Back to Black || 2019 Flip List Item No.4

Black. And wood. These have been banner forces in some of our projects for a while now and the reason I wanted to turn up the contrast on my two-toned flips.  That dark mysterious black against a warm and welcoming wood. Yes please and I’ll have another.

Then last week, I came across this listing on Craigslist for two original mid century bookcases made by the West Michigan Furniture Co. They were a great price which made for the perfect opportunity to scratch this jet black itch I’ve been having…

If you’ve been following the 2019 Furniture Flip Bucket List then you’ll know where I’m going with this.. item No.4 is in my sights:

​Now just let me dangle the carrot here for a minute - look at that contrast!

Instead of keeping the cases stacked as a single unit, I decided to make them two separate units. The top surface on the lower, larger cabinet was damaged so it was already asking for a fresh coat of paint.  Painting the casing in a new-found favorite Limousine Leather by Behr allowed the interior to electrify. 

Unlike my prior flirts with dark tones, this black is much more severe.  It’s still my trademark dark and moody and it’s so very stately - especially contrasted against that wooden interior.

This West Michigan Furniture Co. piece still has its original glass sliding doors to protect your treasures from collecting dust.

Truth time - I hate photographing pieces with glass surfaces.  I end up obsessing about the reflections or how I apparently don’t know how to keep glass clean. Does anyone out there have any tips??? Asking for a friend…

It also has the original brass capped peg legs which I cleaned up a little but left a lot of the natural patina. I’m so used to working with tapered or metal legs but these little gams are just so cute, I might have to replicate this look again.

For styling, I leaned into the monochromatic look with terra-cotta, books, touches of brass, and white decorative accents. I felt like the piece called for a more “masculine” look with an emphasis on interesting shapes and varied heights.

You’ll have to tune back in to see what will come of his little leggless brother!

Back to Black Bookcase
Now available for sale
48”W x 12”D x 31”H
$425

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

One down, four to go. Catch up on the 2019 Furniture Flip Bucket List.

Colin + Mason's Room Reveal

Hey there! A couple weeks ago I was sharing a ‘then & now’ tour of our home now versus when HGTV mag came to shoot it two years ago! We ended on a sad note with the boys’ mattresses on the floor:

I promised I’d be back to share it when we were finished! To recap, I sold the old bunkbeds since they were rather bulky for this small room. Over the past few years I have learned a lot about scale and making the most out of the square footage we have. In the bedrooms, especially our itty-bitty kids’ rooms, that means pieces that take up a smaller footprint. With smaller, more streamlined pieces, and A LOT of playing around with arrangement, I think I nailed down a room that feels open and flows well for the way our sons use it. Let’s look around!

Colin REALLY wanted to keep the birch tree wall, which was A-OKAY with me. I love that wall and am glad they haven’t outgrown it yet! To tie this room into our home, I wanted to include similar color tones that we have elsewhere. The ochre curtains are a nearly identical shade to Shire’s quilt, and warm up the space similar to the camel leather we have peppered around our living room and master bedroom.

I was completely lost as to what to do about bedding. I didn’t want white OR a color. Hah! I turned to CStudio Home to see what they had and knew as soon as I saw these quilts that we had a home run!

The Dash Reversible Quilt is beige on one side, and a denim-y gray on the other. I paired it with the Studio Sham in ‘Lake’, a dusty aqua blue. And one can never have too many fresh white sheets! I used the Percale Sheet Set in White shown here!

I’ve always wanted to use this petite wooden cabinet between the beds but with our old separated bunks we just couldn’t make it fit! I found this cutie at a yard sale with Cate a few years ago for pocket change. It’s definitely nice to have some hidden storage in a kids’ room! All our kids are huge collectors - they see potential in absolutely everything! Rocks, leftover party confetti, deflated balloons, ribbon from Christmas gifts….and they actually use these things in their daily play! Even still, it’s nice to not have to see it.

Across from the beds we’ve got three sets of 3-shelf bookshelves I found at Walmart for $17 each. I almost jumped on the IKEA Billy 3-set bookshelves that are identical, but am so glad to have found a cheaper option! By themselves, these bookshelves are nothing to write home about. But three in a row makes a stronger statement in a space, (see how I used the Billy set in this home office)

While the colors used in this space are deep and saturated, I didn’t use many - when I use strong colors in a room I try to keep the palette limited to just a few. In here I used navy, rust and mustard/ochre. So while the room is colorful, the consistency keeps it relaxed and peaceful. Cate does SUCH a good job of using color in her home, and if you look closely, you’ll see that she emphasizes just a few colors and the rest is neutral. I’ve definitely been inspired by her to make some bolder statements, while maintaining a laid back, minimal vibe.

To keep toys and books separate I use various storage pieces, like these green metal ammo containers I found at an antique store a few years ago. Basically anything with high edges can be toy storage - it’s a great way to think beyond the basic storage cubes that slide into cubbies!

That’s a wrap! This space has seen a lot over the 8+ years we’ve lived here and these walls have loads of stories to tell already. (It started off as our twins’ nursery with two cribs on either side)! Every time I switch it up to meet the next chapter of life, I wonder about what that chapter will hold for us.

Thank you so much for coming by today!

HGTV Magazine Feature

Hi friends! Over two years ago we went on a little adventure when HGTV Magazine came to shoot our house, and the feature has just been published in their January/February issue! It was a surreal opportunity and one I still can’t believe happened to us in this house . It feels like yesterday I was refinishing thrifted pieces of furniture in our garage while my three babies took their afternoon nap. Now, Cate and I actually have a business growing on itself! You just never know where trying something new could take you; where that step of faith could end up.

