High ceiling with cogon and bamboo roof, doors instead of walls on all sides, black slab flooring create an airy yet cozy ambiance. (Photo by T. Sioson)
Vast open-layout turns into an intimate setting on a cold Christmas night. (Photo by T. Sioson)
We cannot let another year pass without composing into words the images we took of a beautiful home in Matuod, Batangas—the coastline settlement about 123 kms from Manila, a little over three-hour ride through Nasugbu. Through the decades, with one beach house rising after another, Matuod has formed a close-knit community of weekend home owners who welcome the quiet and respite from the urban jungles. It’s a retreat from the daily war of living and hustling. (Just don’t mind the sound of quarrying in the morning.)
The house we stayed in the weekend of December, right before 2022, faces the bay—a beach house that is safely tucked far away from the sandy shore, while being within the happy warm glow of the sunset and the sunrise. Your body stretched out on a bench out there under the abundant leafy tree, with nothing before it but a cotton-white horizon—now that is a big reward point on a new day.
There’s ARMY in the house. (Photo by T. Sioson)
Terrace with a view (Photo by T. Sioson)
The Matuod beach house belongs to a fellow ARMY (BTS, if, unbelieavably, you don’t know) who asked us over so we could enjoy together the livestreaming of the online BTS Permission to Dance. The house opens out to the sea on all sides, its wrap-around terrace facing the pool, its garden actually an acre-vast unmanicured grass leading to the beach.
Wood beams, bamboo balustrade complete the expansive open view, from the second-level bedroom corridor, of the dining and living areas on the ground floor. (Photo by T. Sioson)
View of the open-layout dining room and kitchen from the staircase (Photo by T. Sioson)
All-white master bedroom (Photo by T. Sioson)
Bias at bedside (Photo by T. Sioson)
The house is a labor-intensive masterpiece with its roof of cogon grass, with bamboo used predominantly to complement the concrete shell. The bamboo balustrade lines the second level where the bedrooms overlook the open-layout living room and dining room. The house is cozy because it’s like a split-level bungalow—something weekend home dwellers can learn from, who are tempted to build concrete monsters along the beach.
Rustic nook (Photo by T. Sioson)
The living room flooring is black slab, adding to a most basic and primary interior.
This Matuod beach house is a stylish cocoon—with a loving plus-on: BTS sounds.
Sun-dappled breakfast nook (Photo by T. Sioson)
Matuod breakfast (Photo by T. Sioson)
