Lita and Matt Bondlow of Bali Bungalow in Stonington Create a Very Zen, Very Sustainable Lifestyle

When Lita and Matt Bondlow started importing textiles and pillows from Bali, a province of Indonesia, back in 2018, they had a vision of bringing the  nest sustainable products from Lita’s homeland to the States. However, they likely didn’t realize that a few years later their line would grow to furniture, textiles, lighting, and more which now graces homes and restaurants across the country.

Located in Southeast Asia, Indonesia is the fourth largest country by population, over 275,000,000 people. As the largest archipelagic state in the world Indonesia also boasts over 17,000 islands including the five largest islands of Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua New Guinea. The country is culturally and ethnically diverse yet is also home to vast wilderness and supports one of the world’s highest levels of biodiversity.

As such, nature is a guiding force throughout the islands. Lita notes that, “The people respect nature. Nature is their God. They lay daily offerings of incense, rice. flowers, depending on the day.” For the Balinese, this reverence for nature comes through in their art, their paintings, and in their furniture making.

In towns across Bali, just o the coast of East Java, artists work in rustic spaces. Their hands deftly weave, shape, and create their iconic furniture of teak, rattan, and bamboo with a craftsmanship handed down over generations. Every piece of furniture is an expression of using what nature has given them.  is cycle of virtue as beautiful décor inspired Lita and Matt to slowly build their business, eventually forming Bali Bungalow in 2020.

A range of Bali Bungalow products

From the beginning, Lita and Matt chose to partner with a select few family businesses to create their bespoke collection of the highest quality tables, chairs, lamps, sofas, textiles, and more. Everything they offer is hand made by artisans, resourced locally, and importantly, 100% sustainable. Even the shipping containers are made of wood and filled with paper, not plastic insulation. They then recycle the paper to ship products directly to customers.

Matt explains the value further, “The furniture industry in the US is like the clothing industry. It is completely unsustainable. They're using materials that are polyester, synthetic. They're just not good for the environment and they're using machines to put them together. Hands are not putting these things together. People that are buying from these different big companies are not getting sustainably sourced materials or furniture.” “You get a lower grade,” emphasizes Lita.

Craftsmanship is the word the couple uses at Bali Bungalow. Matt adds, “It’s indigenous talent handed down for generations. This is their culture, really. Everybody in Bali has an art that they do. And each village is different. One is metals, one is stone carvings and then in some sections of Bali, it's just furniture. All handmade teak.”

Lita says, “My family's is in Indonesia, and we do our own sourcing. Every time we visit, we explore new suppliers. We handpick pretty much everything you see here in the showroom. And we know where to go. If you ask a table guy to make a chair, he’s not going to be able to do it.” When reviewing suppliers, Matt says, “It’s all about the highest quality, period, made from sustainably sourced forests.” And the couple is making them even more sustainable. While every tree taken down may produce as many as ten chairs, they plant three trees for every chair sold. In addition, they’re giving back through the One Tree Planted organization (onetreeplanted.org) every month as well.

While Bali Bugalow has evolved organically, in retrospect it seems Lita and Matt have been moving towards this business and this existence their whole lives. Both exude a Zen happiness and energy that is indeed infectious.

Lita grew up in Jember, in East Java, a “small” city of 1,000,000 people, surrounded by the nature and the products she now sells. “I think with our backgrounds, now it makes sense to look back. I have a degree in tourism and hospitality. I spent eight years in the hotel industry and eight years in real estate. I think I've seen enough hotels and airbnb’s for a lifetime!” Lita says, “And I think I always had a fascination with décor. In college, during holidays, I helped out a friend of mine in Bali, who had an export business. She used to export for Pier One.”

Fabel deck in Miami. 

Matt on the other hand grew up in Darien, Connecticut. His father was the publisher of House & Garden Magazine. Even as a young boy Matt recalls poring through every issue of the magazine, slowly absorbing a love for design and quality. He recalls, “My mom was an interior designer when I was growing up. I didn't realize that I loved it so much and actually had an eye for it because I just grew up reading the magazines, and then later I did theater and lighting design. Coming into the showroom and knowing where to put the lights and create the ambience was a natural thing.” Interestingly, Matt is currently an editor at Scientific American.

