In their annual visits to Indonesia, wife and husband Lita and Matt Bondlow were struck by the craftsmanship of handmade furniture in Lita’s home country and how it contrasts the mass-produced products that tend to populate homes in the United States.
This divide sparked their vision for Bali Bungalow LLC, a furniture and home décor business offering products exclusively sourced from small-shop artisans in Indonesia.
Through launching the business, named for the Indonesian island of Bali, the co-owners wanted to promote sustainable living in the U.S. while supporting small-shop artisans and highlighting Indonesian culture.
Bali Bungalow centers around “the craftsmanship of our artisans,” Lita Bondlow said. “They use traditional techniques that have been passed down for generations, and we try to encourage people to choose products well, products that will last a lifetime – not furniture that you throw out every year, or every other year.”
The Bondlows travel to Indonesia each year to visit Lita’s family, and while there, seek out local artisans who meet the business’s style, quality and sustainability standards. They typically work with six to 12 artisans to source their retail stock and facilitate custom commissions for their design and furnishing services.
The concept behind Bali Bungalow became a reality in 2019 when the Bondlows, who were living in New York City at the time, launched the business as an e-commerce store. After moving to Stonington, Conn., during the COVID-19 pandemic, they decided to open their first brick-and-mortar location in the town’s Velvet Mill shopping center, and in late June opened a second location in downtown Providence.
Expanding their retail locations has been a part of their business plan from the beginning, Matt Bondlow said, and while business remains strong at the Stonington location, they wanted to pursue an urban setting for their second storefront.
Providence has been “a really ideal location for us” in several ways, he said.
“We love the culture, the arts, that it’s a college town,” Bondlow continued, “and that you get people from Boston and Newport.”
The location is also commutable from Stonington, Bondlow added, where he and Lita continue to live as they commute between the two storefronts.
In addition to retail and e-commerce sales, Bali Bungalow also provides furniture and design services to commercial businesses such as restaurants and hotels.
These commercial projects comprise around 40% of the business’s revenue, compared with 60% from retail and e-commerce sales, and have so far taken place in other states throughout the U.S. But the co-owners hope to soon enter this market in Rhode Island and said that this side of the business has been growing toward matching retail operations this year.
Going beyond furniture, the business’s décor and home goods selection includes pottery, plates, silverware and fabrics. The range of products shares a common focus on natural materials such as ratan, wood, seagrass and cotton, Lita Bondlow said, and reflects the business’s emphasis on suitable practices.
In another green practice, the business works with One Tree Planted, a Vermont nonprofit, to plant three trees in Indonesia for every chair sold at Bali Bungalow.
