Having spent a considerable part of her youth in the United States, Toni Abad was naturally drawn to American furniture pieces and design aesthetics when she and her husband started building their new home several years ago. But her heart is still very much Pinoy, from the dishes she cooks to the love and importance she put on family.
By Alex Y. Vergara
Photography by Mau Aguasin
Hair and makeup by Eddie Mar Cabiltes
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story first came out late last year on PeopleAsia’s home and interior design magazine Enclaves. Toni, younger sister of actors Christopher, Pinky and Lara Melissa de Leon, has since lost her mother, 1950s LVN actress Lilia Dizon, to old age.
Like many well-traveled Filipinos, Toni Abad has become part of the growing ranks of educated and savvy citizens of the world. It all began while she was living in the West Coast where she spent a considerable part of her youth with her parents, post-war actress Lilia Dizon and Antonio Abad, and younger sister Cori. It was also in Los Angeles that Toni spent her high school and college years. As such, she has become open to embracing new, eclectic and sometimes even unusual lifestyle choices and design aesthetics.
Readers of a certain age, of course, know Lilia, the original “Bathaluman” (bombshell) of Philippine movies, also as the mother of actors Pinky de Leon, Christopher de Leon and Lara Melissa de Leon. Toni and Cori are Lilia’s children from her second marriage to the late Antonio, a pilot and later general manager of Philippine Airlines in Honolulu.
“I’m quite close to my siblings from my mother’s first marriage,” says Toni, a mother herself of two grown children, Joshua and Isabela, and wife to IT executive Paolo Abad (they share the same last name, literally), as she welcomes us into her home one fine Tuesday afternoon. “Christopher, Sandy (Andolong) and their family were just here last week.”
Hostess with the mostest
Toni, who personally attends to her elderly mother (Lilia, who, to this day, has remained as sharp as ever, just turned 90 last October), also finds herself often hosting parties, mini reunions and informal get-togethers among family and close friends at the Abads’ modern, French-American-inspired two-story, five-bedroom and seven-bathroom home in an exclusive village south of Makati.
“I love to entertain,” says Toni, who, like her three sisters, knows her way around the kitchen. “We learned how to cook from my mom. I can do Western dishes, including various pasta dishes, as well as Filipino dishes—adobo, sinigang, kare-kare—name it.”
Between Cori and her, Toni concedes that her younger sister is the better cook. Even Lara Melissa, she says, is also a good cook. But none of them can hold a candle to their US-based big sister Pinky.
“When it comes to cooking, she’s the best,” Toni declares.
Despite having lived in one of the most diverse corners of America, Toni, a Marketing and Communications graduate from the California Institute of Technology, remains at heart a Filipino. And part of that means having a big heart for immediate and extended members of her family, especially her elderly mother.
That was why when Toni and Paolo were in search of an ideal place to build a new home a few years ago, the wife’s ailing mother played a big factor in their decision to buy property, which came with an existing house, in this clean, quiet and tree-lined exclusive village. And since the place isn’t that far from their usual haunts in Makati and BGC, they found it all the more appealing.
“When we bought the property, it didn’t look anything like this,” she says. “It was like a forest with lots of fruit-bearing trees, including one producing the sweetest santol, which we retained. But the place had potential and a lot of character.”
As soon as it was theirs, the couple lost no time overhauling, reworking and even gutting the structure’s interiors to turn it into Toni’s vision of a white-and-black American-inspired home with unmistakable modern French touches in the form of strategic wall moldings, French windows in the living room and adjoining recreation room, posh and tufted furniture pieces, wrought-iron balusters and a custom-built statement chandelier also made of wrought iron that Toni herself designed.
French connection
Painted in black to contrast with the white walls, these same French windows lead to a courtyard featuring a series of mini gardens and a five-ft. deep mosaic-lined lap pool, which Toni uses several times a week as her main form of exercise. In lieu of wall-to-wall carpeting, which is a standard feature in most North American homes, Toni opted for something more practical, but equally chic: white Italian marble for the ground floor and wood-like floor tiles for the second floor.
“Some may find it a bit cold to step on floor tiles first thing in the morning, but since we live in the tropics, such a material is perfect,” Toni shares.
At the onset, Toni told her husband that she didn’t want to work with either an architect or an interior designer who “would just tell me what to do and what to buy.” In her words, “living in a cookie-cutter house” designed by someone else was farthest from her mind. Channeling her inner Joanna Gaines, who, with husband Chip, gained fame as HGTV’s foremost “fixer upper” and DIY queen, Toni wanted her own stamp in their future home to come out.
Apart from Toni’s confidence and vision, Paolo’s knack for numbers, spatial connections and measurements enabled them to understand and deal with their contractor at the get-go. Although they did eventually hire an architect, it was more out of a need for her to attend to the project’s more technical and legal stuff.
“Our architect, through her drawings, did a very good job in explaining to us and putting everything into scale,” says Toni. “Since we took the time to sit down and discuss every major step with her before and during construction, it sped up the work and eliminated any major misunderstanding or disagreements between various parties. But before she started working, Paolo and I already had a clear idea of what theme we wanted and who would take care of what.”
Toni would be in charge of the interiors, including the walls’ colors, which are predominantly white or off white, except for the master bedroom on the second floor and powder room on the first floor recreation area, which were both painted Dior gray.
