Gift Card Giveaway | Merry Christmas!

Hello there! We are just shy of one week out now, how’s everyone doing? Feeling good? Maybe a little panicked? Well take your mind off all there is to do, (for at least a few minutes), and let us do for you.

Tis the season to show our immeasurable appreciation to you for including StyleMutt Home in your time. It’s no small thing to get to share our work and lives here with you in this unique way, and the words of encouragement that you leave just warm our hearts. Cate picked two people to gift a cozy red Sherpa blanket and 3-in-1 pillow to just yesterday! Today I am excited to buddy up with a dear design pal, Abbie, to gift TWO $100 gift cards to her shop! Abbie sews the most beautiful pillows I ever did see, and that is no exaggeration.

An early Christmas present arrived when this vintage thai dyed hemp lumbar in olive green came earlier this month from Abbie. I love the raw texture, especially on my newly finished leather bench!

To enter to win a $100 gift card to Abbie’s shop we ask two simple things:
1) Please follow Abbie and myself on Instagram, (@anaberdesign and @chelsea_stylemutthome), and
2) Please comment here or on my Instagram post re the giveaway with either the best gift you’ve ever received, OR the best gift you’ve enjoyed giving.
We will pick two random winners on Friday morning, so you’ve got today and tomorrow!

Happy Christmas to you All! Thank you so much for stopping by!

Living Room for Life's Next Chapter

Hi Friends! Jumping on today to share a bit of transformation in our home, and in my heart. When we moved into this, (our first), house, Colin and Shire we're 10 months old and according to BabyCenter.com Mason was the size of a kumquat, whatever that is. I had one main objective - to prove that it's okay to not surrender your home just because you have children. If I'm being honest, that's really what was on my heart. Just being real here!

In the name of proving a point and being brave, I opted for white slipcovered furniture. White appealed for so many reasons - aesthetically it felt calming and airy to me, and I figured I could always use bleach when running them through the wash. So for the better part of a decade that's what we've had as our babes have grown into active big kids, now 8, 8, and almost 7. White stopped working for us over the last year or so; I'm sorry to say this if your kids are younger than ours, but big kids sweat! And then they start getting kinda stinky. And they flop their sweaty stinky bodies on the sofas when they come in tired from hours of outdoor play. And sure, if the sofas are slipcovered there's no permanent damage, but here's the thing: If you are in a stage of life where you need slipcovered furniture, chances are YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO WASH THEM. At least, that's been my perspective. So I had a decision to make - either forbid my precious family whom I share this house with to not sit on the furniture unless they're cleaned up, or find furniture that can be more easily cleaned.

Living Room one year ago

So despite my love for the white sofas and having a home that isn't just for the kids, I felt ready to jump in and embrace this new stage of life with older, sweatier, dirtier kids who are juuuuust starting to give off the first whiffs of BO. To be clear, I made this decision because I knew there was no way I could fully enjoy this new stage of life or my home with white sofas. That's me and my uptightness. Every person/family is different and there are certainly loads of people with white slipcovered sofas and kids and they're happy as clams because they're so laid back it's annoying. I wish that was me, but it's not. I've been ready to throw in the towel and tap out.

When I decided to part ways with slipcovered furniture I wanted something I could wipe clean, (leather), would get better with use, (leather), and had great reviews from others with a lot of activity in their home: This lead us to Article, and specifically, the Sven sofa!

This is not a 'which design is better' thing and I'm not making any case over visual appeal here. For us this is about maximum function in a house full of kids, many of which wander in from the neighborhood.

While we've only had the Sven sofa for a few weeks and I can't speak to the long-term quality just yet, (though the reviews were fantastic), we have been impressed with the comfort and durability thus far as our family has piled, (literally), on the piece numerous times since we unpacked it. I've already seen my kids fall asleep on it during our pre-bed reading time together and it's the first place they come in the morning to transition from sleep to awake.

