Cynthia Almario: Woman at the Top

To be a successful and highly respected woman in any industry, a woman must have the strength and courage to own up to who she is as a woman. As a leader in her industry, she knows what she is doing, why she does it, and moreover, she applies her vision to have a positive impact on the world in order to become a trailblazer for the next generation of women in their respective fields. A successful woman has confidence and is eager to grow, learn, and to share her experience and knowledge to others. A successful woman has achieved the right perspectives and the equilibrium in all areas of her life.

In the design industry, a woman interior designer must be fearless, hard working, determined, and yes, extremely bold! She has to have the guts to push the envelope of creativity at all times so she can produce designs that have an everlasting impact on the global stage.  That’s female power for you and that’s exactly what Cynthia Almario is all about. 

Cynthia is the other half of Manila’s most influential and powerful interior designer duo (the other half is her sister, Ivy). Cynthia is the Creative Director of the Almario Atelier — the to-go place for Manila’s elite who wants to have their luxurious penthouses re-designed and re-decorated. The sisters built Almario Atelier right after honing their interior design skills for 15 years in Los Angeles, California. Almario Atelier’s interior works are not limited to affluent penthouses, it also boasts an impressive list of interior projects from corporate boardrooms, grand beach resorts to upscale fine dining restaurants and yes, yachts, and shelters for front liners. 

When asked how she sees the future of Interior Design, Cynthia shared, “COVID-19 has changed the way we all live.  The new reality is a lot of us have to work from home. A lot of our clients have been thanking us for designing spaces that they enjoy and appreciate even more now that they are always at home.  This is a particularly good sign that our designs are still relevant under the new normal,” Cynthia added. 

With regard to Interior Design being purely aesthetic or functional, “The planning of homes will change to make way for open areas so that Vitamin D from Sunlight can flood the living room space.  Family rooms will be designed to accommodate study areas for online learning for the children.  A lot of clients will be asking for a bigger home office where they can incorporate a seating area to rest and as well as putting the gym in their home office so they can workout between zoom call meetings,” said Cynthia. 

“Mud room adjacent to the foyer will serve as a sanitation area before entering the main house.  The enhanced community lockdown has taught us a lot on how we want our spaces to be used and what spaces are essential,” Cynthia reflected. 

What tips would you recommend to us in terms of designing our homes in 2021? “Focus on health and wellness will be the new normal.  We will rely heavily on technology as a lot of our clients will invest on contactless gadgets for their homes. We can continue creating our impactful designs and start incorporating materials that are easy to clean and disinfect.  We can use high end performance fabric that resist dirt and wear and tear from frequent washing.  This way we can make safe and practical spaces without sacrificing the aesthetics,” advised Cynthia.

When asked to differentiate Cynthia Almario as a woman and Cynthia Almario as the Interior Designer, “I am deeply passionate about everything that I do, and I always want to do my very best.  I am an incredibly positive person; I always see the glass half full.  I am a grateful person who always counts my blessings in life.  I believe in lifelong learning — I never stop learning because life never stops giving.  I am such a foodie, I love to travel, and I love playing tennis.  I love to watch cooking shows not because I cook but because I love seeing the process of creating something from nothing.   I have a passion for flowers and flower arranging,” Cynthia responded. 

“As an Interior Designer I am very hands on.  I love to visit factories and check on the furniture being produced.  I love to source fabrics, furniture, lighting and accessories all over the world.  I enjoy the design process with my sister Ivy and our design team.  I am passionate, hardworking, very detail oriented and a perfectionist.  I do not mind going to different fabric stores to get the right texture and color of the fabric,” added Cynthia.

What defines you as an Interior Designer? “I am a very adventurous Interior Designer. I love discovering new things and incorporating it in our designs.  I am exceedingly kind, patient and supportive to all of our suppliers because I value our relationship.  At this point in my life, I choose to be kind more often than to be right. Building long lasting relationships has always been my priority in my design life,” replied Cynthia. 

With regard to the interior work that she and her team were most proud of, “We always say that our favorite project is the project we just finished installing.  We pour all our passion, energy, and creativity into all our projects and we incorporate all of the learnings from previous projects to the new projects so that every home that we finish creating is the absolute best version of our client’s  dream home!  But having said that, one of our most memorable projects is a 118 ft. yacht that we designed for a Hong Kong Tycoon.  We were flown to Viareggio, Italy to design the yacht with master boat builders.  It was so much fun,” Cynthia said.

When asked about which interior work was most challenging, “We all live in a Social Media driven world, so we all have access to the same wonderful pegs in Pinterest, we follow all the Iconic Interior Designers in Instagram, because of that there is a tendency for some clients to want to have a lot of Design themes in their homes.  Maximalism is on the rise because of accessibility to different furniture and fabric brands.  We always interview our clients to find out what style will suit them best.  Luckily, we only had two challenging projects in our design career,” shared Cynthia.  

What would you say is the color that we should go for in 2021? “I always believe that there is a color that will make you smile, make your heart beat faster, make you want to linger in the space longer.  That color for me is the classic combination of blue and white.  I never met a blue and white I did not love. This color highly resonates with me and brings me so much joy and happiness,” replied Cynthia.

“We also incorporate the Pantone color of the year which happens to be two colors for this year — Ultimate Grey and Illuminating Yellow in our current designs.  These colors are such happy colors that you can use for a resort — which we did.  This lobby was installed in  2018. We were ahead of the Pantone colours of the year by 3 years,” added Cynthia. 

Who Inspires you? Without skipping a beat, Cynthia shared, “Vice President of the Philippines, Leni Robredo truly inspires me specially with what she is doing for our fellow Filipinos during this COVID 19 pandemic.  She is hardworking, honest, intelligent, simple and exceptionally low key.  We are fortunate to be working with her, Architect Peach Buencamino, and her amazing team in providing an Oasis/Shelter for front liners and health care workers at the Lung Center, Quirino Hospital, and National Kidney and Transplant Institute.  I am amazed at how many projects and Angat Pinoy initiatives she was able to implement with limited Government funding and donations from the Private Sector.”

When asked whether she supports any charities and how she pays forward, “I am part of GKonomics.  We spearheaded the Silya and ASAM projects. I am also supporting Jaton Zulueta, my BNI All-Stars colleague at his AHA Learning Center. It would be great if we can have Filipinos from Canada support his scholarship programs. They are very affordable,” Cynthia shared.

And that, folks, is what a woman at the top is made of!