Living Room Fireplace Reveal

So tickled to finally get to share our finished fireplace with you all today! It is an absolute dream; I can’t believe this is the same house we moved into 9+ years ago! A few weeks ago I shared our plan and inspiration here, and now that it’s finished it’s even better than I had expected. As with most projects, some of the details evolved as the build came together, but I think it’s worth sharing the plan I had laid out last January. So almost a year ago!

And here’s where we ended up:

We could not be more grateful to our dear friend, Bill, who spent the better part of 3 weekends coming over to help us with this. To say he is incredibly skilled is a massive understatement, but beyond that even is his generosity. We were so blessed by his knowledge and willingness to help - and all I did was send him home with bacon! Listen, there’s more where that came from for anyone out there who wants to help the Biebers with home projects. Lol!

At the last minute we decided to paint the shelves and bench seat white to let the mantle really stand out. The mantle was removed from our dear friends’ 1960-something fireplace when they started their home renovation. They decided to replace it during their own home reno process, so we lucked out big time - it is SUCH a gorgeous, chunky piece of wood. The years of use have banged it up and faded it’s color and that kind of character is just what our new structure needed.

Funny, we moved the sofa to this side of the room, (it was previously against the windows), just to get it out of the way during the construction. It didn’t take long for us to love it this way! The kids said they prefer it here, facing the fireplace, so I think we’ll leave it! Plus, we’ve got to make space for the Christmas tree this weekend. No idea where it’ll go. Send any suggestions my way because I am stumped! Hah!

Adding a bench to the side was one of my favorite ideas that helped the whole thing come together for me, visually. We didn’t know whether to add shelves to this side, cabinets, or what. It was really tricky to figure this side out! When the thought of a bench with storage inside came into play it was just perfect. Bill created a lid that comes up like a piano bench, and it’s the easiest access to our new hidden storage.

I think I mentioned this in my last post, but link to our actual insert is here, and we are really pleased with the unit. It warms our large open space up very well and is completely safe for little ones, (the glass doesn’t get hot because the warm air is pushed out of a vent only at the top of the unit). The insert itself does not heat up, making it completely safe inside its frame of drywall and 2x4s. The unit is plugged into an outlet accessed inside the storage bench, and we can slide the unit out of the frame anytime we need.

That’s it! Hard to measure what a difference this has made to our home. With such an open floor plan I have already been enjoying having the fireplace on while in the kitchen, during homework time, dinner; it’s just been wonderfully cozy.

Speaking of, here’s a sneak peek at our Christmas mantle…

More Christmas coming soon!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Easy-Glide Dresser + Art Sugar

There are pros and cons to tackling a refinishing project for a dresser that is not actually vintage:

1) Usually the dressers aren’t made of solid wood.
2) Sometimes that means it’s too difficult to remove the drawers for easier transportation
3) On the plus side, they more often than not have smoother gliding drawers than their older counterparts

Like Mr. Easy-Glide here:

I liked his clean lines and tapered legs but he is definitely an assemble-yourself number. All his guts are labeled with little A-G alphabet stickers. But what you loose with newer construction, you gain with functionality. And these drawers slide like a pad of butter on a hot skillet. So he was worth a second look in my opinion - and a second chance to stand out.

My go-to secret for instantly updating a dresser is usually adding legs. But Mr. Easy-Glide already had a decent set of gams.

So I deployed my next go-to trade secret: change the pulls placement. Instead of leaving them dead-center, I changed the pulls and moved them to be perched right at the top of each drawer. It’s a very subtle move, and patching in the old holes meant painting the body, but it allows for a fresher take on a standard box store dresser.

For the body color I chose “Swiss Coffee” - an StyleMutt staple I might add, but usually for wall color. I decided to try it on this piece because 1) I needed a warm white to play well with the wood tones and 2) I had plenty of it lying around ;)

The dresser is actually painted the same color as the wall here - see how beautifully it holds both light and shadow? We love this color because it’s like a living neutral. It’s not devoid of personality just because it’s white.

And yes - that’s a cameo from my cantilever chair flip.

I asked him to step in as a supporting roll to some fall foliage and my new favorite pieces of art: these two Art Sugar abstracts by Caroline Orr.

You know you’re getting happy mail when the box has Sugar in the name. And opening these art pieces when they arrived was like unwrapping some confiscated Halloween candy. I’m talking KING sized bars if you’re picking up what I’m laying down.

Known mostly for their pop art prints, Art Sugar has prints in multiple sizes supporting a myriad of artists - with a portion of each purchase going to charity. Their prices are affordable but if you’re not sure, you can even rent one of their pre-framed pieces for 90 days to make sure you’re in love with the look.

When I saw Caroline Orr’s abstract collection, I didn’t need 90 days. Caroline’s watercolor shapes, whispered handwritings, and torn paper mixed media all spoke to me. And most notably her strong moments of color! I believe that when you bring art into your home, it should elicit a guttural response - otherwise it’s just wall filler.

Together, they were the inspiration of my whole vignette - Tupelo Honey with his mossy greens and pops of blue…

And Etta James with her soft pinks and bold red and orange accents. They demanded a visually striking foliage that could handle their spotlight so what better than some maple branch clippings in peak fall colors?

If you’re shopping for ready-to-hang artwork, check out some of their fun and sometimes cheeky prints.

And if you’re shopping for a fresh dresser, email me for more about our purchase and shipping options.

Easy-Glide Dresser
Now Available for Sale
54"L x 16"D x 34"H
$695


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

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!!