With much of the world becoming more environmentally responsible, a growing number of Filipino city dwellers are now also on the lookout for more sustainable lifestyles. This proactive shift in mindset is evident in the recent environmentally conscious designs and materials being used in today's homes.

One designer-entrepreneur who has taken this Earth-friendly path is Wilhelmina "Willie" Garcia, 30, design graduate of St. Scholastica's College Manila, who now owns and runs her own design company, W.S. Garcia Interior Design.

Right after graduation from college in 2000, Garcia took a visual merchandising job in a design company and did some freelance work for house interiors. She then would get a steady flow of referral projects from her satisfied clients.

In 2003, with some of her college batch mates as project managers, Garcia put up her own design company with an initial workforce of three handymen. She says that hers was practically a zero-capital business except for the initial minimal cash she needed to register it. This is because all expenses are charged to the client within the budget agreed upon during the consultation phase. She then gets paid the initial 20 percent of the contract price, which would be enough to cover her operating expenses.

Having grown up in the family's farmhouse in Binan, Laguna, Garcia had learned to look for alternative purposes for the family's discarded furniture, resurrecting some of them to become, say, a centerpiece or side table. "Furnishing one's home need not be expensive. I would like my clients to realize that what could make their house or room beautiful could literally just be lying around in their own backyard," she says.

She cites as an example the design she did for a 33 sq m condominium unit at Oriental Garden in Makati City. The lighting fixtures over the dining table has been ingenuously fashioned out of old sofa springs and repainted white. The lights were then attached to what looked like a slab of a mirror overhead, which was in fact a former mirror door of a closet. An old capiz window, painted white, has been refashioned as a sliding partition door that closes off the bedroom from the rest of the area. Inside the bedroom, a hammock hangs over the bed like a dreamy canopy where one can also choose to put one's stuffed toys--an interesting reimagining of a double-deck bed. The wooden bed frame itself was taken from a farmyard tree uprooted by Typhoon "Milenyo" in 2006.

Indeed, in Garcia's hands, the balustrade of an old house could turn into a lampstand, an old window in the original bathroom into a towel rack, jute sacks into window shades, and old newspapers into baskets, beaded curtains, and napkin holders. And not surprisingly, it was precisely a design along these lines that won for Garcia the grand prize in the 2007 interior design category of the prestigious Metrobank Art & Design Excellence National Competition.

Garcia then funneled back the P200,000 prize money she won into her business, investing in tools like drills and saws as well as in equipment for her furniture shop. And where does she source her furniture pieces and house accessories? "Every piece has a story and need not be merely bought from the stores. I source my materials from junk shops, thrift shops, even from the closets, garage, and backyard of my clients," she says.

What helps her, she admits, is the fact that she loves designing and is also into pottery-making and even jewelry-making.

Her passion for recycling things and refashioning furniture extends to the organizations she is involved with, especially government agencies that work for a sustainable environment like the Visayan Forum Foundation Inc. and the Cavite-based LIKAS Organization.

And why did she go into eco-designing? She explains: "It's my own little way of helping save Mother Earth. Through my profession and business, I am able to educate clients in saving the environment, and I hope that, in turn, they would teach their children and their friends to do the same."

Garcia has had several design projects to date, among them high-rise residences, resthouses, and farmhouses, and is currently working on four projects simultaneously. Her initial core staff of three handymen has now increased to eight people per project.

In the next few years, she intends to come up with her own line of eco-friendly materials.


Contact details:
W.S. GARCIA INTERIOR DESIGN
Binan, Laguna
Mobile: 0917-7946401