Meet Frances Cabatuando: Resident Mayora of ‘Home Buddies’

Back when the world was hit by a global pandemic and we were all confined to our homes, people needed to find productive ways to keep themselves occupied. While some turned to new hobbies and pursuing things they’ve been procrastinating, others turned inward—by that we mean, to home improvement.
With most people working and studying from home, they realized the importance of having a comfortable living space. From setting up personal home offices to building more storage, homeowners are driven by the necessity to make more room and improve their current environment, turning it into a multi-purpose space for everyone to use and enjoy.
The only problem with pursuing home improvement projects is where do you start? For first-time homeowners, it can be exceptionally daunting to find the right design or proper furniture pieces that fit your lifestyle.
This is something Frances Cabataundo, a.k.a. the Mayora of home enthusiast Facebook group “Home Buddies” went through when she first moved out to her own apartment in 2019. She turned online for research, and suddenly realized that other people are going through the same thing. When she noticed her inbox filling up with home interior and design questions, as well as requests for recommendations, her community was born.
What started out as simple research for her personal home projects has now grown into an online community amassing over three million members, making it the biggest Facebook group in Southeast Asia.
The Beat Asia caught up with Home Buddies' resident Mayora to talk about her journey as an online community builder and content creator; the evolution of the group from being a simple page for “budol” finds to more of a collaborative “Home Space”— a gathering of people who help and support each other’s home projects; and how she continues to grow and maintain relevancy through the years.
Home Buddies: A Collaborative Home Space
If you’ve seen posts on Facebook about home ownership tips, furniture finds, or discussions on design trends, Home Buddies might have come up on your timeline a few times.
Home Buddies is a home enthusiast community founded on September 17, 2020, by Frances Cabatuando. The community has gathered a massive membership since with over 3.3 million members as of last month, and is all about interior design, home ownership and improvement tips, and just about anything to help you achieve your dream home.
As for how it came to be, Frances told us about creating home content for her Instagram page a year beforehand as she wanted to try her hand at being a content creator. Her pursuit of a personal goal was what led her to establishing the page.
“I really got started when I moved out and I was trying to research about everything that I could find at home, or what I needed to buy.” She said. “But during the pandemic, I noticed that my little Instagram account started getting an influx of questions like ‘where did you buy this?’ or ‘how do you do this?’ Some people were even sending me photos of their homes, so a lot of the conversations were happening in my inbox. And I felt like, you know, this is real. We are stuck in a pandemic. People are realizing the importance of having a nice, comfortable home and there needs to be a space for people to talk about that.”
“So, I went on Facebook, and I tried to look for other groups because there was a growth in Facebook groups back then from food and coffee, to makeup, but there were no Home groups. So, I had to make it, just to put all these people together and the community became that safe space where people can ask even the littlest things.”
Scrolling through the page, one can see how the community—whom are called "kapitbahays" (neighbors)—engages in conversations about small things like recommendations for doorbells and artworks to fill bare walls to bigger discussions on flooring design recs and interior renovations.
Four years have passed, and the page is as active as ever, even more so when it was first established with how many members it has gathered over the years.
When asked how she managed to remain relevant, Frances answered, “Well, for me, the nice thing about the home space is that it's always relevant and that’s a major factor why Home Buddies is still here. Because at the end of the day, you always come home. Every year we go through summer and people are looking for aircon. Through the rainy days, people ask for waterproofing, and at Christmas time people look for design inspiration. So, every year, topics just cycle. There's always a new product coming out in the market, and when it comes to design, people always want to change it up, spice it up, to make it different.”
“But if I were to think about my contribution, I think it's being able to moderate the community well, like we are ‘very mindful, very cutesy’ *laughs* about what we allow to be posted and seen in the Facebook group.”

Content creation requires a lot of research and Frances admitted that most of her personal design tips for the community were inspired by other vloggers abroad as she loves watching home vlogs and apartment diaries on YouTube.
She used these as her design inspiration for her personal space, which has a very “Japandi” vibe—a design style centered on minimalist and functional designs inspired by Japanese interiors. This was how the #TeamKahoy vs #TeamPuti trend came to be, one of the earliest trends in Home Buddies.
Now that the community has grown, however, Frances has access to a wider audience, and with it comes professionals in the design field whom she is able to connect with and consult.
“There’s a lot more learning and inspiration, and it encourages me to also experiment with my style. So, somehow from being like this plain room, it also evolved into a more—I wouldn't say luxurious, but more put together kind of home.” Frances describes the current state of her apartment.
On Managing Home Buddies: A Learning Experience
Frances does more than rally people together to talk about home and design tips. The bulk of her work is on the management side, where she tracks and moderates activity within the community.
If managing a household was hard enough, imagine a community of millions! This led us to discuss about her significant takeaways on being the Mayora of Home Buddies for over four years now.
“Specifically for content creation for an online community, I realized that everything I do or say has an impact on my community. And by community, I mean people. So, the bigger it becomes, the bigger responsibility I have.” She explained. “Someone pointed out early on that it's no longer just a Facebook group, it's even the size of a real city population. So, I have to always be mindful. When I share something, there are real people who are reading this, who would apply it to their homes. I can't just rely on my stock knowledge. Now I need to consult with professionals because people trust the community and because I own the community, I have this credibility somehow that's built into the dynamics.”
