It's a REAL treat to work with a client with similar design sensibilities. I mean, that’s gotta mean you’re doing something right, right? Your tribe is finding you. And you get to work with people that inspire your creativity.

This fall, I had the opportunity to develop a DIY nightstand tutorial for Apartment Therapy. Shortly after, a couple reached out to me hoping to get a customized a version of the tables that could work around two specific design elements:

The tables needed to be large enough to showcase a West Elm Pelle Table Lamp:

And they wanted a pop of color that played well with the West Elm Expressionist Printed Rug.

So with these specifications in mind, I rendered two options for them to consider - one with a teal accent color and one with an "inky" black.

And which color did they choose...?

Deep Breath by Behr Marque

Instead of painting the entire piece to match the rug, I proposed we just paint the inside to preserve their "airy" quality while giving the clients more versatility down the line if they ever got the itch to rearrange things.

I used the same materials as my original design for the rest of the build: blonde wood + camel leather straps but I did have to modify the proportions a little to accommodate their ideal dimensions.

To highlight the interior pop of color, I chose to style with warm earthy tones comprised of...

1) Terracotta touches (always)

2) A grouping of paintings

3) And a salvaged tree branch (ok, I pulled it off a sapling in the parking lot)

The happy clients picked up these custom orders this weekend and I'm happy to say they are already settled in their new home!

If you are interested in your own custom order, please contact me at cate@stylemutthome.com.

Before I go any further and you start jumping to nudist conclusions, just keep reading... It all started with a trip to my local ReStore where I scored some vintage metal finds: a task lamp and a two-drawer metal card catalog.

Neither were in great shape: the task lamp was an amputee without a base to stand on, one card catalog cabinet was two-toned and looked like it had heterochromia (a condition where your eyes are two different colors), and the other had hilariously uneven handles. I ended up only getting my blue-eyed/ green-eyed cabinet since something about it made me smile. And so I brought home more misfits to my island of misfit DIYs...

I'll have to save the lamps transformation for another post, but when I started on the card catalog, I knew I wanted to build a base for it and turn it into a table. And that's when I got naked...

Naked wood.

Was that anticlimactic for you? Well I am not sorry. I think a nude wood is totally worthy of a peep show ;) The days of our grandparents furniture modesty is over: you don't need to fill your home with dark and heavily shelacked finishes. That's right, the modern home has gone naked. There's something so simple and beautiful about light, unfinished, natural wood. Just look at these drool-worthy photos in the raw:

I mean, how tantelizingly neutral is all that nakedness?!

I fashioned this beautifully minimal base from a couple of unfinished square dowels. I was actually planing on staining the wood base until I got it all assembled and realized the natural blonde pulled out the bleached labels in the original drawer pulls - I just love how it makes that mysterious handwriting pop!

Someone may find the mis-matched drawers to be a draw back, but I find it beautiful and quirky. Wherever you are drawers J-S and T-Z, I hope you look as cute at this guy!