The Jungalow by the River in House Beautiful Magazine

I met Sophie Donalson for the first time last year. She’s the new Editor in Chief at House Beautiful Magazine (she’s been there about a year) and she’s just one of the coolest ladies out there. We kinda became instant-homies after our first hang sesh. So much so that by the second time we hung out, we were sharing a fruit cup post jacuzzi at the Korean spa. Good stuff.

When she told me that House Beautiful wanted to feature the Jungalow in their small spaces issue I FREAKED OUT for a number of reasons:

1.) House Beautiful is one of my very favorite magazines. I don’t save a lot of magazines (I’m a sheet tearer…), but I have every issue from the past five or so years neatly squared away in magazine boxes and I often refer back to them for both research and inspiration. The idea that our home would be among the few highlighted in each issue, well that was very exciting, and flattering, and trippy.

2.)  In January when we agreed to the shoot (which was to take place in March) our home was only half way finished. We had completed the kitchen remodel, but the rest of the house was bad (like popcorn ceilings, mousy brown carpets, vanity in the bedroom bad) and we’d have only two months to get everything ready. In case you need a refresher — our master bedroom looked like this:

Yeah. Not muy bonito. So we had to see if our amazing contractor, Golan, was even up to the task of helping complete the remodel of the master bedroom and bath in six weeks start to finish. Not only that but we also had to see if we could even afford to remodel the second part of the house right on the heels of our other remodel and the holidays etc. etc. It was a lot to take in.

3. Lastly (and this was a big one for me) — I wouldn’t be allowed to share images of our home (besides what was already floating around the web) online until after the issue came out. Now, as you may imagine, this would take some serious abstinence on my part. I would have to go six months without using my home for blog/social media content or sharing the exciting remodeling processes etc. As a home decor blogger, this felt like a big risk.

I was quite torn about it all until Kim, my manager/agent/friend person told me point blank “Justina, this is House Beautiful. This is the holy grail in this business. Figure it out. Put it on credit cards if you have to. Make it work.”

Yesss! Go Kim! I love it when she puts me in check like that. So we did, we made it work. And now it’s out. And I love our house. And I’m pretty friggen excited the whole situation.

And just because if I wait any longer I may explode, here is a couple of shots of our bedroom, as it looks now, as shot by David Tsay for House Beautiful.

Tomorrow I’ll break this room down for you. But for now, go and click over to check out the whole Jungalow By The River in House Beautiful online, and pick up a copy of stands (quick, before my Mother in Law buys them all!!). ;-) Also, I’m taking over the HB Instagram today so be sure to follow along there too. And in case you’re wondering, the wall with the French doors in the top ‘after’ photo is the same wall with the air-conditioner unit in the ‘before’ pics — but more on that mañana. I can’t wait.

xx
~J

‘After’ photos by David Tsay for House Beautiful

from The Jungalow http://ift.tt/29nugyv