Bare units often give homeowners and designers freedom to reconfigure a space—especially the more compact ones—to their liking. But interior designer Fritz Frederic Santos didn't have that liberty when he worked on this bare apartment. "We were stuck with the layout," Fritz says of the 83-sqm unit. "I had plans of moving the partitions. But when I found out that the pipes go all the way up, I knew a re-layout would be really difficult. There'll be clusters na maiiwan because we couldn't move the pipes," he shares. He set out to fulfill the owner's vision of a "cozy, warm, functional" home with the existing layout instead.

The owner says she didn't have specific requests for the unit, aside from warm lighting and plenty of storage for her books. "We just had to talk [for me to find out] how she lives," Fritz shares. Though the owner is based in Singapore and only comes home quarterly, the designer had to take into consideration the fact that some of her family members would be staying in the apartment once in a while.

Browse through the gallery to check out the neutrally decorated home away from home.


(First published as "Neutral Territory" in the "Real Home" section of Real Living Philippines' July 2011 issue. Photos by Jun Pinzon. Pictorial direction by Issa Villar. Adapted for use in Female Network.)