Lightened Up With Magic Linen

Spring is so close we can practically taste it! With the warmer temps already upon us it is the perfect time to lighten things up around the home. The easiest way to do this - textiles! We sure love the feel of soft velvet and fur over the colder months, but we can’t get far enough away when things start to warm up, (both of us style mutts happen to run hot)! Enter, linen.

We have the privilege of helping introduce a small, family run textiles company that prides itself in luxurious linen goods. Please meet Magic Linen - even a brief browse through their goods and we feel confident you’ll be as smitten as we are! With a couple quick swaps we’ve been able to transition our beds in preparation for the warmer months ahead. Take a look!

Funny thing - as our family has grown, so has the number of pillows on our bed! My minimalist lean is at odds with truly desiring a family home where our kids are invited to cuddle up for a Friday night movie or Saturday morning Sports Center. I had more pillows on this bed this past winter than ever before, and you know what? They got used hard! That was the whole point, after all. So when thinking about refreshing our bed for the next seasons, I felt compelled to retain the pillow count, even if my style preference is less.

A few extras that our kids can drag to the foot of the bed or the bench at the end doesn’t hurt one bit. And these feel so light and airy that I still get my visually lighter bed!

I already had the green linen duvet so all I really needed were a few pillow covers to replace the velvet and fur ones I’d had all winter. Aren’t those wood buttons sweet? Magic Linen sets itself apart by the details. (White pillow case)

(Natural and White Stripe pillow)

(Blue Lumbar pillow)

Across our bed I finally hung a family gallery wall that I started last October! I had those pictures taped there for months until I could find and save up for the right frames, (turns out the frames I wanted ended up only being $8.99 at Michaels). And with that, our bedroom feels fresh and ready for the reprieve from the steamy days ahead!

You know the best part about linen bedding? It can be wrinkled AND luxurious. Like unpacking your suitcase after a fabulous Greek vacation.

In our house, the bed is officially made for 30mins each day AT MOST. Caleb will only make it each night right before we get in it so that it’s perfectly smooth to settle into.

I wouldn’t mind starting each morning with the discipline to make our bed but honestly there’s no point because when we’re out of the house…

Our sunshine-loving pup will undoubtedly make himself comfortable no matter what state the bed is in (even curled up on the bare mattress in laundry day that hooligan).

Maybe it’s the dog with white fur or the fact that I love to accessorize our spaces with vibrant colors and warm tones, but I’ve always gravitated towards white or light bedding for our bedroom.

Plus a fluffy white bed gives me all the hotel feels…

I don’t even mind that our bed is perpetually unmade - somehow our new Magic Linen bedding makes it feel all the more inviting.

(White Linen Duvet Set)

There you have it! Couldn’t be happier with our Magic Linen bedding. If you’re in the market to refresh your own we suggest giving them a browse!

Cozied Master Bedroom

Creativity; Sometimes it’s inspired by a problem to be solved, sometimes it’s just inspired! This space has evolved over our 9 years in this home due to both. I would say it’s been one of the trickier spaces for me in our home, but a bedroom also offers the opportunity for a lot of low cost creativity. Six weeks ago this space wasn’t on my radar to do anything to; we are working on a bigger project in our living room, (coming VERY soon!), and with several large-scale design projects occupying upwards of 50 hours a week, I wasn’t looking to fill any remaining time. But when the opportunity to work with two of my favorite companies landed back-to-back, well, who am I to turn down a quick makeover?!

By quick, I don’t mean subtle. I really wanted to try a different look on in this room, and for the first time in a long time I did not draw up any sort of design plan. It was a feeling of warmth and coziness I was after and I pulled tangible elements together from there.

The process was made infinitely easier by Loloi Rugs where I found this plush ivory shag rug. The subtle pattern is perfect for my preferred simple bed.

While simple, this is my favorite bedding we have ever had. I knew I wanted an earthy green tone and had attempted to dye our white duvet using Rit Dye’s formula for Olive Branch. I had to double the recipe I found for such a large piece of fabric and it ended up much more kelly-green than I was hoping for. Cultiver Goods saved the day, though - their line of linen duvets come in the most beautiful colors all in the earthy undertone that I’m drawn to. Their ‘Olive’ set looks exactly as I had hoped when I had tried to dye my own. And bonus, it doesn’t have the telltale splotchy marks of a DIY dye job! Hah!

A more successful dye project in this space is the curtains! I risked perfectly good coffee and dyed our white linen curtains in a coffee bath. Super easy and no lingering coffee smell, either. I did both panels at the same time in a large plastic storage bin. I filled it most of the way with the hot bath water and then added 6 cups of black coffee. I stirred the coffee into the hot water and then added the curtains, submerging them all the way and then stirring off and on for about an hour. At one hour I pulled them out and rinsed them under cold water and dried in our drier! No dark spots or splotches - it really turned out so even!

