Matt + Chelsea's Christmas Home Part 2: Main Living Spaces

Back as promised with the second part of our holiday home tour! We sure do have fun decorating our home to celebrate this most special birthday, just as we do for one of our own family birthdays. This season, despite all it’s busy-ness, is covered in so much joy. I pray that you’re feeling it in some way.

On Wednesday I shared our bedrooms, so today please come on in and explore our main living spaces!

A few subtle and not so subtle additions in here this year - garland is easy but with such an open main living space now, I didn’t want to just drape it everywhere and overwhelm the space. I love it over our sliding glass doors and decided this would be it for garland this year. Just enough.

In such a shared space as this I am more aware than ever of any ‘excess’. For Christmas decorating this year we unpacked a lot from our Christmas boxes, but less than usual. I more just wanted the space to feel comfy and cozy for the family and guests over the holidays, so adding plush pillows on the dining chairs where we don’t usually have pillows and twinkly lights where we don’t usually have twinkly lights, have been subtle additions that add a lot of impact.

Our tree this year is small but mighty! For such a stout little thing it is happy, healthy and strong as an ox! Not a single dropped ornament and completely self sufficient. Last years tree, which we named Mariah Carey, was a regular diva, requiring us to anchor her to the wall because she couldn’t stand straight on her own, and her flimsy branches wouldn’t even support our homemade paper ornaments. In honor of our Mason’s favorite Eagles player, we’ll call this years tree Darren Sproles; a 5’6” pack of dynamo.

Our one of a kind Christmas tree skirt was a fun DIY a few years ago when I scored a 9x12 vintage rug for $20. It was a steel because the entire thing had been severed in half and then duct taped back together. (!!!) I used my old tree skirt as a template and cut out 6 tree skirts from the rug, (and a few coasters)!

Our kitchen is seeing a whole lot of action this season, wth weekly batches of pumpkin bread and hundreds of Christmas cookies, (I mean, you can’t just have 2 sandtarts in a sitting, people). I need to keep my counters somewhat open but a couple pretty plants and a wintry windowsill make it a very happy place to work and play, indeed!

Well there you have it! I hope you’ve enjoyed coming through; it’s so fun inviting you in every holiday season! This time of year comes with a lot of expectations that are hard to meet; but there is One we can count on each and every day, who came to triumph our despair and give us hope. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Thank you so much for coming by today and Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Shelf Styling ||Tips and Tricks||

Hi friends! Dropping by today to answer a couple questions we received last week on Instagram regarding shelf styling! In no way am I a pro or expert on such a science, (because that's what it feels like sometimes!), but through so much trial and error it's a task that feels much easier now than when I was first starting out. I guess we could part ways with the age old advice that practice makes perfect, but that's just outdated. Hah! (I kid. I like practice and enjoy sharing my finds through practice)

So here are some tips I've found helpful in the task of styling shelves. No big secrets or groundbreaking news here; just a few helpful tricks I've used to guide my way through styling a shelf, mantle, bookcase, or the like.

This was one of the first things I learned that made the biggest difference! Just because the surface space is there doesn't necessarily mean it needs to be filled with something. Don't be afraid of empty space. Pick a few things, spread them out, and allow the shelves to breath.

On shelves I plan to put a whole lot of the same thing on, like our basement built-in bookshelves, I try to mix up the heights. Whenever books are involved, I place taller books alongside shorter ones to give some variation and interest to the arrangement.

I recently saw someone post a photo on Instagram of their floor to ceiling buildtins, asking for help with the styling on the shelves. The first thing I noticed was that they seemed to have dark decorative pieces all on one side, and neutral/white pieces on the other. The balance was off just a bit. Once you have a few decorative objects, try making two separate piles that share some commonalities - similar sizes and similar color/saturation. If you have all your larger or darker items on one side, the balance will look off.

For our industrial shelves, I had a lot of space to work with and a lot of items to use! I knew I wanted my glass and books, and then I had an assortment of other items from around the house to fill in here and there. I started with my two groups - placing the glass up top and the books two shelves down, so that my most 'full' shelves weren't right near each other. Then I used a dark twiggy wreath and black framed feather to balance two dark things on either side of the same shelf. Not everyone likes perfect symmetry, so if you're going with an asymmetrical arrangement with different objects, you can still achieve a pleasing balance by strategically placing similar sized and colored pieces on each side.

