A room for mood
Following our exclusive feature on Karen Santos in August 2026, here’s another first from Lifestyle.INQ: a peek inside her beautiful home.
Besides warm lighting, a fully-stocked bar, and comfortable seats, what makes you sure you’re going to have a grand time in someone’s home? More often than not, it’s the host.
You get the feeling almost immediately that you’ll be comfortably set in Karen Santos’ home. Despite the ornate objects and precious things decorating every corner, there’s an effortlessly welcoming and relaxed air around her. As she breezes through each nook and cranny, her being seems to urge her guests to take it easy, too.
A decorated career
While one’s first impression of Santos may be that she is an easygoing person, her career is as decorated as the space she possesses. She now embraces her role as the formidable figure behind Kassa, a store in Makati well known for European antiques and one-of-a-kind home finds. Before that, she was a fixture in local fashion as the founder of Kashieca. Later on, she totally pivoted—delving into construction and natural stone, which trickled naturally into her love for making beautiful spaces.
When asked about her approach to design, she answers, “Primarily, it’s what I like… And, well, I guess today I just also know what people may be looking for.”
Besides making room for storage, the distinction between house and store eventually became easy to distinguish. She would find herself thinking, “Oh, this is for my house, this is for my house, this is for my store.”
“Through the years, I’ve noticed that everything was just so modern. So I thought maybe it’s a niche that people can find something that is unique and not just something that people can just pick up in a store or in a showroom.”
This sensibility now echoes in her own multi-faceted home.
The collected home
Santos likens her home to temperaments. “I have a little flat, so I wanted to create different moods,” she expresses.
So what you might first notice walking in is the spectrum of paint. Santos calls her living room her “evening room.” “I love pink,” she says. “It’s a dark pink, almost verging into red.”
The nearly crimson walls are accented with burgundy pillows and blushing flora-and-fauna patterns. A cream-colored sofa softens the space, set against camel-colored back-to-back leather lounge chairs. A zebra carpet adds another bit of flair.
All around are books, covering everything from the sculptures of Antony Gormley to the “Enchantress of Florence” by Salman Rushdie, to a practical sourcebook on curtains.
Against one wall is perhaps her most ironically Instagrammed painting—like a graphic punctuation against the red. The black-and-white work features a painted Instagram image of an Indigenous woman by Christopher Patio. Above, the ceiling is treated with dark brown bamboo, adding warmth and texture to what could otherwise be a very moody room.
A table made for company
As you move further in, the mood lightens, literally brightening into a sort of sunroom where Santos and friends take their meals. The ceiling is latticed in a light green trim, to which Santos points out, “I think people forget that the ceiling is part of the whole look.”
Even the light fixtures get their own special treatment. Pretty chintz patterns drape over twin pendant glass lanterns, covering any tangled wires and chains, while adding another layer of charming patterns to the room.
It’s a small detail, but it speaks to Santos’ approach to interiors, where nothing has to be taken exactly as it is.
“You know, you can get an old chair, and we finish it… It could be a regular, inexpensive table, but if you paint it, do some work, all of a sudden, it has new life.”
And the room where the sun hits is also divided into two tables: one for breakfast and lunch, the other for dinners. Rattan chairs and a lime green sofa gather around the breakfast setting laid out with a bright lavender tablecloth, accented by pink glasses and Chinese-patterned plates that make the table seem ready for a long, leisurely morning. Above it hangs a calming purple sunset painting by Betsy Westendorp.
A little to the side is the dining room, which is slightly more formal. Still, the setting shows that Santos isn’t in the least bit interested in perfect symmetry. Alberto Pinto Paris plates sit next to fine silver and crystal goblets, with a lovely arrangement of pink lilies at the center. The napkins are ones Santos produces herself at Kassa.
Meanwhile, the painting here is more dramatic—a Jim Orencio work with ghostly multi-colored figures—while an ornate chandelier brings a little more drama overhead.
“Should they always be the same?” she is asked about the tableware, to which she says, “No, it’s all always different,” an approach that continues to run throughout her home.
The three-dimensional eye
Flowers change the mood, with ranunculus, eucalyptus, and pale pink hydrangeas softening the table. Outside, what Santos calls her “little pocket garden,” is a menagerie of not just plants. Leaves spill onto sculptures, from octopus tentacles that manage to look like an attractive mass to an eagle sculpture and other unique vases.
At first, the guest room appears like an English cottage, layered in green with soft blues and whites. Look closer, and the decorations’ references range from old photographs of San Sebastián and Binondo, native flora, mother-of-pearl catchalls, and t’nalak trays. A French sofa sits over a locally woven carpet, while Delft pieces mingle with Chinese ceramics and French fabrics, alongside nods to Indonesian and European design and Burmese architecture.
While Santos’ home is full of beautiful things, it doesn’t at all feel crowded. Her own advice on layering is perhaps the most practical way to understand how she does it. “When I start with the layering, it’s with the color. Something has to sort of blend together. But you start with the base.”
At Kassa, Santos gives objects new life. At home, she gives them company. Her aesthetic is decidedly neither East nor West, old nor new, but a slightly mischievous mix between all of them.
And while you can’t quite put a finger on Santos’ eye when moving around her space, it all makes sense once you meet the host. Santos creates a well-built mood in a home that feels worldly without being showy, considered without being too precious, and, most importantly, ready for a wonderful time.
This story was originally published in Inquirer RED 2026 Issue 3