Their journey started in late 2018 on one of their regular trips to Bali. Matt says, “We came across this store that had some furniture and throws and pillows and cool decorative stuff and we literally went in and met the owner. We saw these beautiful things, and we thought we could sell them back in New York. We ordered a whole bunch, shipped them to our apartment on the Upper West side and then started going to flea markets in Brooklyn.”

Lita notes, “We started doing Instagram posts in 2019 when we only had throws, pillow covers, and pendants. We got more interest and started really selling nationwide, during the pandemic, shortly after we launched our furniture line.”

The furniture line came about organically as well. “We designed a funky, little sign and we put all of our stuff out. People loved everything we offered and then someone would come along and buy a whole bunch of stuff. We realized these purchases are quick and people seem to gravitate towards wanting a few items, not just one. So that was kind of a trigger for us that we could really sell these products in this market. Then we met a designer in New York, and she had a client that was looking for chairs. And in the summer of 2020, we ordered the chairs. We had a bunch of crates show up, delivered them ourselves in a van up to Westchester County and that's really how it all got started.”

Like so many others, in 2020 the pandemic pushed the couple out of NYC. Originally considering the Hudson Valley, they decided to settle in Lyme in July 2020. They looked around for a retail space in the area which eventually led them to the Velvet Mill in Stonington in December. First opening a small studio, then after getting their first design commission, they jumped to add a beautiful showroom next door in September 2021.

“It's been great, but really a lot of it's trying to give back to the community in Indonesia and all of these mom-and-pop shops, these small operations that create handmade beautiful furniture and decor. That’s a major part of our inspiration.” —Matt Bondlow

Craftsmen in Bali hand-make every product offered by Bali Bungalow to meticulous standards

They note that, “And the funny part about being in this space now, with its white brick walls, is when we were in our 400 square foot apartment on the Upper West side, we bought a fake white brick wall to do photo shoots with our products to send to people and our website and Instagram, but that was kind of the beginning of where we saw this.”

Today the business is multi-pronged and growing – about 80% of the business comes from online and restaurant sales with 20% coming from showroom sales. Many of the new products for restaurants are now designed by Lita.

One of their first projects was a restaurant called Cala at the Senna House Scottsdale, by Hilton. In addition, they have completed many small restaurants across the country in Austin, Miami, Washington DC, and of course New York.

Matt notes that, “What's cool about the restaurants, everybody's been very happy. I mean all of our furniture is commercial grade. This stuff is not going to break. You can spill even wine on it. Structural integrity is how they build everything from the base up. It's steady level, nothing rocks. We've never gotten a chair where one leg is longer than the other. Lita adds that,” They always put the chairs on a piece of glass to make sure they’re level.”

There are two big restaurant projects Lita and Matt are excited about now. The first, Fabel, has just opened in Miami’s Wynwood district. The entire 10,000 square foot restaurant is all Bali Bungalow, including pieces designed by Lita. What differentiates Bali is “being able to customize a lot of things customers are looking for,” says Lita. Bali is providing everything for the new restaurant. “All the chairs, all the tables, all the pendants, and decor. We're even doing roofing. They’re one-foot squares. Hand woven rattan. Roof squares that they're bunching together as shade areas over the lounge areas,” says Matt. “We’re also doing a bar cart with giant wheels, like an old wagon wheel.” They even delivered on a unique order of nine, eight-foot diameter pendant lights, all within a month.

Next is a new restaurant, Ma•dé, coming in early 2023 in New York City by Cedric Vongerichten (yes, son of Jean-Georges). Cedric already owns an Indonesian restaurant in Nolita called Wayan, among others in New York and Jakarta. Interestingly, Cedric is originally from Thailand and his wife Ochi is from Indonesia so one would think the sensibility of the products speaks naturally to them.

What comes next? Naturally, as Lita puts it, “I think the bottom line is about giving back to the community.” Matt expands, “Lita wants long term to have a greater presence in Bali and to give more back in Bali. We have a few ideas, but one of them is to create a place where children could go to read and learn for free. Obviously like a library if you'd like for children.”

Reflecting on their entire approach, Matt says, “Giving is living, that's our motto, and so the more we can give back to the community the better.” Their lives and their business are now intertwined in a perfect trifecta – earning a living doing something they love, creating a sustainable business model, and importantly giving back to the communities and artisans that make it all possible. Don’t we all wish for that?

• Bali Bungalow is at 22 Bayview in Stonington.
  bali-bungalow.com
  @balibungalow