When designer Katrina Blanco de Leon first founded genteelhome, the key idea behind it was her love and passion for creating furniture that would help in turning a simple house into someone’s home.
“I wasn’t interested in running a business like this at first. I just wanted to be a designer. My dad was an architect and I just wanted to be an interior designer. But I fell in love with furniture making,” de Leon told Manila Standard Life.
She added, “I knew I just wanted to work as a designer because I love creating homes. But during the process of doing something for a client, I fell in love with the precision that comes with making furniture. Then, I met the craftsmen and was amazed by how skilled they are.”
Starting with just four workers, de Leon saw how her business came to help the craftsmen’s families and felt the passion surrounding genteelhome grow bigger.
“Now that I have a hundred craftsmen working for me, the dream is not just for myself anymore. It’s for everyone else around,” said de Leon.
The designer’s passion to continue this commitment to creating pieces of furniture that will complete a home has carried on for the past 11 years, with every unique piece for its clients handled with care throughout the entire process, starting from gathering materials to eventually reaching its owner.
“Our priority is to use the locally available materials. I have my own mahogany farm and when we’re doing projects for clients, we make sure to replant trees. It’s hard to be 100 percent compliant to sustainability but we reduce our waste through ways like how we cut our wood. We use remnants from large pieces to make smaller ones such as ottomans,” said de Leon.
As genteelhome is committed to crafting meaningful pieces for clients, it also aims to further promote Filipino craftsmanship that showcases the local culture. Its Ugnayan Collection is a testament of this mission as it serves as a collaboration with renowned architect Royal Pineda which reimagines a modern Filipino way of living.
Talking about the collection, de Leon said that the pieces were inspired by the design narrative of genteelhome.
“When we started this collaboration, Architect Royal cited some adjectives or ways to describe genteelhome as a brand: communal living, the perfect description of genteelhome. From there, that’s where we got the inspiration for the whole collection from. It’s a narrative of the Filipino way of life today, highlighting the communal living setup,” said de Leon.
With her already being a fan of Pineda’s work, de Leon had long been planning a project alongside him. Since Pineda is known for his philosophy of modern Filipino architecture that revolves around the virtues of simplicity, sustainability, and excellence, the collaboration intertwines his artistry with genteelhome’s aim to craft pieces that highlights Filipino craftsmanship.
The Ugnayan Collection features unique bespoke furniture which can be customized to the liking of clients. One of the notable pieces are the dining table and chairs, which were de Leon’s favorite pieces and were named after real people, Roberto and Flerinda, respectively. According to de Leon, Flerinda is one of her workers who she was greatly inspired by and Roberto is her husband.
“Roberto is a modern father and a modern husband who supports his wife, not only financially, but with her dreams as well. Flerinda is a modern day woman who’s a wife and a mother at the same time who also works. She embraces her ambitions and flaws and strengths. This couple merges together, becoming stronger together, which is what communal living is all about,” said de Leon.
For more information regarding the Ugnayan Collection as well as genteelhome’s pieces and bespoke offerings, visit genteelhome.ph or call +639171284187.
