Maritess De Ocampo

The Gonzales family - Noel and Eileen Gonzales (center), Kris Gonzales (left most), and Kar Gonzales (right most) of Muebles Italiano

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The Gonzales family of Muebles Italiano

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1787718840538The Gonzales Family of Muebles Italiano.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:957.995px;height:auto" width="957.995"/>Noel and Eileen Gonzales founded Muebles Italiano in 1989. Today their children Kris (left) and Kar (right) are carrying their vision forward to inspire Filiipinos to develop their own unique design perspective.</div>Muebles Italiano is welcoming Dutch luxury furniture brand Eichholtz to the Philippines, expanding its selection of European and contemporary furniture, lighting, and home accessories.Founded by Theo Eichholtz in the Netherlands in 1992, Eichholtz began by importing Asian accessories and furniture to Europe. It has since developed an international portfolio of more than 4,000 designs and introduces as many as 600 new pieces each year.Central to the brand is its “total concept,” which brings furniture, lighting, and accessories together across influences ranging from antique, Old World, and Baroque to Art Deco, mid-century, and modern eclectic. This approach aligns with Muebles Italiano’s commitment to art-forward living and its view of furniture as something that can hold artistic, emotional, and cultural value.To mark Eichholtz’s Philippine debut, Muebles Italiano is also introducing The Met x Eichholtz collection. The collaboration draws from 5,000 years of art and history represented in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Its nearly 160 pieces include sculptures, cabinets, seating, lighting, mirrors, and tables reinterpreted for contemporary interiors.The launch coincides with a new chapter for Muebles Italiano. Founded by Eileen and Noel Gonzales in 1989, the family business is now being carried forward by their children, Kris and Kar Gonzales. Its renovated six-storey flagship showroom in Paseo de Magallanes presents furniture through composed, lived-in spaces intended to encourage closer attention to materials, proportions, and craftsmanship.In this exclusive interview with ABS-CBN Lifestyle, second-generation leaders Kris and Kar discuss family legacy, changing Filipino tastes, and furniture designed to carry beauty and stories across generations. <div>Bringing Classic Design Into the Present</div>For Kris Gonzales, Junior Vice President for Communications and Knowledge Management, Eichholtz responds to the changing tastes of the Philippine furniture market while remaining consistent with Muebles Italiano’s history of thoughtful curation.“What we have seen in Eichholtz’ design philosophy is a seamless integration of the gravitas of classic design and modern sensibility,” he says. “In cementing our partnership with Eichholtz, we achieved at the same time the continuation of a legacy grounded in thoughtful curation.”Muebles Italiano wants to remain a one-stop shop for homeowners who wish to be creative in their living spaces and attach emotional, artistic, and cultural value to the pieces they choose.The Met collaboration extends this idea by translating global artistic heritage into objects for contemporary homes. For Kris, it also challenges the tendency to think of furniture as disposable or purely utilitarian.<div>Furniture as Future Pamana</div>The idea of furniture carrying memories across generations is already familiar in Filipino homes. Kris points to the appreciation for antique narra dining tables and intricately woven solihiya chairs handed down within families.Modern buying habits, however, have also been affected by rapid urbanization, condominium living, and the availability of “fast furniture.” Pieces rooted in cultural heritage can help broaden the idea of pamana, encouraging homeowners to see new acquisitions as potential heirlooms rather than temporary additions.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1787720594710MI 1.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Lioness Bronze Finish Coffee Table and Madison Palmer Beige Swivel Chair </div>Muebles Italiano has met customers who continue to keep furniture they acquired from the company decades ago. These customers share stories of pieces that have remained with their families through different periods of their lives and the lives of their children and grandchildren.By presenting furniture connected to art and history, the company hopes to expand the Filipino collector’s perspective beyond local nostalgia and toward a wider historical dialogue.<div>Creating Space for Kwentuhan</div>Kris also relates art-inspired furniture to the Filipino tradition of hospitality. Because Filipino homes are often designed around gathering, hosting, and storytelling, a distinctive piece can become more than part of the background.“A sculpted console table or a creatively engineered lounge chair ceases to be just background architecture,” he explains. “It becomes a conversational anchor—an icebreaker that carries a story of an artistic movement or a historical era before the host even speaks.”Under this approach, the objects within a home contribute to the conversations that take place there. Their references to particular artistic movements, cultures, and periods become part of their value.<div>From Furnishing a Room to Curating a Life</div>Living with art-inspired furniture can also change the process of creating a home. Rather than buying a matching set to complete a room immediately, homeowners can collect individual pieces gradually, choosing each one for its appearance and story.“Living with art-inspired furniture fundamentally shifts the intent behind interior design,” Kris says. “It moves the mindset from furnishing a room to curating a life, the same as how we curate how we present ourselves in our own fashion, philosophy, passions, and dispositions.”In this view, the home becomes a personal gallery shaped over time. Its contents can reflect the homeowner’s interests, experiences, and engagement with art and culture.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1787720688930MI 3.