Justina Blakeney - Jungalow: Decorate Wild

For Art

INTRODUCTION
WILD AT HEART

CHAPTER 1
MAGIC IN THE MIX

CHAPTER 2
WILD FOR COLOR

CHAPTER 3
WILD FOR PATTERN

CHAPTER 4
OUTSIDE INSIDE

CHAPTER 5
WILD IMAGINATION

When I started Jungalow, I had just moved into a 1920s bungalow court in Los Angeles, a type of multi-unit housing that surrounds a central courtyard. After ten years of living with the cobblestone and concrete of Florence and Brooklyn, front door access to a little bit of sunshine and greenery was a welcome change. I felt revived by the sight of fluttering butterflies, the sounds of singing birds, the scent of citrus trees, lavender, and rosemary, and the feel of the warm sun on my face as I sipped my morning chai on the front porch.

I invited these outdoor feelings inside my bungalow by bringing in bamboo shades, botanical wall coverings, and lots and lots of plants. I converted those five hundred square feet into a creative laboratory. It was the first time I ever lived alone, and I leaned into the freedom of having to make no compromises with parents, roommates, or boyfriends about design choices. I furnished it with reimagined curbside finds and embarked on a series of DIY projects that turned the space into a spiraling kaleidoscope of color and pattern. It was wild.

I started a blog to chronicle these creative adventures. I had no plan, just a yearning to create and share and connect. I blogged while doing any client work I could find, designing products and logos, building websites, and styling homes and boutiques.

My girlfriends and I were unwinding on my thrifted sofa after work one evening, and one of them remarked that my place looked like a jungle... a jungle bungalow, at which point all four of us shouted in unison, A jungalow! I love a good portmanteau, and it suggested a mix of comfort and adventure, outdoors and injust the feeling I wanted in my home.

Over the course of the next decade, what started out as a fun name for a botanical bungalow has grown into a lifestyle brand that draws inspiration from nature and celebrates diversity, color, pattern, plants, and creativity. For me, Jungalow represents the idea that a home is not just for living, but a place for creating and growing.

A home is like a garden. It must be cultivated to create the conditions for healthy growth. In this book, Im sharing the most inspiring work Ive had a hand in over the past decade, with the high hopes that it may move you to cultivate a home in which you can thrive, emotionally and creatively. Now, perhaps more than any other time in my life, home is so much more than a place to hold belongings and take shelter from the elements. Home is a sanctuary, a school, an office, a creative studio, a gym, a garden, a spa, a place to nourish the body, the soul, the mind, the heart. My aim is to connect you with your ownand your homespotential, to cultivate space in which you may grow and blossom, and to help you feel free to tap into your most wild self.

In , we mix things up by reaching into our roots. Like plants, we are all anchored and nourished by our roots. It is in discovering where I come from and who I am that I have learned that there is Magic in the Mix. What will you discover?

In , we clash and pair, forage and play, and go Wild for Color. Color is one of the greatest joys of life, and the most ubiquitous mood enhancer. Notice it! Appreciate it! Use it! Color transports, confounds, and moves. It inspires me to create. What does color do for you?

In , we go Wild for Pattern, gleaning inspiration from nature to make our own patterns and gaining confidence using pattern in home dcor. Have you ever walked into a garden, forest, or jungle and thought, Wow! Its so busy in here!! Yeah, me neither. On the contrary, the mix of patterns and colors inevitably feels coherent and balanced, calming even. Think of leopard spots, the stripes of a palm frond, or the ripples in a lakethere is something about the repetition, the rhythm, you know?

In , we bring the Outside Inside, exploring biophilia and the use of plants and natural materials in home dcor. Plants are living things, and to thrive indoors, they need sun, soil, and water. But are we not also living things? What do we need to bring indoors to be happy and thrive?

In , we explore creative reuse and reinvention. We look at everything as material. We go foraging at home and at flea markets and let loose our Wild Imagination.

Jungalow: Decorate Wild tells the story of my roots, rhythms, and ways of seeing the world. It is my sincere hope that this book inspires your own wild adventures in making a home that supports your imagination, well-being, and growth.

The bright colors of the zinnia flowers draw pollinators like bees and hummingbirds to a garden.

In the wild, plants send pollen grains to ride the water or wind, or develop flowers with the colors, fragrances, or nectars necessary to attract pollinatorsall in order to send their genes far afield to mix with one another. All sexually reproducing species go to great lengths to mix their genes as a way to survive shifting environmental conditions. Over time, new species evolve, and the result is the vast array of living organisms we encounter on our planet. We humans are part of this story, of course, and there is a deep sense that our very existence as individuals and as a species is the result of putting a high value on genetic mixture and diversity. Mixing is magic.

Pieces from four continents come together in this eclectic entryway.

An example of a Japanese ukiyo-e print by Kitao Shigemasa. Van Gogh painted a study of this very print.

An African mask from the Fang people, similar to those Picasso saw in Paris before painting