A GOOD NUMBER OF PIECES that make up designer James Reyes? Makati shop are either gifts from friends or hand-me-downs from his dad. Among his most treasured possessions is a wooden desk that once belonged to the late Severino Reyes, his grandfather and founder of Liwayway magazine.

?Not only is this table useful,? he says, ?it also brings back lots of happy memories.?

It was on the same molave desk that his grandfather, also known to Filipino generations as ?Lola Basyang,? wrote most of his children?s stories. Reyes? late father, Pedrito, also used the desk while managing the family-owned printing press.

?I still remember the time we used to hide under this table as kids,? Reyes says. ?It was also where my dad kept most of the office supplies, which came in handy while I was in UP taking up Fine Arts.?

Thanks to its rather dark color, the heirloom piece blends well with the condo unit?s ?70s-style parquet floor, while standing out amid the beige-colored walls.

Reyes? fondness for neutral colors extends to his choice of mustard window drapes that ward off?without completely blocking?the morning sun. The third-floor unit also comes with a living room, workroom and balcony.

Even a wall in his office is draped with floor-to-ceiling muslin to hide ?unsightly? doors and doorknobs. One door leads to the living room and production area, another leads to the powder room.

?I want this room to look clean, uncluttered and bigger than it actually is,? he says. ?Since I can?t remove the doors, I decided to cover them with curtains.?

Reyes? desk is also a study in minimalism, with tools of the trade?pens, scissors and colored pencils?stacked in a corner. To keep a client or two occupied, he also put a number of small conversation pieces on the table.

One curio, a miniature bakya, came from fellow designer Dennis Lustico. A so-called ?magic? coin box is a gift from director Ariel Lozada.

It?s hard to imagine that Reyes wasn?t as minimalist before. Like his grandfather, he?s quite fond of children?s literature, and he showed it.

There was a time when kids? pop-up books competed with fashion books for space. Today, however, the only other items in the room, apart from an indoor water feature and plants, are fashion books and a nude pencil illustration by Olazo.

Reyes has also dabbled in painting. His own oils, with a picture of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck on the Spanish Steps, are hung in the living room.

One of his favorite books features the costumes of Japanese Renaissance woman Eiko Ishioka for her Academy Award-winning turn in ?Bram Stoker?s Dracula.? Like Reyes, a former art director of a Makati-based ad agency, Ishioka was a graphic designer before going into fashion design.

?It took me sometime to realize that some of my personal items simply didn?t connect with my clients,? he says. ?This place, although an expression of myself, is also a public area where I do business. I?ve kept my pop-up books and placed them in an overhead cabinet.?