ABOUT JUSTINA
Obsessed with color, plants, travel, creative reuse and thrifting, I’m a design maniac with a bohemian heart. Born in the Bay Area to hippi-lectual parents, I grew up eating carab and Tofutti, doing experimental art projects (emphasis on the mental) and raiding all of Berkeley’s Salvation Armies for clothes, dollhouse furniture and anything sparkly–it was, after all, the eighties. At age thirteen, my parents took me and my sibs on sabbatical to Switzerland for a year, where I learned the extremely useful language: Swiss German, and I caught a pretty serious travel bug. After high school I moved to Los Angeles to attend UCLA’s school of the Arts and to become a pop-star.
When I graduated from UCLA and still had not reached the Madonna level of pop-stardom that I had once imagined for myself–I moved to Italy to study design. While there, I launched a boutique, design collective, and a clothing label and worked with some of Italy’s most influential designers and brands including Fiorucci and A.N.G.E.L.O. My work was featured in Italian Vogue, Italian Glamour, and Velvet, Italia. I went on to co-author four design books published by Random House.
In 2008, after seven years abroad, I moved back to Los Angeles to convince my then-boyfriend and his cat to marry me. It worked (yippee!) We now have a baby girl, Ida, and we live in our jungalow near Downtown L.A. I currently work as a creative consultant, curator and stylist and my daily lifestyle blog inspires thousands of people everyday all over the world to add color, pattern and plants into their lives. With over 1.2 million followers on Pinterest and partnerships with brands ranging from Etsy to Martha Stewart and 1st Dibs, I may not be a pop-star, but I’m kinda rocking this whole designer thing.
ABOUT JUSTINA’S WORK
I like to mix things up. People hire me to decorate and style homes, shop, art-direct campaigns, catalogs and books, craft pretty stuff out of crazy materials, help promote brands I love and believe in, and curate art works and wares. If it’s creative, fun and fresh, chances are, you can hire me to help.
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Named one of the Best Home Decor Blogs by Refinery 29, Justina Blakeney Est. 1979 is a groundbreaking lifestyle blog where loyal readers get inspired by DIY projects, rants, plants, recipes and snapshots of my jungalow lifestyle in Los Angeles and beyond.
JUSTINA’S DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
I believe that good design increases quality of life. I believe in vintage, organic and handmade. I believe in the healing power of plants, good light and fresh air. I believe that objects carry the stories of their makers–so things that are made with love, care and good materials bring those qualities with them where-ever they go. I believe in recycling. I believe in diversity. I believe that design can save the world.
CONTRIBUTORS
Caitlin Levin is a New-York based chef and stylist. She cooks and styles the amazing recipes on the ‘Mangiona’ column. See more of her work at www.caitlinstyle.com.