While HGTV did rearrange and add a ton, (I cannot emphasize this enough), of color and layers, the article reflects Matt’s and my fearless approach with our home. We work by the quote of Arthur Ashe, which states:

Start where you are
Use what you have
Do what you can

This has been our mentality from the beginning and continues to inspire us to bring out the best in this home as long as we are here. So without further adieu, I thought it would be fun to take a gander at the article together followed by how our home looks now!

Kinda grainy but here we are! Matt’s looking exactly the same. Way to go, babe!

Living Room

First off, CATE rescued those leather chairs and updated them with legs, (you can see how here)! I loved them so much I bought them up quick when she posted them to sell. When we invested in our dream sofa, the two leathers didn’t quite go so well in the room together so I had to part ways, unfortunately.

Quick story: During the process HGTV kept asking me my favorite colors to use in our home. In hindsight I think I should have given them more than just, “White and wood. And a little black.” Clearly they weren’t satisfied! I always bend earthy. Always. Even with our design clients. Maybe it’s because we live in the woods and I am constantly inspired by the changing seasons right outside our windows, but I have always enjoyed quieter earthy color palettes. It was wild to see our house so ‘done up’ for a magazine! We did keep the mirror between the windows in here, and that wood coffee table, (a piece MATT thrifted and gave me for Christmas a while back), is currently in our family room downstairs! Our current coffee table shown above is an old army cot I found on Craigslist! I removed one set of end legs and replaced the canvas with the neutral cover, and turned it into the piece we have now! The woven chair is a piece I got for free at a thrift store by cashing in some customer loyalty points. Hah!

Dining Room

This is a wild one because we took that wall down on the right during the kitchen renovation this past Summer! (And by ‘we’, I mean our amazing contractor, Matt Stein, who makes all the things). But you’ll recognize those pipe shelves which are now in our living room! Still one of our favorite DIY projects. In fact, when we disassembled them to relocate to the living room, we actually moved a few parts around to accommodate the small desk space that’s on the right end of the shelves now! We are also still enjoying our dining table, which, as the article points out, I did sand completely down on a whim! I love the bare naked wood and with kids who love to craft and draw on it, it’s a very well loved piece with scars and marks to prove it! Even though the floorplan of our home was a little different two years ago, my style was fairly similar back then with an appreciation for earthy tones and minimal layers, so it was crazy to see this space so full for the story!

Main Level

Yea, and we’re kind of hoping that neighbor doesn’t read this magazine! Hah! I always had a storage piece on this wall that was hiding our kitchen. Now that the wall is down the view is pretty different! We have absolutely loved opening this space up; it’s been a game changer in how we use our main floor now! The white cabinet here was something I sold during our kitchen renovation since we just didn’t need it anymore, but it remains one of my favorite refinished pieces!

Master Bedroom

While our bedroom was never this busy, this is still surreal to me! That bed belonged to my great-great-grandparents! And stenciling that wall was one of my favorite projects I did in this house early on. I preferred white bedding to let the stencil shine and to give the bed a slightly modern nod, but this shot still makes me nostalgic. I passed the bed onto my cousin when she and her husband needed a bedroom set in their new home, and Matt and I filled our room as we do with Craigslist finds and new DIY projects. Our current bed was a CL score, my dresser was a thrift store piece that I refinished, the trimmed wall was our design and a project we did last year, and the dark green metal catalogue drawers are currently our floating bedside tables. I love that these two shots represent a lot of DIY projects, but done in really different styles! There truly is no limit to what DIY can look like.

Boys’ Room

This is real time, folks. I thought about waiting until this room was finished to show you the ‘then and now’, but 1) Waiting is hard. And that’s it. Hah! I just sold the boys bunk beds this past weekend because they never liked having them bunked, and those beds not bunked were pretty bulky for this little room. We’re moving on to smaller and better things! Stay tuned, I’ll share the finished room here soon! The way HGTV styled it with the bedding, rug, art and accessories was a lot more color than we had, and I plan on keeping consistent with the earth tones in here as we move forward. But I think we’ll keep the birch tree wall. :)

All in all, this was a HUGE learning experience for me and a first in every way. For one, I learned what HGTV magazine considers to photograph well for a printed editorial, and am curious to know if my true earthy, laid back style would ever photograph as well. I loved getting to know the team, (two photographers, one stylist, and two HGTV editors), and observing how they work together. Oh yea, I forgot I had these shots together! The second one is with photographer, David Tsay - I had actually been following and admiring his work before I knew he was assigned to shoot our home! The group shot includes his assistant, and the stylist behind the whole shoot, Charlotte Safavi - I don’t know how that woman sleeps! She is highly accredited and it was a pleasure to watch her work on our home.

Everyone was incredibly kind to my family, playing with the kids and making us all feel like this was the most normal thing in the world! I truly cannot say enough about those people.

HGTV is running a mighty operation over there, and I realize that I’m about as valuable to them as the Hershey Kiss on the back cover of this issue! Regardless, I am so grateful to them for inviting us to grace a few of their pages. While our styles are quite different, I feel like our business missions to inspire and encourage others in their homes really reflect each other. Empowering others to bring out the best in their home, be it a room to call their own, a studio apartment, or a single family home, is something we are both passionate about. It was such an incredible opportunity to work together towards that mission.

I often say, “You don’t know what you don’t know,” and with this experience that statement couldn’t be more true! But I enjoy taking risks. This whole thing started when I became a stay at home mom for the first time and thought, ‘well now what?’ There is so much adventure to uncover in our day-to-day lives, even as a SAHM in small town suburbia. This experience was nothing short of an adventure, for sure!

If you would like to see more of our home and the work I do with our design clients, please find me on Instagram at chelsea_stylemutthome. To follow more of Cate’s incredible refinished finds, you can check her out at cate_stylemutthome!

Thank you for coming by!