Feb 10, 2023 • PageFly Collaborator
Now that most of us are spending far more time at home, many of our apartments are getting old fast. If you’re looking to add something new to your home right now, consider making your purchase at a brand founded by a Black entrepreneur. Whether your walls need a fresh coat of paint, your old couch is due for an upgrade, or you’re looking for a new set of plates and glasses for the day you’re allowed to host a dinner party again, these Black-owned brands have got all your home decor needs covered.
Drawing on the eighteenth century french toile tradition, which depicted rural scenes in wallpaper patterns, Sheila Bridges created a gorgeous, subversive wall covering featuring images which, in Bridges' words, "lampoon some of the stereotypes deeply woven into the African American experience." Her design is critically acclaimed, housed in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s wallpaper collection and often exhibited in museums worldwide, from The Studio Museum in Harlem to the Musee De La Toile De Jouy in France. The design was originally only available as wallpaper, but is now sold on bedding, ceramics, and glassware.
Justina Blakeney started Junglaow as a blog, but her eye for aesthetics quickly led to the site’s evolution into a lifestyle brand. The online boutique sells basically everything you could possibly need to decorate a home: bedding, bath accessories, planters, glassware, plates, rugs, light fixtures, and more, from Jungalow’s in house line and carefully chosen outside brands. The website also curates a selection of prints by womxn artists. The company prioritizes sustainability by shipping in pre-used boxes, and working with vendors and suppliers that use natural, recycled, and compostable materials. For every purchase made at Jungalow, the company plants at least two trees.
Mitchell Black is a Chicago-based wallpaper brand offering permanent and removable versions of their vibrant, colorful designs. Their ‘Bohemian Bungalow’ collection offers a variety of nature-inspired patterns: ferns in deep indigo, a lotus pattern in metallic gold, and an art deco take on palm fronds. The brand also sells photographic wallpapers: bright and invigorating coastal images like ocean swimmers and beach umbrellas from a bird’s eye view.
Nicole Gibbons thought paint shopping was a hassle-filled, overly long process, so she decided to create Clare as a one-stop shop for indoor paint, with a pared-down collection of 56 colors you can order online. The website offers an interactive feature called Color Genius that suggests colors based on your furniture and space. Their swatches are peel and stick, so you can easily imagine the colors on your walls, and don’t have to deal with paint chips. To top it all off, Clare paints are sustainable, free of toxic carbon-based solvents and manufactured through a Greenguard Gold certified process, which means they meet rigorous standards for emissions.
Caitlin Ellen and Phantila Phataraprasit couldn’t find a chic, eco-conscious couch at an affordable price, so they made their own, founding a company to offer other people the furniture they’d been dreaming of. Sabai couches and pillows are sustainable, affordable, customizable, and of course, beautiful. Made of fabrics that come from natural fibers and recycled water bottles and manufactured in High Point, North Carolina, their sofas are not just sustainable, but also easy to assemble, stain-resistant, and soft.
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