Hi Friends! It’s been a little while! I realized when catching up with some friends I hadn’t seen in a while that I’ve neglected sharing StyleMutt Home design work on here in a big way! I have to be honest, if I don’t have a final reveal to share with you guys, I don’t really know what to share. The truth is I am up to my ears in design projects but have very little hope of seeing many, if any, of the jobs completed. For one thing, many clients are not local. This presents the hurdle of coordinating travel, (and paying for it), to go take pictures of any projects that are actually completed according to the design plan. The design plan is another hurdle! Even when I deliver a design within the clients budget, with all the tools to make purchasing the items a cinch and an annotated floorplan indicating where every single item goes, many jobs don’t get completed exactly according to the vision. And as a homeowner I TOTALLY get it. Financial ‘surprises’ come up and sometimes the budget you had for fun stuff, (think art, pillows, a pretty rug or lamp), goes to not-so-fun stuff. This is the number one reason why more jobs don’t ever make it on here, and even though I absolutely understand it as a homeowner myself, it’s a tough reality to face.

This is, indeed, a creative job. It’s a profession that attracts creative personalities! Creativity has always been a part of my life in a very tangible way, and my favorite part of the creative process has been seeing a vision come to life. It just so happens that in this particular creative field of work, I very rarely see the vision come to life. I’m working on some ideas to improve the process, but I have had to really come to terms with that and press forward with my best effort. While this has been an unexpected challenge, I am so incredibly grateful that I have the opportunity to work and make some income on such a flexible schedule. I feel like I am able to be ‘all in’ with my kids and be available and present in their lives, and I am able to work around our family time. What a gift!!! So, despite some unexpected challenges with the job, it is still a dream come true.

And despite not getting to share as many finished projects with you as I would love, I’d like to make a better effort of sharing and celebrating project progress! I absolutely love putting design concepts together for our clients and since that’s what I am doing every week, I figured why not share them with you! So here we go; A quick breeze through of some recent design concepts that I’ve completed since New Years! For each project I create a design board that is more or less a ‘collage’ of the pieces that will fill the room, a floorplan that maps out where all the items will go, and a 3D rendering of the design as it would look in their own space. In addition to these, I also provide a complete shopping list that our clients can use to conveniently purchase through the pieces in the design. A single design project can take from two weeks to a year, depending on the scope of the job!

Project 1

Project goal: Transform the over crowded space with more comfortable pieces that will enable this basement to function as a lounge area, colorful play room, and small workspace.

Project 2

Project Goal: Use client’s existing sofa, rug and art to create a comfortable living room with surrounding pieces that still allow flow in this very narrow room.

Project 3

Project Goal: Create a modern, yet cozy formal living room suitable for entertaining.

Project 4

Project Goal: Work with the existing kitchen to blend the space in with the rest of the home - modern yet casual pieces that are warm and inviting.

Project 5

Project Goal: Create a very minimal yet warm formal dining space. Client needs space for their piano and favorite pieces of art.

Project 6

Project Goal: Transform this sunroom into a relaxed but chic office and lounge space. Specific request for asian inspired art, shelves for books, and a chaise lounge to read.

I have had such a blast with these projects over the past two months! In addition to starting these since we rang in the New Year, I also now have 4 additional projects that are on track to be completed this Spring. I’m feeling hopeful, guys! Fingers crossed there will be some really fun fresh design projects to share here soon! I do have a little refresh I worked on in our basement ready to share, so stay tuned!

Thank you all so much for stopping by!

@chelsea_stylemutthome for more!

I absolutely love playing with our home. It's a chance to try some different things and experiment. Playing around with arrangements, layout, colors, pattern, lighting, textures - it helps me learn in an environment where mistakes are accepted, and I can really get some experience under my belt.

But back to the mistakes. Our daughter, Shire's, room has probably been my greatest mistake yet. It's the smallest room in the house and when we moved her in here, I gave no thought to smart, functional space planning. I shifted things around on a whim, built her a bulky pallet bed platform, (leaving no under-bed storage), snagged a giant used wardrobe from Craigslist in mediocre condition, and called it good enough.

As the only girl under our roof, my heart went out to Shire. While she said she really liked her room, she never played in here. Not even once in a blue moon. Her dolls and doll clothes and puzzles were stashed messily in the wardrobe, (not pictured but just about 20" from the foot of her bed), and because the thing had become so disorganized she rarely opened it's doors, (which were hard to open anyhow because there was hardly any room left). After updating the boys' room when we bunked their beds, I saw how smart space planning really increased the use of their room for play time. Our three kids are all the same age so they naturally play with the same things and always together. It's hard to get alone time here; everyone's interested in the exact same things at the exact same times! This past summer it occurred to me that the kids bedrooms could be used for quiet, alone play time. And to get them that way they needed to be spatially planned better than they were.

So as soon as I was done with the boys' room, I turned my attention to Shire's. The mission was to spend nothing on her room makeover and this was the plan I designed on Olioboard:

The thing about a room makeover rather than a room design is that a makeover implies that you at least have existing stuff in a room. And the thing about having existing stuff is that you can either reuse it in a different way, or try to make a profit from it. And if you can make a profit from it, you've got yourself a little extra $ for your makeover! So up went the pallet bed and a few other things for sale, and with the money I invested in a few things I thought would really make this a special place for our girl.

A few players in the plan above include:
-Black twin metal bed frame from 9 by Novogratz

Sahaj Jute Curtains from World Market, (which would actually just be traveling across the hall from our room to hers)

Paint an unused bookshelf in our basement white, move it to her room

Move this painting by my grandmother above the bed

My goal has been to shop our house for pieces that make better sense for this room and use the extra cash from selling pieces we don't need on items that will compliment the room better. Aside from creating a room that makes better sense functionally and feels special to our Shire, the hope is to have a completely madeover space without spending a dime!

I've got a little ways to go and have deviated from the Olioboard design above just a bit, but will be coming back next week to reveal the full room makeover in it's entirety! Stay tuned, friends!

Thank you for stopping by!