Philips Umbra Room Stylers Shades in Garden Barn

Since my birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year, Mommy and I decided to go out on a Black Friday drive around Metro Manila the following day.

Whenever my mother feels ill, window-shopping (or plain shopping) always makes her feel better.

Our first stop for that Friday was Garden Barn in North East Square in Greenhills. I wanted to update several stainless steel lamps that I was able to purchase from Serendra's garage sale so I went around looking for Philips Umbra Room Stylers shades - which used to be readily available in your friendly neighbourhood Handyman store.

These shades, however, have been pulled out and are now only being sold directly by the importer, Garden Barn, in their showroom in Greenhills.

Now, I'm sure this information is going to be pretty useful, since I had gone around trying to research what options for shades I had available here in Metro Manila - and unless you want to get bespoke shades from Keystone (at bespoke prices of course), these Philips Umbra shades are actually quite an affordable alternative. Their prices range from PhP 325.00 to PhP 495.00, and come in a variety of shapes, sizes, heights, and color.

Above are some samples of the shades that are available in Garden Barn. They have these in beige, in grey, brown (both dark, bordering on purplish, and a light mocha shade) and red.

For the stainless steel lamps from the bazaar, I purchased a brown shade, sample of the color from their HK website borrowed below:

It only cost me Php 395.00 per shade. Coincidentally, it is the same colour and style I purchased for a mother and child lamp I had updated early this year.

I also bought a red small shade priced at PhP 325.00 for a colourful Brunei jar my mother had wanted to convert into a lamp:

I'm sure a lot of DIY-ers, like me, have probably asked this question: Where can I buy shades for my lamp?

If you want to update the look of your lamps, feel free to visit Garden Barn, and check out their assortment of Philips Umbra Room Stylers shades.

Garden Barn
UG North East Square, Connecticut Street,
Greenhills, San Juan
telephone number: 02.654.9068
opening hours: Mondays to Saturdays (10:00AM to 7:00PM)

Rediscovering Cubao, Cubao Expo

On this boring Saturday afternoon, Derek sent me a BBM message wanting us to meet up. Knowing that the horrid EDSA Saturday traffic should be non-existent, I asked him to meet with me in Gateway, as I wanted an alternative place to visit and go to for window-shopping. Bored with the same old mall experience, I was thinking, maybe we can visit Cubao Expo.

Derek picked me up from Gateway, and we made a beeline for HMR Surplus in Araneta first. There were so many cheap finds there. I ended up buying a documentary DVD on Obama for PhP 15.00, an Ashlee Simpson CD for PhP 50.00, and a soul music CD for PhP 9.00. Derek bought the same stuff, and two belts.

Afterwards, we headed for Cubao Expo. Now, this isn't really the first time I've been to Cubao Expo, as growing up, we would visit this place, then called Marikina Shoe Expo, whenever my mother would need custom-made boots for her trips abroad.

The old shoe shops were still there: Janylin, Valentino, Russ. However, there were a number of vintage and curio shops that have opened as well. They sell LP records for PhP 50.00 each, CDS, cassette tapes, Coke memorabilia (heaven!), figurines, vintage clothes... well, basically everything!

Here are some of the shops that had interesting displays:

 This shop had a lot of books, LP records, military memorabilia.

The shop above had categorized their items according to niche. There was a section for Coca-Cola memorabilia, a section for Beatles items, a section for cat figurines, and imported mugs.

I've read up on some of the shops in Cubao Expo online, and I visited the Reading Room.

I wanted to check out some of their vintage clothes, in their Sandy's closet corner - because online you can see that they sell some Uniqlo and Cacharel items, all at PhP 100.00 each. I ended up buying my sister 3 dresses. Of course, my mom stole the 3rd dress and claimed it as her own.

Another reason I wanted to visit their shop was to get a Ninja Plushie. I'm sure this isn't a craze, but I just fell in love with the Ninja Plushies from when I was reading about them online. I think I saw them in The Reading Room's Facebook account. I noticed that no two ninjas are made of the same design. I suppose the makers engage in recycling and make the ninja plushies out of left over cloths, so definitely, no two ninjas will have the same design. Really, I so wanted to adopt one, and promised myself that when I find myself in the area, would look up the shops.

It wasn't difficult to choose which Ninja Plushie I was going to take home. In fact, he was practically jumping off the shelf when he saw me enter. It was love at first sight really. I guess people know already what to expect for Christmas from me.

So everyone, I'd like you to meet Chanel Ninja. Here he is proofreading this article before I post it.

I love The Reading Room's products. Most of them are found items that they recycled. Some are old pieces of clothing that they converted to be useful items again. There was a bag being sold there for only PhP 75.00 and was made of old neckties.

Please feel free to visit Cubao Expo, it still has an old world charm to the place, amidst the redevelopment of Araneta Center. I certainly do hope that they maintain the place, because anybody who grew up in the 80s and 90s would definitely have fond memories of the complex.

Visit The Reading Room. I spoke to the person in the shop, and they're open until 11:00PM. Would love to adopt more Ninja Plushies, they're priced at PhP 125.00 each.

The Reading Room
Shop # 39, Cubao Expo, Gen. Romulo Street, Araneta Center, Cubao, QC