I’ve been house hunting. I know I’m not alone—favorite a house on an app like RedFin and you’ll no doubt be alerted that house has gone under contract within, like, a day. So I tell myself I have to approach this new process with some patience, but I know myself better—that one-track mind obsession is in full effect.
While I make an attempt at this whole having patience thing, I’ve let my mind run wild with the possibilities. I’ve come to realize that I’ve essentially been building my sanctuary—a place that brings calm, a sense of well-being and safety, and, of course, one that’s nice to look at. If you’re like me and have yet to carve out your own slice of home paradise, maybe this sounds familiar—we’re all searching, if not literally, then at least in our minds.
And sure, I desire a lovely home to weather whatever may come, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a pretty specific checklist. But all I can think about right now is the backyard.
A place that offers our own personal slice of nature. Space to run, where the sky stretches wide above and the stars sparkle at night. A place where my kid can someday set up a tent (between her parents it might be the only camping she does) or run through a sprinkler the way I used to. As for me, I want a garden. To work away at in the sun, to harvest vegetables in the fall, to sit and read in while listening to the songs of the birds.
Not just any garden—an immaculately groomed isle of super blooms and weeping trees, curtains of vinery, and maybe even a hedge maze. OK, I’ve been reading too many books set in Charleston, S.C. The series I’m reading paints quite a picture of its flora and fauna.
I don’t have what it takes to craft such a landscape on my own, so managing expectations should be essential here, but a peep at some of these jewels from Bea Bongiasca has only helped my imagination to run even wilder.
Bea Bongiasca has been a JCK editor favorite since the brand’s inception in 2016—both Emili Vesilind and Amy Elliott have reported on her creations—and so it’s my turn to fall under the colorful spell of the relatively new Italian designer.
Her signature creations mimic the curling tendrils and climbing vines I envision for my outdoor fortress of nature. There are elements of the garden in more than one of Bongiasca’s collections: Floricultural, inspired by the secret language of flowers; Happy-Go-Cola, with its effervescent flowers and gemstones; and perhaps the brand’s most popular collection, You’re So Vine. The latter is an extension of the brand’s Floricultural line, embellished with brightly colored gemstones and electric enamel. On Instagram you’ve no doubt seen the rings adorning the hands of our industry friends, winding around the finger like a vine does a tree. The result is a splashy look that can’t be denied.
But I feel a special kinship to the earrings in particular, a pull that complements the images of my garden-to-be. Their larger size lends more space for extra-winding lines and shapes, loop-de-looping, squiggling, and swooping. Styles range from flower-power-esque hoops and supersized, triple-tier danglers to the more demure (but no less interesting) circle earrings meant to look like a single curling tendril.
While I may have to wait for just the right moment (and perhaps a miracle) to cultivate my own secret garden, these not-so-secret styles that excite and soothe simultaneously are available now.
Top: Single curl Vine earrings in 9k rose gold with enamel, price on request
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