JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Noel Orosa’s place is where we go to eat chocolate, drink limoncello, and engage in obsessive behavior such as listening to fifty versions of Honeysuckle Rose, at least half of them by Sarah Vaughan, and analyzing the differences.

The decorative style is a variant on shabby chic which I call “Jackie O meets Big and Little Edie Beale in the Hamptons, minus cats and squirrels.” Noel himself developed it by reading every single book and website on designing for small spaces, and executed it with the help of his fabulous interior decorator Leah Sanchez. After seeing the photos on Noel’s Facebook page, some designers and media persons have asked to view the place.

The total area is 51 square meters but it feels roomier. Instead of breaking up the space with walls or dividers, Noel used glass partitions. Sandwiched between the glass panels are very old postcards, photographs, and letters written by his great-aunts.

“In his last three or four years, Lolo lived in our house,” Noel says. “He left behind his personal effects including this set of postcards from 1910-20, letters, and pictures. I asked my Dad for them because I find most things old, abused, and worn-out strangely beautiful. For years, I considered just framing them and hanging them on the wall. Then I had a eureka moment: they would make perfect dividers if placed between glass panels.

“This one idea dictated the theme for the rest of the house: why not make a family museum?”

The glass-topped table is a museum of old election pins, Mickey Mouse money, toys, newspaper clippings, and assorted ephemera. “When I briefed the designer for this I told her I was in love with this crazy-looking glass-topped dining table that had bowling pins for legs,” Noel says. “I told her we didn’t have to copy it exactly, but I like the spirit of recycling that it represented.”

“I’m fortunate that my designer totally gets my sensibility; she found some drawers that didn’t exactly belong together, placed one on top of the other at different angles and recycled the whole into a dining table. My only input in the design was to turn the top drawer into a display case and line it with velvet so that it would fit into my museum theme.

“Most of the furniture except for my eccentric dining table is on rollers so I can move everything around easily anytime I choose.”

“As you know, I wanted the unfinished finish a.k.a this whitewashed look to echo all around the house, including my bookshelves. The day before I moved in, I asked my Mom’s maid to help me clean and make the bookshelves a priority. Three hours later, she still hadn’t touched my shelves.

Me: (exasperated) Emma, bakit hindi mo pa nililinisan ang mga shelves?
Emma: (even more exasparated than I was) Eh hindi pa naman tapos pinturahan ‘yan di ba?
Me: Tapos na ‘yan. Ganyan na ‘yan.
Emma: (nose in the air, one eyebrow raised) Gano’n?
Me: Oo.
Emma: (needing to have the last word) Pasensiya ka na. Sanay ako sa magandang pintura, eh.

“How does one reply to that? Maids are such snobs.”

* * * * *

You asked about the TV. It’s on a table beside the bookshelves, waiting to get mounted on the wall.

The other day we watched Noel’s favorite bits from Bakit May Lamangan Kahapon Pa? The scene where Nora Aunor points to her mole and says, “Ee-TOH ang mar-KAH ni YAH-weh.” And the one where she over-methods the math lesson.

Nora: Three plus. . .three plus three.
Child: Six!
Us: Mali! Nine!

Have you heard Nora’s recordings from the 70s? That voice. The quality made the pronunciation irrelevant. The emotion she packed into each song—already the makings of a great actress.