This week marks our 1 year anniversary as StyleMutt Home! How did that happen? Seriously. It went by so so fast. 365 days ago, when Chelsea and I first sat down to strategize about what we wanted for our little slice of eAuthorship, one of the main things we wanted to make our site about is supporting and advertising fellow small businesses. And what better way to support our DIY community than to introduce you lovely readers to a fellow local furniture flipper. Christy is a HS science teacher who's been excersizing her creative side by making decor magic in Falls Church, VA. We've invited her to share about some of her pieces that are currently for sale in the DC metro area:

From Christy:

Wednesday night is trash night in my neighborhood. And every once in a while my husband and I will make a date night of driving around looking for new projects. This desk didn’t disappoint!!

The top of the dresser had peeling veneer and the whole thing was stained a dark color straight out of the 80’s.

The top was a bit tough, having to fill in some missing veneer holes with wood filler. When my sander exposed some really cool grain, I tried to figure out how to show that off, and decided keeping the legs and drawers raw (but protected with some wax) would be really neat against a dark grey paint.

How cute is that cubby?!?

I was excited to dress up the cubby with some cool paper (any excuse to get fancy papers!), and I think that the vine detail on the handles adds a classy bit of whimsy. This thing is solid wood, and I can imagine will last for years to come!

Last June (2014) I visited a sweet gem of a place for the first time where items from gutted houses are brought there for resale. This orange door caught my eye, and I dragged it home to sit in our apartment and await inspiration. I knew I wanted it to become some sort of mudroom entry piece, but was struggling to decide what to put in the empty panes.

And so it sat, for one entire year. I had only been married for a couple months at that point, and we were learning to blend our lives in an apartment small enough it requires only one plug to reach every corner with your vacuum. So of course, the only place the door would fit meant we were within 15 feet of it at any time, trying to pretend it matched perfectly with the grey wall behind. My husband learned patience. I learned I have a focus problem as other projects floated in and out of our house. But finally a vision came! And it was time to get to work.

Been there Christy, been there [just ask Caleb]. ;)

I didn’t anticipate all the layers of paint love that had been put on that door. A couple hours of scraping turned into quite a few more hours when my sander didn’t have the gumption I had hoped it would. But after it got to an acceptable level, I threw on some grey chalk paint before the white to add some variation when sanding.

The trickiest part was cutting the chevron board pattern – beadboard proved to be the perfect way to create the effect, and (with the help of my dad and his circular saw) I got to nerd out with a protractor and metal ruler! Geometry class for the win!

The stain was created by mixing both grey and brown stain. I was really excited when both tones showed up on the wood! And my heart loves the little detail of the brass key hole! I have to admit that this is one of my favorite projects I’ve made. I debated keeping it, but as I truly have no space for it, I’m excited for it to become someone else’s favorite!

Dimensions: 31.75"W x 7.5"D x 79.25"H

Thank you Christy for sharing your many many talents with us and for being our first local showcase! Show her some love in the comments will you? If you are in or around Washington, DC and are interested in either of these pieces or a custom order like it, email Christy for more info and pricing!

And if you are also interested in also promoting your business to the StyleMutt community, then by all means let's chat about how to partner up!

Handsome Desk

Door-Turned-Mudroom