Home Mavericks: A Destination for Design

Think global. Sell local. A brazen and ambitious manifesto for a furniture store – and one by which Home Mavericks proudly stands by.

The home furnishings and pieces on display in their showroom along Arnaiz Ave. (across New World Hotel) are exclusively Cebu-made and typically end up in the living spaces of design-savvy New Yorkers and Londoners. Quite often, the stamp of “world-class quality” associated with Cebu furniture pieces has become synonymous with being “for export only”. But Home Mavericks begs to differ: high-quality Filipino design should also make their way to Filipino homes, not bypass them. It’s an honest bid to democratize design, and an inspired way to celebrate Filipino ingenuity and craftsmanship.

Imagine coming home to your loft in Rockwell or The Fort after a hectic day and sitting back on a chaise lounge that you’d normally find in a West Elm or Ralph Pucci outlet in New York. Smiling, you close your eyes, adrift in domestic bliss. Priceless moments like this are what the folks behind Home Mavericks strongly feel that Filipinos are entitled to enjoy.

Master Bedroom

Home Mavericks managing partner Eric Alvin Go Po has heard first-hand the laments of Manila-based homeowners who have trouble finding Cebu-made furniture in stores in the capital. Formerly an associate sales executive of Rockwell Land, Eric saw how homeowners would rather settle for high-priced European-style pieces available in any local store than go through the trouble of flying to a furniture gallery in Cebu, going over designs in the catalog, and waiting for months on end for their orders to arrive. “Instead of having customers come all the way to Cebu, why don’t we bring our furniture to Manila?” Eric thought.

That Eureka! Moment evolved into a compelling business idea and, in 2007, together with fellow Cebuano entrepreneurs Eric Mendoza, Vincent Sandoval and Johann Escañan, Eric set up Home Mavericks. Its present location is a 200-square meter gallery of Cebu furniture hand-crafted with quality materials (mother of pearl, capiz, rattan, synthetic fibers, and various types of wood). It is also an official dealer of HunterDouglas shades, blinds and other window treatments.

Kitchen

A visit to the Home Mavericks gallery promises to be a distinctly curated experience. After all, their associates are licensed interior designers from top schools. That said, like a bona fide maverick that blazes the trail, Home Mavericks is now becoming a one-stop shop as a retail store and interior design firm. Not only can clients purchase tables and wall accents at the store, they can also tap Home Mavericks’ design consultants to help fashion their homes and living spaces to suit their unique needs and aesthetic sensibilities. Custom-built furniture, window treatments as well as other indoor and outdoor solutions – you name it, most of these fixtures are available in the shop. “A client stepping inside the shop can rest assured to find engaging and helpful associates,” Eric says. “We can flesh out the look that the client has in mind and, at the same time, offer alternatives. A taste in design is evolving, never static.”

In the same way, Home Mavericks is a work in progress – seeking out inventive ways to delight Filipino homeowners with a flair for style and luxury and to inject fun and personality to their living spaces. Evidently a furniture store with such a loft-y (pun intended) is taking one step forward to being “world-class”.

Home Mavericks is located at G/F 926 Arnaiz Ave. (formerly Pasay Road), Makati City 1223 (across New World Hotel). Call 844-9549 or visit www.homemavericks.com for more details.

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