Blue + Wood Sideboard ||with a storied past||

Did you all hear our big news?  We just scored ourselves a gem of an intern!  I guess it's been a lucky week for us because I also recently scored this credenza off my local craigslist.

The piece had good bones but the poorly-done black lacquer just had to go.  I still had some Compass Blue by Behr Marquee left from this campaign dresser flip I did last year and taking a page from Chelsea's recent hunter green piece where she painted the body but left the legs wood, I came up with this:

Blue-hoo! (that's blue for wahoo!)
 

The paneling on the left hides three large drawers - the top one with dividers for utensils or what-have-yous.

The other side of the sideboard is a cabinet with half open shelving and three more drawers for ample storage.

Besides good bones, this piece also came with quite the pedigree!  I uncovered a few fun finds in one of the drawers which I posted about on instagram.

And sometimes you find treasures in your #furnitureflip - dear Kit, I hope Barbara helped you get that Jade necklace from Mexico. It sounds like a real gem 😜 More anow(?) - Cate #oldletters #hiddentreasures #americanofmartinsville

A photo posted by StyleMutt Cate (@cate_stylemutthome) on Jul 7, 2016 at 3:52pm PDT

I like to think that this piece belonged to a version of myself in a previous life.  A version of myself who received a letter from a friend with excellent taste in jewelry, and then tucked it away in her beautiful credenza so she wouldn't forget to "make arrangements," and then promptly forgot about it because it got buried in that drawer along with the original credenza's informational tag because she keeps EVERYTHING.   And is also named Barbara apparently.  But thanks to my former self Barbara-the-Hoarder, I now know that this storage piece was made by American of Martinsville for the Dania Collection - can you spot the original dresser in the images below?  

See I always knew holding on to everything would come in handy one day.

I chose wooden knobs for the cabinet doors that had faceted gold corners to play off of the wood in the legs and the angles of the drawer fronts.

Based on the drawings in Barbara's pamphlet, this guy was missing some legs so I had to fit him with some prosthetics [or in this case, tapered legs].

I styled this bad boy with my beloved kilim pillow children er... covers.  I simply hung them with vintage wooden pant hangers to give the wall some textured drama. 

Add in some fun finds like these ceramic pyramids found at Sweet Clover Barn this past spring, a lamp, and a plant and you have yourself quite the eclectic vignette.

Oh and if you're local my friends, this gem is ready for a new home!   Original American of Martinsville credenzas from the Dania collection can go for anywhere between $900 and $4,000 but this blue guy [complete with all his papers] is a deal!

Blue + Wood Sideboard
60"W x 18.5"D x 34.5"H
SOLD
$580

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

Quick Flip of a Roadside Find

It was a warm, muggy day and I was walking out of the twins' elementary school with Mason and some neighbor friends who we had joined to help out with field day. My friend Alecia, with her belly about to pop with her baby girl, had locked her keys in her car. So, we all hopped in our van, drove to their house where she got the spare key, then we dropped her off at her car. It was then that I realized a few driveways up from her car was some sort of wooden object. Always worth checking out! So I pulled up and found this guy!

This piece was almost cool. The unique size, (almost square like), and tapered legs made it worth loading up to bring home for further inspection. It's not all solid wood, most surfaces were scratched up, and the back is some sort of cheap composite piece. But my biggest strike against the piece were the adjustable shelves. I'm a huge fan of adjustable shelves when they're hidden behind cabinet doors, but seeing the multiple holes drilled into the sides and those small metal bracket thingys made this particular piece look cheap. But, like I said; it was almost cool! Close enough, at least, to give it a go.

When it comes to mid-century modern furniture I always try to maintain the time period of the piece, and two-tone, (or white and wood), is a classic look that has withstood the test of time. I filled in the holes on the sides where the adjustable shelf options were and then made some simple wooden brackets to set the fresh white shelves on. Other than the wood brackets and the tapered legs, I painted the piece white.

I've always loved how items pop on white shelves! (Check out Cate's dining room campaign style shelves to see what I mean!)

Fuzzy kiwis. Adorable.

Petite MCM Bookshelf Now Available to DC Locals
43"H x 36"W x 12"D
$125

Thank you for stopping by!

Restored Mid-Century China Cabinet ||Now Available||

Hi friends! It feels like it's been a while since I've come by with a furniture flip so it sure feels good to be sharing one today! We've been working steadily with a couple more eDesign clients, interviewing intern applications, andon a personal front, I'm getting ready to step back a bit as soon as my Colin and Shire are out of school for the summer, (6 days to go and it's reminding me of the last 4 miles of a marathon; lots of pep talks, jelly beans, running through water and praying). The piece I'm sharing today is a china cabinet I found outside the Old Lucketts Store on a rainy day.

Due to the water damage I needed to let it dry out quite a bit once I got it home, (thanks to Cate and her truck). This was one of those finds where I wasn't confident it would work out - the structure of the piece was solid, but the condition of the wood was questionable. If it was severe I was willing to dump the entire piece since we are not in the business of covering up rotting wood with a band-aid of paint. I left it in the garage to dry for several weeks and, low and behold, once I looked it over the condition of the wood was restorable!  

After a lot of sanding and resealing, this piece is as good as new!

Upon first seeing this piece outside the antique shop I intended to give it a back. It had one at one time, (as well as sliding glass doors on the front as you can tell by the grooves). But my Momma, who was with me when I found this piece, encouraged leaving it backless, (so scandalous). I figured it was worth seeing how it looked before investing in materials and time, and it turns out that it's lovely all open like this! Way to go, Mom! :)

I haven't done many, (four, to be exact), but china cabinets are my favorite type of piece to refinish. I adore the idea of a piece that can tuck in seamlessly in various rooms. I've only styled this piece in our dining room and living room, but I've sold a china cabinet that went to a client's sun room, another for a study, and a third that went to a craft room! They're brilliant for storage without taking up a large footprint.

Here's our handsome friend in a living room setting - doesn't he look sharp?!

While this piece was in the garage drying over several weeks, I was hunting for hardware. These pulls were in my head long before I finally found them! I wanted these 'T' style pulls in brass and bone, but couldn't find them anywhere! Anthropologie saved the day. Of course. They're a little bit glam, a little bit bohemian, a little bit masculine, and a whole lot of perfect.

I'll tell you what, styling with all your books, even the ugly college text books you forgot to sell back, and suddenly you'll take on the presence of a prestigious professor genius. Just be ready to artfully dodge questions like, "Have you read all of these?!", "What did you think of Plunder and Deceit?", or "So, you like to read, huh?"

Open Mid-Century China Cabinet
66"H x 54"W x 18"D
$750
Please contact me at chelsea@stylemutthome if interested in this piece or a similar custom order!

Thank you so much for dropping by!