Modern Minimalist House with Local Flavor: Moving Into Our Forever Home

March has been a crazy hectic month not just because of work, but because the Cupcake and I finally moved into our forever home. (Our home happens to be in the same village of the church we got married in!) It’s actually one of the reasons why I wasn’t able to write as much lately. But now that we’ve slightly settled in, I’m so excited to share our space. I’d like to think it’s a modern minimalist house infused with local flavor. Inspired by Japandi style, a hybrid of Japanese and Scandinavian aesthetic, each area is meant to be functional, warm, and calming.

If you’ve been following me on Instagram @gretchengatan, I have an IG Highlight that documented the construction up until the weekend we moved in. Throughout the whole process, I also put together interior design inspiration as well as renders to help us visualize each space better. It still feels a little surreal that we’ve finally crossed that major hurdle. The next step would be fixing and organizing everything. Oh, and cleaning! Cleaning will definitely be more challenging now that we’ve moved from a studio unit to a 2-story home with two bedrooms and three bathrooms.

In case you’d like to see how each space looks for inspiration, which probably isn’t final yet since we plan to still fix and move things around, check out some of the corners of our #FraggyHome. (You can check out the hashtag on Instagram!)

Living and Dining Area

Our living and dining area follows an open floor plan with a huge window that brings in a lot of natural lighting. We took advantage of the elongated space by getting an L-shaped couch. Right behind it is a console table to “divide” the living and dining areas. Our couch, called the Candrea Sofa Bed, is from Home Suite. It’s a three-seater type that conveniently turns into a bed, while the L section provides extra storage space. We had it customized in their Tanya Iron material—a medium gray shade that fits the overall aesthetic of our home.

My mother-in-law gave our console table and the round coffee table. She loved shopping for solid wood furniture from Baguio back in the day! We’re so grateful and fortunate because she had a lot of extra furniture that she just gave to us. This includes our dining table and chairs below. Most of these pieces are made with either narra or molave, which if you buy today, can be quite expensive. I love that these pieces give the space so much more character—and it’s these that give the Japandi style a bit of local flavor. I also think the dark wood is a nice contrast to the white walls and floors.

Our contractor’s team built the buffet tables at the end of the dining area. Meanwhile, my mother-in-law also gave the stools under. And that wooden trolley you see on the right was a thrift find I got from Furniture Stories PH. The custom clock, which was a wedding gift from my brother and his girlfriend, will be hung on the wall right above the trolley.

Main Kitchen

I like to call our kitchen the Pinterest kitchen of my dreams—from the wood look of the cabinets, to the white subway tile backsplash, to the marble counter, to the large kitchen sink. I’m definitely looking forward to learning even more recipes in this beautiful kitchen! For my first task, I created a little coffee corner since the Cupcake and I are avid coffee fans. It consists of the Breville Smart Grinder Pro, which I use to grind my favorite beans from Black Coffee PH on days we feel like drinking French press coffee. When we’re lazy, we like using the Nespresso Inissia, which was the Cupcake’s birthday gift for me this year.

Master’s Bedroom

Our bedroom is another one of my favorite areas. We made sure to invest in a really good bed and mattress. Our queen-sized bed, which is called the JUAT Bed, was custom-made by The Old Wood PH using tanguile. Each side has two drawers for extra storage space.

We got an 8-inch Uratex Premium Comfort Care mattress that was 50% off at the time we bought it. Our side and console tables were custom-made by Wanderwood PH using quality marine plywood. Both are local suppliers that I highly, highly recommend. If you ever consider having custom furniture made, please do message them!

If you’re wondering who painted those acrylic portraits of our pets, Booboo and Bellatrix, those are commissioned paintings by Pawrtraits. Meanwhile, our combi blinds were from 50 Shades PH. And the barn door you see leads to our walk-in closet and bathroom.

Walk-In Closet and Bathroom

I really wanted to have a few key things in our walk-in closet and bathroom: a vanity table and large mirrors. And so I ordered a custom vanity table that was just right for the space from Vanity Station PH. On the other hand, the mirrors from Crafto Home Decor were also custom-made based on my sister’s design. To keep things organized and minimize clutter on our bathroom sink, I ordered plastic drawers from Locaupin.

Future Fraglets’ Room

Excuse the mess—we’re currently using the extra bedroom as our dumping area (aside from the storage room in our service area). Haha! But this will eventually be the room of our future kids. In the meantime, I have a strong feeling my siblings and cousins will take advantage of this room and sleep over often. The molave bed and side table, which my mother-in-law had made many years ago, used to belong to the Cupcake.

Home Office

Since the Cupcake and I started working from home last year, it was important that we had a home office. Of course, my setup was all thanks to/care of him. All I did was make sure it was organized! Haha. For some reason, I’m more productive when I know that my things are in order. To do this, I bought another set of plastic drawers from Locaupin that fit perfectly under my Nixon desk from Mandaue Foam.

Not seen are our guest bathroom on the first floor, common bathroom on the second floor, service area, storage room, and maid’s quarters. But do follow me on Instagram because I post updates often through my stories!

I hope you enjoyed this virtual tour of our modern minimalist house with a local twist—also known as the Fraggy Home. It’s really everything we could want and more, and we’re extremely thankful. If you have any questions on any other items or furniture I might have failed to mention, feel free to leave them in the comment section!

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