Frances also admitted having made a few missteps in posting and how the community has helped her learn and grow from these mistakes. She told us about a time when she shared a sink mesh which promoted plastic waste. The experience led her to be more mindful about her online finds and was even educated on the effects of these products by people in the community as they gave her a better alternative: a reusable metal sink strainer.
“Even though we have ‘budol culture,’ people are smart and if you allow them to talk about it, you will actually learn.”
Truly, being a moderator of a massive community means she wields influence over her members and followers. Last year, Frances was one of Cosmopolitan’s Women of Influence awardees and was recognized for building a safe and inspiring space for every member of her community.
Encouraging Sustainability Talks Within the Community
More than being a woman of influence, Frances is also a Makesense Climate Change Action fellow and strives to start conversations on sustainability and raise awareness on climate change.
“With Makesense, they first taught us how we should talk about sustainability. Because sometimes sustainability can be just greenwashing. We should be communicating harder, hitting ways to be sustainable.”
“One of the topics that I found very relevant to the community was solar. Since we’re in a tropical country, it's a readily available technology and it's also gotten more affordable, we should make the most of it.”
Frances expressed that the important thing about being an action fellow is being able to share as much as she can. She mentioned how people are still reluctant to install solar panels in their own homes due to the steep cost, but for her, the mere act of talking about it online is also an active way of showing support and raising awareness.
“The fact that you're joining the conversation is enough to catch the government and other entities’ attention. They can see that, 'Hey, people are interested in solar. Why, and what can we do about it?'" She added.
In terms of proactive ways in which they support sustainability causes, Frances mentioned that she has a team of moderators that help her filter through the posts. She cited an example of how there was a time when bidets were trending and how they had to minimize the conversation about it as it went against water conservation.
She also cited how she has a moderator assigned as a science communicator who informs the community about valuable information like how Mahogany is vulnerable to extinction so they should avoid the use of Mahogony wood as furniture options.
Frances, with the help of her team, wants to prove that these little actions can eventually make big waves, especially within a community that’s centered on sharing and conversations.
Home Tips from Mayora Frances
Considering we’d already sat down with the Mayora herself, we thought we shouldn’t waste the opportunity to ask her some of our questions on home ownership and interior design.
Here’s what Frances had to say on making space, personalizing your living space, and the best advice she has gotten as a first-time homeowner.
What are your top two space-saving tips?
The very first one that I always tell is to tear down all the walls or tear down as many walls as you can. *laughs* An open space layout makes [the room] bigger and also allows for more air flow, more light, and it's just easier to move things around because when you have a small space, you have to think about how everything will have to move around because it depends on what you need.
My second tip would be to invest in dual purpose things. For example, my oven is also an air fryer and a microwave oven in one!
Best advice you’ve gotten when it comes to designing your own space?
Don't design your house right away. Live in the house first, even if it's empty, because when you stay there, you will realize what you need, and where you gravitate towards the most.
Do you hang out by the window? Do you hang out more by the kitchen? Understand your flow in the house, what you actually need to do at home, what actually gives you joy or comfort, then you can design after that.
So, for me I've had this home for five years, but the first three years, I lived in how it was turned over. I started the actual renovations on the fourth year, because by then I was already sure of how I want the layout to be, and that's the most important thing. So, take it slow. Don't be in a rush and just expect that things will change. Do not be attached to your material things. Your preferences and needs will change, so just be mindful of that.
And what would be your advice for prospective and new homeowners?
For those trying to buy a house, my advice would be do it now. Do it as early as you can. Because property appreciation increases so fast, not just in the Philippines, but anywhere in the world, so if you get it now, you lock in this price and then you get to pay it in five to ten years. During that time your salary will increase, your life will be better, and so the best time to invest is now.
For people who have already purchased their homes and are trying to move in as a first-time homeowner, my suggestion would be: do not follow trends. Sure, you can look at what's trendy, what's on Pinterest, or what's in magazines, but your home will be a long-term thing, so you shouldn't just rely on what's trendy for the year. It should be what's trendy for you as a person. That's what should guide how your house should look.
For those who haven’t joined yet, why should they be a part of Home Buddies?
I would invite them to join because it's where you can find inspiration to achieve your dream home. It doesn't matter what stage you are in, whether you already have your home and you want to prettify it or you don't have a home yet but want to own one; or maybe you already have lived in your home and you're having little or big problems, all the answers that you're trying to look for is in Home Buddies and it's real time reviews and suggestions.
Whatever you find on Google, sometimes they're like a year old or posted months ago, but products change, and situations change. In Home Buddies, when you post today, you get a suggestion that is good for today. So that's the difference, I guess, of being in a community.
For updates and suggestions on how to achieve your dream space, join Home Buddies on Facebook. You can also follow Frances Cabatuando on Instagram to learn more about her personal design preferences that could possibly inspire your home projects!
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