Dark Record Cabinet

So let me just start this post by saying this may be my last flip before baby H comes!  What-the-wha??? I can’t believe I’m saying that - is this really happening?!  I think she just heard me because she’s elbowing me right this very minute as if to say “Yes mom.  Ready-or-not here I come.”

Since it could take a while for me to get back in the workshop, I do hope this flip will suffice for a while.  Let’s meet this capsule project shall we? 

He was a whopping $10 and had really only known life as a printer cabinet as evidenced by the shreds of hammermill paper wrappings and wedged paper clips in the drawers. 

He was a little low but made of solid wood with good bones and I knew I really wanted to see it become something special. Between the drawers and the cabinet, he has a lot of versatile storage so I began to see him as something worthy of a suave bachelor pad or the glossy pages of a West Elm catalog…

You guessed it - I resurrected our old favorite inky blue/ black color “Black Boudoir” for a moody chalky finish.

I added some “jewelry'“ to this piece in the form of sleek finger pulls and brass tapered legs.

That hardware matches the gold gams perfectly.  Yum.

Fun fact - those pulls were actually leftovers from this project.

The simple sleek design lent itself well to some more masculine styling so naturally I decorated with music and booze... bow-chicka-bowow!

I kept my favorite monochromatic formula of warm terra-cotta, a touch of leather, and some plant life.  Oh and a simple nod to our first born… Thor.  He doesn’t even KNOW what he’s getting into with a little sister on the way.

The interior of the cabinet has a shelf that could easily fit a tabletop record player when not in use. Or your good booze if that’s your thing.

And the large bottom drawer fits standard LPs.

So here he is! My last pre-baby flip (unless she comes late and I need to crank something out in hopes of inducing - ha!).

Dark Record Cabinet
Now available for sale
39”W  x 16” D x 29” H
$495

If you are interested in this piece or a custom order like it, email me at cate@stylemutthome.com for purchasing and shipping options.

Wood Pulls Dresser

Meet the new workshop.  It’s pretty much the same as the whole workshop - but it's the main reason for my blog radio silence for the last 2 months.  Since April, Caleb and I have been in the throes of moving into a new rental townhouse (pics of that to come I promise!).  Besides the usual packing/ unpacking, we've been putting a lot of sweat equity into the new place (huge shout-out to my paint crew AKA Chelsea and fam!) which has also entailed aking a crash course in drywall to transform the unfinished garage into a suitable new workspace.  

Finally, we’ve got most of the major projects done and I can start accumulating inventory again - starting with this one!

I asked you on Instagram if I should paint or restore and got mixed results so the people pleaser that I am, I decided to do both ;)

Sometimes I can’t bring myself to paint beautiful wood that’s still in good condition.

So instead I re-oiled the drawer fronts and did my new favorite take on two-tone and painted the outer surfaces.

Yes you called it - I used my favorite “Black Boudoir” by Behr yet again.  I mean just look at how moody and inky these other pieces turned out?!? It’s hard not to like.

Pieces featuring "Black Boudoir" by Behr Marquee


 

This extra-long beast has sx drawers and a cabinet in the center with three shelves.

The interior shelving make it an ideal media center or TV stand because you can simply close the cabinet door when you want to hide your electronics.

I had a hard time deciding what to do with the knob on the center cabinet door.  The original pull was a fancy floret and read a little too traditional.  After a quick poll on social media, I decided to go with the clear winner - an antique brass knob that has similar contemporary lines to the unique wood pulls on the drawers.  

I'm in love with the organic lines of the pulls and the Mid Century Modern tapered legs!

This piece’s styling is brought to you by my dad’s vintage record collection (which heavily favors Bruce Springsteen I might add).

And for a touch of brass - my favorite little “pocket change” tray.

More pics to follow of the rest of our new place (but please let me get back into a cleaning routine first!) - ha!  #letsbereal

Dark Wood-Pulls Dresser
Now Available for Sale
74” W x 19” D x 30.5” H
$745


If you are interested in this piece or a custom order like it, email me at cate@stylemutthome.com

A New Kind of Play for an Old Toy Chest

Grandpas are special.  They let you eat sugary cereals and watch early morning cartoons when you’re parents are out of town.  They slip you gas money before you drive back to school.  They build things in their basement workshop and teach you all about their tools.  And sometimes they even give you the old family toy chest he built for your mom and her siblings and tells you to “have at it!”

 If you’re popping by from Apartment Therapy, welcome!  We are StyleMutt Home, a sister-in-law duo  (Chelsea & Cate) who love to mix and match a myriad of styles in the pieces we refinish and the spaces we design...

Now my husband (Chelsea's brother) and I don't have any kids of our own yet so I was challenged to rethink what else I could do with this piece of family lore.  So I got to thinking... what if it could still be used for a more grown-up sort of play...

It was a simple transformation really.  I took the lid off the toy chest and flipped it on it’s side to screw in some hairpin legs I had from a thrifted find and boom: record player stand.

Inspired by grandpa's original paint color, I refreshed the muted black paint on the exterior. of the box.

But for the interior I couldn’t bring myself to sand out the assortment of dings.  To me, they are the map of a playful childhood.  

So I just waxed the wood to at least give it back its buttery sheen.

It turns out that the chest is the perfect size for a standard LP sleeve!

For the styling, I used plumb foliage (scavenged from the parking lot no less) + DIY moon phase chalkboard art + a framed floating ghost lady (taken from Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer ).  To me, they all subtlety tip their witches' hats to Halloween without being overly ghoulish.

Adding legs gave it the height it needed to be used as a record cabinet or even a bar - either way it's ready for a more grown-up type of play.

And as much as I’d love to keep this bad boy in the family, we simply don’t have the space!  So DC Metro area: my loss is your gain.  If you are interested in this piece - pop over to our shop to get more info.  

Hairpin Legged Record Cabinet
Now Available for Sale