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.

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.