Puni, owner of Puni Petals takes over the florist special of the week and she has something really special that makes her floral work outstanding. Puni Petals is a floral design studio located in Los Angeles that was founded in 2022 out of a small West Hollywood apartment. Puni, who was born and reared in Phuket, Thailand, studied for several years in New York before impulsively relocating to the West after graduation. Want to know more? Keep reading!
The Special Floral Soul of Puni of Puni Petals
To get a more complete background of the talented and delicate Puni, here are a few facts about her life and how her floral career was launched. Puni was born and raised in Phuket, Thailand, and immigrated to the United States in 2010. She recalls having always had a lifelong desire to create beauty and make people happy, whether it be through writing, cooking, or painting. She was born creative.
After she introduced herself in the flower world, serendipitously, her restlessness in all creative outlets culminated in an Instagram channel that started as a casual pursuit in floral design but blossomed into a journey for self-discovery and a flourishing business. She started dabbling in floral design in 2022, never dreaming that her little Mother's Day flower arrangement business out of her West Hollywood apartment would grow into Puni Petals, a flower shop that serves a who's who of famous clients, including Louboutin and Glossier.
Today she continues to be modest and appreciative of her supportive network of floral designers even though her creative ability and astute grasp of social media have allowed her business to grow beyond all expectations.
Climbing to the Top as a Floral Designer
As a girl with a million creative hobbies, this was the one that stuck and fitted perfectly with the lifestyle Puni wanted. She was working in social media and content creation but doing this on the side, giving herself $50/week to go to the DTLA Flower Market to buy and design arrangements. With some encouragement from some of her favorite florists, she started Puni Petals, putting photos of her work up on Instagram, thinking 'What the heck, why not?'
When there was interest enough that people wanted to pay real money for her floral work, she would wake up at 6 AM, go to the flower market, rush back to her apartment, process them, and hop on her first 8 AM stand-up meeting for her full-time job. Then, she would make her arrangements and deliver them during her lunch break.
This routine persisted for months, and she never, ever got bored, no matter how many early mornings she had to endure. The moral of the story seemed to be clear: Give yourself $50/week to consistently do something that speaks to your heart. After all, she wasn't going to that yoga class anyway, so why not use that money to expand her soul instead?
A Distinctive Style by Puni Petals
For Puni, it has been a road filled with adventures, learning, and creativity. She shares that she's still learning and growing every single time she designs. Although she doesn't know if she has a specific style yet, she does love a challenge and trying something new all the time. Puni is constantly inspired by things she sees, people she meets... literally anything, even vegetables these days are so exciting for her. Nowadays, she loves to play around with arrangements that include things she finds from the fresh market like long green beans, rambutan, starfruit, and other florals and faunas she doesn't often see in the USA.
Her Clients’ Desires and Wishes Are the Most Important for Puni
How does she approach working with clients to understand their vision and preferences for floral designs?
Puni says:
"I always make sure to listen to keywords that are thematic and pay attention to emotions that they want the design to illicit. It’s always fun and creatively challenging for me to approach things that way rather than having a prescriptive recipe or a strict style guide to emulate. I love thinking about concepts and trying to push to develop my style."
For the floral designer, balance is the word for her creations. She always advises us to think about balancing textures, shapes, and sizes. And above all, trust your gut! Go with what feels right and authentic to you, it comes out in your work and it is the secret sauce. To this day, Puni has worked with prestigious brands such as Christian Louboutin, Glossier, Crown Affair, Prada, White Fox Boutique, Summer Fridays, Tatcha Beauty, Glow Recipe, Vogue, Moschino, Rhode Skin, Nike, and RMS Beauty, among others.
All in all, Puni is undoubtedly in the ideal location to further her artistic endeavors. To check out more of her inspiring work, visit Puni Petals' Instagram and Puni's website.
Photos by @puni.petals.
