Lifestyle guru Rachelle Wenger says she does not 'follow rules' when she designs
I have always believed that an elegant lifestyle can be learned. Not in the superficial sense of simply buying beautiful things or copying someone else’s aesthetic, but in literally learning how to create beauty in everyday life. I think that fascination began years ago when I first discovered Entertaining by Martha Stewart. I became absorbed in its world, where homemaking was approached with creativity and intention. It was not just about recipes or hosting dinners. It was gardening, flowers, table settings, organization, pet care and all the little rituals that make a home feel personal and alive. She made lifestyle feel like an art form. Even now, her peony garden remains my dream.
Over the years, I found myself drawn to women who approached lifestyle in a similar way, people who understood that elegance often comes from thoughtfulness rather than extravagance. One of them is Rachelle Castañeda-Wenger, an interior design consultant, who conducts workshops on decorating, homekeeping, entertaining, etiquette, decluttering, tablescaping and social graces.
I recently attended her Decorating and Homekeeping workshop held in her penthouse home, and what immediately stood out was how comfortable and personal the experience felt. Her penthouse apartment overlooks the city through dramatic glass walls, with high ceilings that fill the rooms with natural light. Yet despite the scale of the space, it still feels warm and lived-in rather than overly styled. Her eclectic interiors are layered with collected objects, books, decorative pieces, homeware and personal touches gathered through years of family life and travel. Rachelle describes her style as “a collective,” which feels fitting because the apartment does not follow one strict aesthetic. Instead, it tells her story.
“I do not follow rules when I design,” she shared. “I trust my eye and instincts. I feel it’s one of the gifts given to me to give joy to others.” Her design philosophy is direct: “Be true to yourself. Follow your instinct. Be unique and observe when you travel or go to well-appointed spaces. Be curious. Design is cerebral, too, which starts visually.”
That instinct appears to have started early. She describes her mother as “the original Martha Stewart,” proficient in cooking, gardening, decorating and floral arrangements, though she adds with humor that her mother “cannot wrap a gift to save her life.” From her father, she inherited organization and precision. “I then got the organizational skills and dexterity of my dad with wrapping, album-making and his brilliance in math and academics which is needed in a creative business.”
Her eye for design eventually became noticeable to others when she decorated her family’s first home in Hong Kong. “Everyone thought it was professionally designed, and the rest is history,” she recalled. “It was the love for the home that started me on this path.”
Her own family life has also shaped her sense of home. Rachelle met her Swiss husband when he was an expatriate chef for Shangri-La Manila, and they have been married for almost 29 years. His work as an executive chef brought them to Hong Kong, Bangkok, and eventually back to Manila, where they decided to put down roots. Their two sons were born overseas. Their eldest graduated in Literary Studies from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, while their youngest has studied Data Science and Computer Programming at TU Delft and the University of Amsterdam.
Her apartment does not follow one strict aesthetic. Instead, it tells her story.
The workshop itself did not feel like a formal seminar. There were no PowerPoint presentations or a rigid agenda. Instead, the afternoon unfolded more like a gathering among women who shared an interest in homemaking, decorating, and creating meaningful spaces. Conversations moved naturally from entertaining to organization, from styling shelves to managing everyday life at home. Rachelle walked participants through different areas of her apartment, explaining how she approached certain spaces and why particular pieces mattered to her. She also shared parts of her homeware and plate collections. It ended with more chatter and mingling among the ladies ready to devour specialties from an impressive buffet set-up. And each left with a lovely giveaway.
Rachelle started holding workshops around 2017, initially by invitation and mostly in her home. “I started with the purpose of making a better and more intentional world and life for all. Sharing my knowledge and skills with others,” she explained. At the beginning, her audience was mostly women and their children, as she also conducted etiquette workshops for teens and kids. “It was really promoting a well-loved home environment and everything related to it,” she said. “I tried to also teach what I see is lacking in the world today, like social graces, manners, etc.”
The workshops began after the late Maureen Soong encouraged her to do one for The Makati Garden Club. From there, Rachelle’s sessions expanded to friends, organizations, and collaborations with Rustan’s, Enderun, SOFA, Entrepreneurs’ Organization, West Elm, Estate Makati X Statement Theory and others. She has also conducted an etiquette workshop for students of Assumption.
Among her most popular workshops is decluttering, a subject many people today seem eager to learn more about. But Rachelle approaches it differently from the usual organizational advice. “People seem to have a hard time doing this,” she said. “I have a different take on Decluttering as I believe it should start from decluttering inside—whether mental or emotional—to successfully declutter one’s surroundings.” It is a perspective that shifts decluttering away from mere storage solutions and into something more reflective. As she also advised during the workshop, one should keep only what is useful and beautiful.
Outside design and workshops, Rachelle is also deeply active in church and charitable work. She has been a lector at Santuario de San Antonio for 19 years and a CCD teacher or catechist for 16 years. She was also editor-in-chief of the parish bulletin during the pandemic years and is now one of its assistant editors. She is involved in the Scholarship Committee, PAMANA, the group helping build St. Clare of Assisi Parish in Malabon, Busog Puso/Biyaya, and a Rosary group that has prayed daily for the past six years.
When asked how she describes herself despite the many roles she balances, her answer is straightforward. “Firstly, I am really a child of God. Everything I do, all the talents people see is just a reflection of His gifts. I intend to use them to glorify Him and make this world a better place.” She added that while she is grateful when people call her their “peg” or describe her as a “purveyor of beauty,” she believes it must go beyond appearances. “I think what goes inside shows on the outside; beauty should always come from within for it to have a lasting effect.”
Perhaps that is what makes her workshops resonate. They are not really about perfection or creating magazine-ready homes. They are about learning through conversation, demonstration and example. They are about seeing how a table is set, how a room is layered, how collections are kept, how clutter is edited, and how a home can carry the story of a family.
In the end, a refined lifestyle is not learned in one grand lesson. Sometimes, it is learned in a book. Sometimes, it is through travel and exposure to “good things.” Sometimes, it is learned in someone’s home, over an afternoon of conversation, food, stories, and practical advice.