490. Decorate Wild

BROWDERBOOKS

In spite of the pandemic, a lot is happening.

• My nonfiction title No Place for Normal: New York / Stories from the Most Exciting City in the World, will be available from Indies Unlimited for $14.95 for the month of January.
• Starting tomorrow, January 4, my current nonfiction title, New Yorkers: A Feisty People Who Will Unsettle, Madden, Amuse and Astonish You, will be on a virtual blog tour.
• Since the original publisher didn't renew our contract and no longer sells the book, I have decided to myself publish a second edition of my other nonfiction title, Fascinating New Yorkers: Power freaks, Mobsters, Liberated Women, Creators, Queers and Crazies.  It got good reviews; I don't want it to get lost.
• My next novel, Forbidden Brownstones, should be released this month.  I'll announce it in a media release.

                    DECORATE  WILD

Her hair falls to her bosom in a tangled black Niagara of curls, framing a face with black crescent eyebrows and a toothy grin so hearty it could shatter glass.  Her turquoise dress has a plunging neckline that stops just short of cleavage, over an ample bosom that, like all of her, bursts with life.  

Who?  Justina Blackeney, a home decor guru who merits a full-page spread in the Business Section of the New York Times of Sunday, December 27, 2020.  I rarely glance at this section’s coverage of bosses, so what drew me to her?  That tangle of hair and that ferocious grin, followed up by her wild ideas of home design.  She is special, unique -- a force of nature.

And what are her ideas?

• Good vibes and thoughtful intentions
• Lots and lots of plants
• Vibrant splashes of color
• Mix-and-match layers of punchy patterns
• Nods to nature

“Your home is not a static place,” she preaches.  “Your home needs to grow and change as you grow and change.”  And in view of the pandemic, she adds, people are spending more time than ever at home.  

In April her third book will appear: Jungalow: Decorate Wild. “Jungalow” is her lifestyle brand, which features throw pillows, wallpaper, loungewear, and accessories.  At a dynamic 41, Ms. Blackeney, I suspect, can throw a pillow with gusto, and her wallpaper probably leaps off the wall.  She radiates energy, explodes it.

Here are some of the ways she spends her time:

• Soaks in her Jacuzzi at 7 a.m. (“a cleansing experience”)
• Takes an 8 a.m. bike ride with her 9-year-old daughter to get coffee and pastries for breakfast at home
• Holds a ZOOM session to review the set design for a coming photo shoot
• Publishes her latest blog post
• Brainstorms with colleagues to find new rug design ideas
• Meets gardeners at her new house to walk through new garden systems
• Hears details from her marketing team of the first Jungalow Holiday Treasure Hunt
• Participates in an obligatory sexual harassment training for all her team.

So her week goes.  Busy, busy, busy.  She thrives on it, then relaxes in her Jacuzzi.

So have the ideas of this home style expert levitated me?  Maybe, just a bit.  For years I kept packed away in a suitcase a Mexican serape brought to me by a friend.  I was fearful of its bright, eye-smashing colors, seemingly suitable only for a sun-drenched patio.  My apartment gets sun, but alas, it has no such patio.  Dare I bring it out anyway?  “Live dangerously,” I tell myself.  “Decorate wild.”  And this at the onset of winter, a season that encourages somber, dark colors.  Dare I?  At the thought of it, a tingle of excitement races through me.  Can one resist a force of nature?  I ponder.

As for plants, I have four hearty sun-sucking cacti in the window, plus seven smaller ones renewed over the years from clipped and planted shoots from their aging predecessors.  Green and prickly, but no bright colors.  Should I add some splashy, color-rich plants?  This too I must ponder.

“Mix-and-match layers of punchy patterns.”  Sounds messy.  This one I'll pass over.

“Nods to nature.”  Not sure what this means.  Plants?  I’ve covered that.  Photos?  Spoils from previous nature walks?  Or maybe a Jacuzzi.  This too I must ponder. (Which makes for a lot of pondering.)

Clearly, Ms. Blackeney has sunk her home-design fangs deep into my psyche, nudging me toward gaudying up my somewhat drab apartment.  But is it really that drab?  Have I really grown and changed lately, so that my apartment needs to grow and change with me?  

Decorate wild.  An exciting, disturbing thought.  Am I on the verge of a splashy breakthrough, a revolution in my daily living?  Stay tuned.

Source note:  This post was inspired by "Design That Adds a Sense of Belonging," the article cited above in the New York Times of Sunday, December 27, 2020.