A few more shots of the space show nothing else has changed. The ivory shag rug was an inexpensive Amazon find from Safavieh that has spoiled our feet all Winter long! It's SO thick and soft and when our new sofa is crowded, no one minds moving to the floor.

Even our chair is stain/smudge proof! That one wasn't intentional, though. After our very grown-up sofa purchase we didn't want to spend money on a new chair and this had been in the boys room for several years, (a $10 thrift store find that I got for free with customer loyalty points).

When I committed to embracing this next stage of life, I meant ALL. IN. We've got one learning how to play guitar, and we realized when it was in it's case put away he wasn't practicing much. The only solution I could think of was to get it out and seen; well guess what sound we wake up to now on Saturdays? All in.

Oh yea! Our new art :) After 15 Valentines Day's together, I think I got this year right; a canvas + a sharpie + my husband's favorite Philadelphia Eagles' trick play from the Super Bowl, the Philly Special. He's been running this play with the kids on the daily right here in the living room, so getting the play up on the wall just seemed right!

Thank you so much for coming by today! We sure appreciate you.

Simple Christmas Tour

Hello, hello! 'Tis the season for Christmas decorated home tours, and while it's been really fun to see how other friends have decorated their homes for the holiday season, I wasn't planning to share my own home until yesterday afternoon! We've enjoyed getting our Christmas decorations out as a family and setting up our tree and lights, but it's kind of been something I just wanted to enjoy with my family this year. It's easy to feel pulled in a lot of different directions during the holidays, and with our plates full of other really good things, this was one that I was planning to shed. I confided my conflict to Cate who wisely advised that if it doesn't bring me joy, then don't worry about it. And at that, I decided to whip up this post!

I don't share a lot about life behind the scenes of StyleMutt Home, (not as much, anyways). But it's moving forward at Polar Express speeds, (just like anyone's). The way I decorate our home is every bit a reflection of that passage of time, our growing children, myself. Our home has always been an extension of the character of our family and my personal development as a creative individual. The reason I enjoy documenting our home is the same reason I journal - to be able to look back and see growth and movement. So, despite the simplicity, it warms my heart to share our Christmas 2017 home with you, friends!

Notice the angel on the far left, with her nose in the air and arms crossed. No candle, baked good, seashell or wreath like the others....she's my favorite. Hah!!

Oh my goodness, I hope I can still remember in years to come how funny it was trying to figure out a layout this year! We are right smack in the middle of a sofa debacle that is a story for another day, but we figured things out by using only the chaise part of a massive sofa / chaise combo.

Our kitchen has seen A LOT of action lately now that we're in full swing holiday party season. Yup, lots of mediocre baking going on in here. If you like quantity over quality, I'm you're gal! Lol! Between the kids' classrooms and their various activities, it's been one party after another!

Shire's bedroom is pure Christmas magic to me. I find myself in here without any reason to be; it's just a happy place. The bedspread was from my grandparents' old lake house, and the mini tree is on loan from my sister. I love that Shire's room is a compilation of special memories, people and places.

Our bedroom is the last stop because the boys room is just done being photographed. It's a charming hot mess and I love it because I birthed them, but their door is officially closed to the public. :)  I enjoyed adding a tiny bit to our own bedroom, though, to make it special for the holidays! The bunch of boxwood was just the kind of small festive nod I was looking for for our room. It suits the simplicity of the space well and because there's not a lot going on, I feel like you really see it, you know? I often tell clients, the less there is, the more you see.

The only other impactful addition to the room is the kilim rug  covered bench at the end of the bed! Both the rug and the bench were found on a neighbors curb on trash day, so I brought both pieces home and turned them into one!

Well that's it! Thank you so very much for taking the time to come by. I hope you enjoy these days until Christmas and have peace about what is on your own plate. A bit of advice - no one else will really notice what you don't get done. As I walked into yet another children's holiday party last night for my son's cubscout pack, I placed my 4 dozen brownies on  table full of other various treats and thought to myself, no one would have noticed if I didn't bring these. Here's to shedding the excess so we can focus on the priorities.

Merry Christmas and God bless!