INSPIRED SPACES

For Ivy and Cynthia Almario, designing spaces is a life-long passion, one that continues through a pandemic and toward the future.

- MICA TORRES CRUZ

A Discovering one’s passion can be a lengthy journey. For some, it takes years of life experience to realize what makes them feel fulfilled. While for others, such as Ivy and Cynthia Almario, their passions were brought to light at a young age, influenced by the people closest to them.

For Ivy, she was a wide-eyed twelve-year-old when she first saw her aunt, Myrna Almario Adriano’s, newly renovated home in Horseshoe Village. “I was simply blown away,” Ivy recalls. “[Aunt Myrna] finished a correspondence course in Interior Design from New York School of Interior Design, and was the first interior design practitioner I met in my life.”

From that moment, Ivy knew she would follow in her aunt’s footsteps. She earned a Fine Arts degree, majoring in Interior Design, from the University of Santo Tomas.

She then completed a stint as a junior interior designer at design consulting firm Sonia Santiago Olivares and Associates. After that six-month stint, Ivy “True luxury having your o space to enjo about square about making footage coun moved to Los Angeles to open her own rendering studio in Beverly Hills.

By that time, Cynthia found herself wanting to follow her sister’s path. She says that she idolized Ivy, and once she graduated university, she also relocated to LA to begin her career in interior design.

WORKING TOGETHER

The designers, sisters, and best friends are the creative duo behind Atelier Almario, a luxury design studio with a portfolio spanning from stunning homes to decadent commercial spaces like the Midas Hotel and Casino and Astoria Boracay. Ivy is design director while Cynthia is creative director.

While Ivy was running her rendering studio, Cynthia worked for Dennis Reedy Design Consultants.