Known to friends as MJ, Mary Justice is a designer, writer, explorer and artist with an insatiable appetite for culture and beauty. MJ has spent the last 32 years in Asia and now commutes between Bali, Indonesia and the States.

MJ is the founder of US-based Mary Justice Designs LLC, but it was Indonesia that inspired her vision for the future of high-end decorative art. 

MJ many gifts developed in childhood. Her grandmother and namesake “Mary Justice” King collected Louis XIV in her Regency townhouse in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia, where gracious entertaining, as well as a sense of decorum while having lots of fun, was a way of life. 

MJ spent part of her youth living in London where her mother Judy’s business was born, King- Thomasson Antiques specialising in 17th and 18th century English Country Furniture and accessories.

“Before long every surface of our Chelsea home was filled to the brim with lustreware jugs, Mason’s ironstone, bible boxes, Windsor chairs, and cricket tables so much so there wasn’t room to move. But move we did and back to Texas where my mother began a long and lauded career as an expert in her field.”

MJ’s geologist father, a collector of Pre-Columbian fine art, regularly took his family to archaeological sites, where she developed a deep sense of cultural awareness.

MJ earned a BA in communications at George Washington University and a London Fine Art’s Degree in European and Fine Decorative Arts from Christie’s.

MJ’s first job was as an assistant producer for a PBS documentary entitled Fresh Paint –The Houston School. Soon after this aired, she moved to an NBC affiliate in Houston, Texas and then to Hong Kong where she joined the NBC News bureau.

MJ’s move to Bali after “17 glorious years in Hong Kong”, saw her fall irrevocably in love with Indonesia. She is artistically inspired by the astonishing beauty and gentle lifestyle – a far cry from her former hectic city life. “Everyone in Indonesia is an artist of some description, a painter, a dancer, a woodcarver, a puppeteer, it’s a part of their culture, and it’s forever fascinating.”

MJ, for the last decade and a half, has continued travel writing, as the resident editor for Luxe City Guides (www.luxecityguides.com) as well as writing the first edition of the Frommer’s Guide to Bali and Lombok. 

MJ now offers an incredible line of finely crafted, exquisitely painted, and deeply researched fine art as furniture. Dive into the website to admire and enjoy these treasures before purchasing one or more to enhance and deepen the glory of your own home.