Now, this one is completely a matter of personal opinion. :) I just love walking into a home and seeing personal keepsakes used to decorate the home. Family photos, favorite books, travel mementos, treasured family heirlooms. With today's access to big stores like HomeGoods, Target, Ikea, World Market, (to name a few), it's easy to do up your entire home without a single personal item out in the open. I'm up for a trip to any one of these stores any day of the week, don't get me wrong! But I always try to mix in some sentimental pieces with the new. It's what will set your home apart from anyone else's. 

In our living room I keep leather-bound photo albums on the rustic bakers rack. When I was young my favorite thing to do was curl up with one of our family photo albums. My Mom was so good about filling those albums and we had a dozen at least to flip through! I like mine out as an open invitation to grab one anytime.

Other trinkets on those shelves include the family home phone that used to be in my husband's grandparent's house, and the bottom of one of the green glass champagne bottles from my grandparent's wedding reception. It has their names and wedding date etched into the glass! 

Personal items are wonderful conversation starters and take a home from beautiful to warm and inviting as well.

I know none of these tips are brand new news, but I hope they're a helpful jumping off point if you're staring at some empty shelves wondering what to do! We've all been there - and I still am sometimes! If you've got any helpful styling tips to add, please jump in and share! Don't keep your tricks up your sleeve - get em' out!

As always, thank you so much for stopping by! We sure appreciate you. XO

Reader Design: Celeste's Home Away From Home

Well, well, well, what do we have here? It's Friday, so that only means one thing around these parts; it's Reader Design day! I don't know about you all, but I look forward to the week's Reader Design like a Christmas Day countdown. It's absolutely one of my favorite things here at StyleMutt Home!!! Know why? Because it's a fun opportunity to share YOUR unique style! With no requirements to be a professional decorator or even a fellow blogger, all are encouraged to share their style here! The purpose of Reader Designs is simply to share beautiful rooms with fresh ideas and document these features in our SPACES page as a source of inspiration! 

Coming all the way from Australia is a very inspirational Reader Design, indeed. Be warned, though; this one may cause the sudden urge to pick up the phone and give a far away loved one a call...

Celeste is a sweet friend via the great land of Instagram - you can check out her adventures @littlefrenchdiary!

From Celeste: 

" My husband and I are renting a little house in East Perth and I had a very hard time trying to get the look and atmosphere I wanted for the living room. But after one year of wondering, I finally got the feeling I wanted for that space. This space is full of photos. Being French, I am away from my homeland and I need to see the faces of my family and friends still around me."

"I didn't want to obstruct the space with too many photo frames. That's why I hung a string across two walls in the living room, where I can hang Polaroids. I love that little corner. I think it gives a certain fantasy to the room. "

A string of Polaroids, folks. Be still my heart!

Well hello there! 

"I also love having unique and vintage pieces around. For example, I found my old suitcase on the street, quite far away from our place. Someone wanted to get rid of it and I couldn't let that happen! It's now sitting proudly on my living room floor. I have "modern" objects on top of it, to break the look and create kind of a "old vs new" style."

What a cool tip! Tucking that one away, for sure!

"I would resume my style by... No style! I don't like sticking to one particular decoration style. I love to play around with objects, old and new. My living room represents the most of my house: full of little fun and cute objects, but in a very cozy and warm atmosphere. The bookshelf is one of my favourite pieces. I absolutely love it's look and the warm feeling it gives to the space. It has our parents wedding photos and ours on it, and a few of our wedding decorations."

This is just precious. 
Can we take one more look at those Polaroids?

This is just all kinds of good. Swooning...

Thank you so much, Celeste, for sharing your warm and cozy living room with us! Love all your sweet details that come together to create this one of a kind, and truly special space.

You guys know what to do now! Share your own room photos directly to our Facebook page or tag #stylemuttspaces on Instagram!

Have an awesome weekend, friends! Thank you so much for stopping by!