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/> Acanthus White Marble Coffee Table and Fayum S Onyx Vase </div>For Muebles Italiano, this requires intention and careful consideration. Kris believes the place of beauty in everyday life deserves renewed attention, and he wants the store to provide a space where customers can pursue that intention.His connection to the subject is also personal. As a classical musician and art history enthusiast, he has experienced how engagement with the arts can benefit the individual.“Beauty has always moved me, and I always want to show how it can do the same to others,” he says. “We are always excited to share this passion with the people we work with at Muebles Italiano as we continue to write the newest chapters of our brand.”<div>Preserving Trust While Allowing the Business to Evolve</div>As Junior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Kar Gonzales is focused on protecting the trust and relationships that his parents established over almost four decades.Growing up with Muebles Italiano, he saw that the company was never simply concerned with selling furniture. Its work involved knowing its clients, understanding how they lived, and helping them select pieces that could remain in their homes for many years.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1787720799568MI 4.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Sebennytos Bronze Finish Wall Object and Britannia Bronze Highlight Finish Hurricane </div>“That foundation is something I would never want us to lose,” Kar says.At the same time, he believes preserving a family legacy requires allowing it to change. Filipino consumers now have greater access to international design and are becoming more individual in their choices. According to Kar, there is less interest in conforming to a single idea of how a beautiful or luxurious home should appear.Muebles Italiano therefore wants to evolve beyond being a place where customers purchase furniture. By presenting different designers, periods, materials, artworks, and objects together, it aims to help people discover and express their own point of view.Kar’s responsibilities also include the operational side of this transition. He wants to modernize the company’s technology, systems, communications, and client service without losing the personal relationships that have long defined the business.“I think that is the balance we are trying to achieve: preserve the trust, relationships and appreciation for quality that brought Muebles Italiano this far, while creating a company that can speak to the way the next generation wants to live.”<div>A More Personal Understanding of Luxury</div>The renovated Magallanes flagship reflects the company’s belief that luxury is becoming more personal.Kar recalls a time when luxury was often communicated through formality, brand recognition, price, or adherence to a particular idea of how a home should look. Today, he sees people seeking spaces that are not only beautiful but also comfortable, expressive, and lived in.That perspective shaped the redesign of the showroom. Instead of displaying furniture as a series of isolated products, Muebles Italiano presents different pieces together: a contemporary sofa beside a classical object, or furniture placed in conversation with art and unexpected accessories.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1787720895366MI 2.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/>Akhtihotep 300 x 400 Beige Rug and Imperial Brushed Brass Finish Smoke Glass Chandelier </div>“We don’t necessarily want someone to walk into the showroom and think, ‘I want this exact room,’” Kar says. “I would rather they leave thinking, ‘I didn’t know I could put those things together,’ or ‘I can imagine something like this in my own home.’”For Kar, discovery is central to this changing idea of luxury. Rather than owning what other people immediately recognize, luxury can involve developing the confidence to understand what personally resonates.Muebles Italiano’s role, he says, is not to dictate anyone’s taste. It is to introduce customers to beautiful objects, provide context and possibilities, and help them create homes that communicate their own stories.<div>Giving a Family Legacy New Reasons to Matter</div>Being part of the second generation means inheriting both the history of Muebles Italiano and responsibility for its future. Kris and Kar grew up watching their parents build the company from 1989 onward.While Kar holds deep respect for what came before them, he does not believe that honoring a long-standing business means preserving it exactly as it was.“You have to keep giving it a reason to matter,” he says.For him, this involves remaining curious about design, art, technology, changing ways of living, and the continued evolution of Filipino tastes. He hopes Muebles Italiano will become more than a destination people visit only when they need furniture. He wants it to be a place where they encounter unfamiliar designers, discover art and objects that make them pause, and leave with a different perspective on their own homes.“Because the most meaningful homes are rarely created all at once,” Kar says. “They are collected over time—through different chapters, travels, discoveries and generations.”“And perhaps that is also the story of Muebles Italiano.”

As Kris and Kar Gonzales carry forward the family business founded by their parents in 1989, Muebles Italiano blends tradition with a more personal vision of luxury, one shaped by art, history, discovery, and meaningful design.

As Kris and Kar Gonzales carry forward the family business founded by their parents in 1989, Muebles Italiano blends tradition with a more personal vision of luxury, one shaped by art, history, discovery, and meaningful design.

For Muebles Italiano, the most meaningful homes are collected over time

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For Muebles Italiano, the most meaningful homes are collected over time

Mawi Fojas De Ocampo

Published August 26, 2026 01:11 PM PHT

Read More:

Muebles Italiano

Family Business PH

Eichholtz Philippines

The Met X Eichholtz

Meaningful Homes

Furniture Design

Home And Living

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