Dior is the new gray
Not to be confused with the more generic dove gray, Dior gray has this amazing ability of looking either masculine or feminine depending on the quality of light and time of day. While their bedroom’s Dior gray walls look a bit grayish during late afternoon, for instance, the powder room’s Dior gray walls in the recreation area downstairs come off as a tad lavender.
“That’s why it’s important to get a good architect,” she continues. “A good architect, for me, is someone who will listen to what you want and not insist on what he or she wants.”
Another recurring element that’s evident in the Abad home is the presence of shiny white subway tiles, which could be found in the main kitchen, backsplash, powder room and the couple’s huge his-and-her bathroom on the second floor.
Toni also assembled an eclectic mix of new, mostly American-branded furniture and accent pieces from such famous names as Ashley, Pottery Barn, Lady Scott Jones and Ethan Allen, which she interspersed with a number of heirloom pieces as well as vintage stuff from their old home.
“Having lived for a time in the US, I’ve really become a big fan of American-made furniture pieces—from our sofas, tables and armchairs to our huge matrimonial bed upstairs,” Toni shares. While others may find them a tad too big and predictable, Toni finds home products produced by these iconic American companies practical, durable and comfortable.
By judiciously including old, one-of-a-kind pieces into the mix, she was also able to turn what would have otherwise been a lovely, but generic-looking American-style home straight from the feeds of Pinterest into a more unique and nuanced abode with touches of Orientalia.
These key pieces include heirloom beauties such as a lampshade with a green, jade-like base, a carved horse mounted on a wooden base and an antique Chinese wooden divider with jade and ivory inlay. The former is a gift from her mother, while the latter two pieces were handed down to her by her father who, in turn, bought them from Toni’s godmother, an antiques dealer named Elvira Arastia.
Made in China
The Chinese wooden divider, whose age, make and exact origin escape Toni, now functions as a wall accent and a focal point in the Abads’ everyday dining room adjacent to the kitchen. The black circular dining table, which complements a number of old furniture pieces, including a Chinese armoire, is also from Lilia’s collection.
Other Oriental touches include a framed Singaporean embroidery, a gift from one of Toni’s sisters, and a small Buddha image. Juxtaposed with a crystal lighting fixture from Pottery Barn that’s more French New Orleans than chinoiserie, the entire setup teems with disparate touches that’s neither pure Chinese nor American.
“You can see it’s not totally American,” Toni says with a laugh. “It’s not pure Chinese or French either. For lack of a better term, I simply describe my taste as eclectic with a French-American base.”
She adds: “When it comes to accent pieces, try to buy conversation pieces that you can put in your home, either from your travels, vintage stores, or heirlooms handed down to you. You can always change or refurbish them so that such pieces will go with your house’s current theme.”
If they have extra funds, Toni also encourages friends who seek her advice when it comes to decorating to invest in art pieces that resonate with them. Apart from an old oil painting showing only the back and part of the face of a kimono-clad Japanese woman, the couple owns a number works by Ivan Acuña and the “son of Botong Francisco.”
Introvert and extrovert
“I forget his name,” says Toni, referring to Botong’s son. “The painting of a Japanese woman is from our old house. It reminds me of myself, both an introvert and an extrovert. I know we need more art pieces. Our walls seem bare because we’re not in a rush to decorate our home. If you’ve just moved in, I’d advise you to buy basic furniture and accent pieces first. Live in it and see what pieces go best with your new home. And always remember not to over decorate.”
When it came to the swimming pool, courtyard and garden’s design, Paolo, with a little help from their gardener and the “pool guy” who also did Amanpulo’s pool, took over. The couple also invested on sturdy, but picture-perfect outdoor furniture pieces. On certain mornings and late afternoons, especially during lazy weekends and long holidays, husband and wife would often spend their downtime in the courtyard, relaxing and sipping either coffee or wine.
“Get a landscape artist if you don’t know what plants to put,” Toni adds. “But always remember to stick to your theme. If your theme is Modern American or French, find out what plants will go well with it.”
Blessed with a green thumb, Paolo, whose favorite place in the house is the courtyard, also supervises the garden plants’ care and regular upkeep. Instead of lush, English garden-variety plants, he and his gardener opted for nondescript and low-maintenance greenery.
“Don’t let me touch any of those plants,” Toni says in mock horror. “I don’t know what would happen to them if I do!”
Dog lover
But when it comes to animals, especially dogs, Toni, a proud “mom” to a pair of Shi Tzus named Abbie and Zooey, is a natural. Like a pair of cribs, the pooches’ cushioned dog baskets lie at the foot of their masters’ Ashley bed.
If Paolo’s preferred areas in the house are the courtyard and his home-office upstairs, Toni’s go-to places are the bedroom she shares with Paolo and her clean, modern and well-lit kitchen downstairs.
“It’s my sanctuary, my private space, which I share with my husband,” she reasons, referring to the master bedroom. “But I have my favorite aspects and areas in every room. Like this recreation room, for instance, where we often hold parties, is also dear to me because we often gather here as a family to watch TV or exchange stories. There’s also a beautiful bathroom nearby, which I myself worked on decorating.”
Would you ask a mother pointblank who her favorite child is? Of course, not. Such is Toni’s direct involvement in the entire project’s construction and design that it has become quite difficult for her to limit her choices to just one or two favorite spots without her pointing to the merits she sees elsewhere within the house. And there are many.