Another fun DIY project in here was refinishing this cute antique rocker I found on Facebook Marketplace. Painting the detailed trim black gives it a modern touch but maintains its classic appeal.

The leather bench I made last year after crushing on it in this post by Cate! I can’t get over how scrumptious it looks against our Olive duvet.

Our previous bedside tables were vintage green metal filing cabinets that we mounted to the wall. I love green so very much and when I had this thought to do the olive green duvet, I knew the hunter green bedside tables would have to go. I found these walnut nightstands on Facebook Marketplace, (really my favorite online shopping destination these days), and I love how they tie in Matt’s walnut dresser and the platform bed, and allow my refinished ‘greige’ dresser to be the only black sheep. I don’t need a matching bedroom set, but I realized I had so many different colors, elements and finishes in the room that it felt a little hodge-podged. Tying 3 of the 4 furniture pieces together makes the space feel a bit more peaceful now that everything isn’t competing.

That mirror was a fun and final DIY to complete this space. I have been crushing hard on a similar mirror for over $400 from Anthropologie, so to make this one for $20 felt really good. Sharing how right here in a couple days, so stay tuned!

Final stop: unfinished gallery wall. I’m waiting until after this season of birthdays and holidays to get the frames, but in the mean time I couldn’t wait to get these printed moments up on our wall. I really try to show you our home as we live in it and the reality is we have unfinished projects peppered around. Like most everyone, we do what we can when we can and sometimes loose ends take a bit of time to tie up.

That’s it! This was such a fun transformation as it involved a couple new items, but a lot of found used pieces and DIY projects. Our home feels so much more personal to me when we can tackle some things ourselves, or recall the adventure of how we found a particular piece.

On that note, I’ll share how I made that raffia mirror later this week for anyone interested!

Thank you so much for stopping by!!

Design Reveal: Dani's Family Room

Well hello there! I feel like a gopher every time I pop my head up for a post - unexpected and out of the blue. Hah! Truth is, Cate and I have always put life and family before our little corner of the great web, and these last few months have been richly full to say the least!

With a few design projects wrapping up this month I am going to do my very best to share things as close to live time on here as possible, but if you want the full StyleMutt Home design experience, you may want to head over to Instagram if you aren’t on there already! That’s where projects end up first, (sometimes weeks before the blog), since it’s just so convenient to upload the photos, (with far less words, you’ll be glad to know hahaha)!

But for today, I hope you enjoy the first of several reveals coming up in rapid succession - starting with Dani Barbe’s family room! We have worked through this beautiful home for the past 2.5 years, room by room, and now we are done. Holy smokes!. I’ll save the master bedroom for early next week and then finish with one final full home tour so you can see the cohesiveness of the home as a whole.

So here we are, Dani’s comfy family room!

This space went from dark walls to light walls with dark furniture. It let’s the space pretend it’s cave-like without actually being a cave. While the rest of her home is light and bright, we went a touch moodier with this room, focusing on rich colors and bold contrast.

One of the first stops in the process was reorienting the room and moving the tv between the front two windows. This far wall was suddenly opened up and very, very blank! I absolutely did not want to add another furniture piece here just for the sake of filling space, and since Dani and her beau are seasoned globe trotters, I thought this space was the perfect opportunity to add some personal photos from their travels! This simple square grid of black and white iPhone photos framed in $15 IKEA frames might just be my favorite element in the room, (or tied with the chair…).

A framed port in Greece is a nod to the framed black and whites which were all taken in Greece. It’s a special place to this fun-loving couple and I wanted to tie it in someway that wasn’t screaming obvious. The pillows were all chosen intentionally to tie this room into the rest of the home, which I can’t wait to share in entirety next week!

Family rooms tend to get used hard in the very best way, which can sometimes result in style sacrifice. I totally get that. From personal experience, I get it. But I love that this space shows an alternative option - a comfy lounge space with durable pieces can also be beautiful. And there isn’t even that much going on! It’s my favorite kind of space; simple, comfortable, and interesting.

I had the pleasure of stealing Shire away from school to join me when I visited Dani’s home for the last time! We used to paint furniture in the garage together! Design is a different type of work but I have always treasured my kids’ being a part of things, however it suits their interest. And right now, missing school to join Momma totally suits her interest! Special thanks to Dani for taking these sweet pics during our time there.

If you stop by on Monday I’ll be sharing the full reveal of the master bedroom! Then I hear Cate has a little eye candy for you as well before I end this project with one final look-through. So bittersweet!

Thank you for stopping by, friends!