director’s chairs—from DIY Handyman—at the foot of the bed have now been replaced with the babycat’s junior bed.
gal at home house tour junior bed master's bedroom
The junior bed, still with its ill-fitting mattress. We plan to buy a new one this afternoon!

And if you recall, I published this photo from last Monday’s post, showing our custom-built cabinets and vanity/TV wall.
The custom cabinets we had built before moving in, which contains mostly my clothes. Those smaller closets under the vanity are actually shoe racks, with pullout shelves.
The custom cabinets we had built before moving in, which contains mostly my clothes. Those smaller closets under the vanity are actually shoe racks, with pullout shelves.

We had to put a plywood wall before hanging up the TV rack, because that wall is actually made of gypsum (drywall) and would not have been sturdy enough to hold the weight of the TV. It’s also not clear in the photo (obviously just taken with my iPhone), but I had the closets painted glossy white, while the TV wall is painted in the same color as our ceiling.
Now on to the third floor. This is the floor with the most number of rooms—the babycat’s nursery, toilet and bath, my home office/library, and my husband’s music room.
A portion of the nursery. I don't have a proper photo of her current bed yet. Plus this is now filled to the brim with books and toys!
A portion of the nursery. I don’t have a proper photo of her current bed yet. Plus this is now filled to the brim with books and toys!

Here's what her nursery looked like before she popped out of the oven. You can see it's a pretty small room, but she doesn't seem to mind.
Here’s what her nursery looked like before she popped out of the oven. You can see it’s a pretty small room, but she doesn’t seem to mind. We’ve now since covered the floor with colorful floor mats, and changed that playyard with a low wooden junior bed.

The music room, which, despite its small size, contains the MIL's piano and an assortment of musical instruments—electric and acoustic guitars, amplifiers, keyboards, etc. Those two paintings are by the hubby :) (photo courtesy of Toto Labrador/Cosmopolitan Philippines)
The music room, which, despite its small size, contains the MIL’s piano and an assortment of musical instruments—electric and acoustic guitars, amplifiers, keyboards, etc. Those two paintings are by the hubby 🙂 (photo courtesy of Toto Labrador/Cosmopolitan Philippines)

What you see from the hallway: The entry into our home office/library (photo courtesy of Toto Labrador/Cosmopolitan Philippines)
What you see from the hallway: The entry into our home office/library (photo courtesy of Toto Labrador/Cosmopolitan Philippines)

My home office/library (photo courtesy of Toto Labrador/Cosmopolitan Philippines)
My home office/library (photo courtesy of Toto Labrador/Cosmopolitan Philippines). I’ve since changed my desk, that chair, and the arrangement on the floating shelves.

My desk is now made up of two Ikea Helmer units (bought from an Ikea reseller) topped with a bamboo tabletop from Funka.
My desk is now made up of two Ikea Helmer units (bought from an Ikea reseller) topped with a bamboo tabletop from Funka.

And of course, not forgetting my shelves ;)
And of course, not forgetting my shelves 😉

Post cards, tear sheets, and prints I've collected since my college years, which I taped up on one wall in the library (photo courtesy of Toto Labrador/Cosmopolitan Philippines)
Post cards, tear sheets, and prints I’ve collected since my college years, which I taped up on one wall in the library (photo courtesy of Toto Labrador/Cosmopolitan Philippines)

And last, but not the least, the fourth floor—our roofdeck:
gal at home house tour roofdeck
Here is our roofdeck. This photo was taken during our housewarming/blessing, and a month after I had given birth. I only had a few potted and hanging plants back then. The picnic table and benches is on loan from my mom. We also installed a polycarbonate roof, which we cover with cacha drapes whenever we have guests over, to screen the harsh sunlight.

gal at home house tour roofdeck laundry area
This is another part of the roofdeck. Behind those curtained dividers is our laundry area.

gal at home house tour roofdeck raised bed garden
My raised-bed rooftop garden. It’s now so lush and verdant because of the rainy weather this past couple months, that we didn’t need to water anymore.

There you have it—my first ever house tour. LOL “first ever”—just channeling that we will have a second one someday in the future, like in my future Cornwall cottage 😉 Doesn’t hurt to dream, right?