Hello. This is Elle.


Pink walls, matching floral curtains and bed spread, repainted hand me down furniture, DIY art taped on the walls -- that's my very first room. I remember being ten years old, and begging my parents for my own space. Papa painted the spare-room-turned-my-room a two-tone pink, while Mom and I shopped for fabrics. At that young age, I'm planning furniture placement and color combination. 

My interest in interiors just grew from there. I love watching design shows, scanning magazines and books of beautiful spaces, and just plain daydreaming of how I would design my own house.


 the search for the one 
Interior design was something I was very interested in but I never thought it could become a career. I took up Advertising in college and enjoyed it thoroughly. I worked countless jobs, from being a graphic artist in an ad agency, to a marketing personnel for a fashion brand. When I finally realized that corporate life was not for me (very much a night person), I quit and bummed around.


I started an online clothing shop, Modista by Elle. It did quite well and I even opened a small brick and mortar store, which I very much enjoyed designing. It was great while it lasted. My interest wore off and I moved on. After a few months, I opened up another concept of online clothing store, but my heart's not really in it. All the while, I was also running my very first blog, a fashion related one. I was doing OOTDs back when it's still not that uso. That said blog will forever be hidden in the deep dark web never to be seen again. Oh my the poses I did.  Haha..

After all that, I worked from home doing graphic design freelance projects. I was doing okay since I've got some foreign clients but something's missing. Obviously from all of the things I've tried, I don't easily settle. I'll try my hands on anything that I'm interested in, when I get bored, I move on. I'm actually happy I'm weird this way as I experienced all that and learned along the way.


 how it all began 

When Typhoon Ondoy struck and flooded our house, I took the opportunity to do some very much needed updates and improvements. I was following some design blogs back then, and decided to start my own to document all the projects and DIYs I was doing for our house. And here you are years later on that very same blog. ;)

After kissing a lot of frogs, I finally found my prince. What started as just a hobby turned into a career that I'll actually stick with for years. One day, on the early days of this blog, Yuseff asked me, "What do you really want to do?" I answered "Not that anyone would hire me, but I want to decorate other people's homes." The very next day, my cousin asked me to help her with her home office. :) Real clients soon followed after that, and the rest as they say, is history. 

As it turned out, people did actually hire me. What was once just a "what if" is now my reality. It's not easy, there's a lot of things I had to learn, a lot of work was involved, but I'm happy. Every time I see my vision come to life, every time the client is more than satisfied, it gives me a sense of fulfilment. Naks! pang acadamy awards speech. Haha.. But it's true. I'm very thankful.


 the other half 
But the most I'm thankful for is Yuseff. As you have just read, I tried thing after thing, and moved on once I lost interest. He supported me all the way. He accompanied me on job interviews when I was starting out. There would be times when he would carry more than 40 kilos of fabric on trips to Divisoria when I was doing my online shop. He spent long nights marketing it in Multiply and MySpace (I'm aging ourselves here.. haha). He was my official photographer then. He always went with me when I'm bored and I want company in my furniture shopping. He stuck with me through all my whims and whines. On Sept 6, 2015, I married him on our 11th year anniversary. :)

Yuseff is not just my partner, he's also my playmate. We're playing our way through life, and we do not take ourselves too seriously. If we want to do something, we'll just do it. We created DuoDeco, and put up a furniture shop in an old apartment near our home. We renovated and DIYd that said place which turned out great if I do say so myself. We have to let it go to focus on building our house knowing that one day, we'll have another one.



 the tiny house 
The daydreaming about owning our own house never left. It was alway at the back of my mind for years. In 2013, the eagerness just grew stronger and I knew I've got to have it whatever it takes. I am spoiled like that. Yuseff and I discussed and went back and forth on how to move forward with this plan, considered different options, until we finally decided to renovate and build-up the small apartment unit in their family's property.


Dubbed it the tiny house since all 3.5 levels sat on only 26 sqm lot. It took about a year to finish construction, but the decorating is another story. Two years in this house and we are nowhere near done. I dream of one day finishing up the house from top to bottom, but as of now, we're truly enjoying living here. The main living space is relatively done, but we still have a lot of plans but I'm in no hurry.. we have a house! And we can do whatever we want with it. :)

No one knows what the future holds, but if it would be up to me-- life-long fun and play with Yuseff, continually pursuing and living our interests and creativity, and lots and lots of travel. A girl can dream right?

_______________
Wow, this got really long. If you read up to here.. thank you! And by now, I'm guessing you already know the gist of my life pretty well so we're practically friends. Hello! Hang around, come back, you're always welcome. :)


UPDATE:  I also created a Youtube Channel about home makeovers, tips & advice, and DIY. Another thing I can add to the list of things I did. HAHA

http://www.youtube.com/c/elleuydecor