Muted Teal Apothecary Chest

It's been a long time since I've been in touch with my shabby chic side.  In fact, I don't think I've heavily distressed a piece since this dresser .  But once-in-a-while, only for the most spectacular of clients, do you roll up your sleeve and distress the heck out of something to get that chippy-vintage-storied look.

As Chelsea hinted at with some teasers in this post, we've had the joy nay the honor of styling a hip condo for our latest client in DC.  One of the unique challenges we've faced with her space is a quirky triangular entryway with very little space and very little going on to greet you when you first walk in.  After weighing a few options, we decided that a narrow piece in a bright but sophisticated color would do the trick.

And it just so happened that I had a 12" deep faux apothecary chest in my possession ;)

Recognize it in our first apartment?  This skinny little piece has served us well over the years.  But the inevitable shift of my personal style combined with our lack of entryway in our new apartment meant it was time to move on to bigger better things.  I was pondering how to refinish it for resale just when our client brought up her need for some super-skinny entryway storage!  Twas meant to be.

After running some custom refinishing ideas past our client, we decided on a muted teal that played well with the rest of her newly designed home and a "weathered" look for some added character.

In my experience, it is really rare to find a storage piece as narrow as 12" - I mean just look at how thin this lady is! 

All she really needs to be for our client is a happy little place to catch her keys and store her weather-wear (scarves, mittens, and such).

Giving a nod to the piece's vintage vibes, I styled it with the replica botanical prints salvaged from our old master bathroom (which have been sitting in a box since we moved) and a blown-glass vase with foraged thistles.

I am so happy to see her go to a beautiful new home and even happier to offer our client a custom piece that I've had the chance to product-test myself!

You'll have to circle back to us to see how she'll fit into our client's digs!

Chelsea's Updated Main Floor

Back again! Since I've got about 10 minutes to whip this last minute post up I'll spare you all the dialogue that turned my bedroom update into a novel. At least that's the plan, but sometimes I find a lot more to talk about than you care to hear, (just ask my husband and kids). I apologize in advance!

I mentioned in the last post that through a lot of little changes here and there, there is a different vibe in our main living areas. No 'one thing' by itself seemed interesting enough to share here, but after a long period of time with lots of 'one thing's, it seems time for an updated tour. As a reader I love other people's home tours. As a home owner with a blog, I enjoy having a way to document how my style has evolved. We've lived in this house for almost 6 years and I finally feel like it's 100% us.

I know Mandi from Vintage Revivals has coined the term 'fearless style', but I can really identify with that. For better and worse, (and much, much worse), I can tell you I absolutely love trying new things and heading into uncharted territory. Trends make me weary and always have. Even when I was young, I wanted to do the opposite of what was popular, (which explains the Doc Martins, fishnet tights, the original 'emo' music from the Cranberries, and self-cut hair styles). And I was an all-state athlete! Sure, I was an absolute mess. But there wasn't a box that I fit in completely, so I was as pleased with myself as any confused 16 year old could be.

These days I am more able to appreciate trends, but still have that urge to be a little weird, if that makes any sense.

One of the little updates in this space is the long body pillow on the couch. I wanted a more streamline look on our frumpy but oh-so-cozy sofa, (Ektorp from Ikea, bought used and still in great shape). Plus, I was tired of changing out pillows every season - pillows that were always thrown on the floor anyways because a couch with so many pillows just isn't that comfortable when you need to fit 4 bodies on for bedtime stories. So I bought some gray denim fabric, stuffing, and took it to my girl Katie who has made pillows for us before. She's the preteen daughter of a friend and has mega sewing skills. How lucky for me! (Oh! And the blue waves print is Urban Outfitters)

These unaligned white shelves here used to be my weathered wood bakers rack - we took it to the garage to make room for Paul Pfeiffer, our Christmas tree this past year. I hesitated to bring it back in, almost donating it to a local thrift store because it just wasn't the right proportion for our space. Rather than a taller, skinny shelf, I imagined something lower and longer for that large wall. On a whim, I sawed that bakers rack right in half, expecting to have to dump it afterwards, but it worked out great! After a coat of paint and some styling play, it's been a fun piece for our living room once again.

Moving on, here's a peek around the dining room!

I wanted to freshen things up in here after the holidays and hung these airy indigo dyed curtains from Urban Outfitters, (currently 25% off a pair). I love the contrast of something breezy-bohemian with the 'hard' industrial shelves. Maybe an unlikely pair, I don't know, but here they are, working together!

**Oh yes! And here's a fun hanging tip for curtains: If you paint the curtain rod the same color as the wall, it almost disappears! I wanted a really fresh, clean feel here and didn't like the distraction of the metallic rod, so I just painted it with some leftover wall paint.

Oh Ross, you're trouble. I went in there to look for a child's birthday gift and came out with a child's birthday gift and this mirror. I just found out Ross and TJ Maxx have home sections. Why didn't you guys tell me?! They're tiny and will never have what you're actually looking for, but if you breeze through you may stumble upon a cheap pleasant surprise!

I'm so sorry, I've run WAY longer than I said so I'll just breeze through the kitchen quick! Nothing new here since we made it over, (again), last Spring, except a blue dishtowel since I added blue throughout the rest of the floor. Funny though how a new dish towel can be exciting, (obviously I use that word loosely). This was from Target. Or Walmart. I can't remember.

I outsource the artwork cheap and have a fast rotation of new original pieces coming in at least a hundred times a week. Don't worry, I can afford it.

The one spot that hasn't changed is our trusty makeshift entry. The old thrifted spoon coatrack was one of our first DIYs in our home 6 years ago and has seen tiny 3 month old fuzzy jackets with bear ears, to now 6 year old coats with pockets full of 'special' rocks and other odd finds.

Well there I went and talked your ear off just like I said I wouldn't. But it's Friday, so it's not like you're actually being productive today, right?

Thank you guys so much for coming by and have a wonderful weekend!

Chelsea's Updated Master Bedroom

Alternative title: Chelsea Hasn't Blogged In So Long That This One's A Doozie

Hi there, dear friends! Long time no blog. :) As you might have noticed back in January, StyleMutt Home's site took on a whole new look. We really wanted to transition from a random musings blog to a service based business, offering experienced furniture refinishing and home design not only to our local community but nation wide. This step has opened up some new doors for us which we are both excited about and also learning how to navigate as two women with other full time jobs. Balancing StyleMutt Home work with our day-to-day jobs/life has limited our time to jump on here and connect with you as frequently as we used to be able to, but we are so grateful for the other areas we can connect such as Facebook and Instagram, (@cate_stylemutthome and @chelsea_stylemutthome). These interactive extensions of StyleMutt Home have been a wonderful way to keep up with you all when the time isn't available to post on the blog.

But fortunately, today, I have a bit of time. :) I've been looking forward to getting on here again and spending a bit of time with you. Thank you for stopping by!

I'm not sure we've mentioned this yet but to fill you in a bit on what we've been doing, we are now in the home stretch of a gorgeous design job in Washington DC, (the main reason we've been quiet on the blog front), and we hope to be sharing the full makeover in April! Thought it might be fun to share this sneak peak today, though:

The job has included an open concept dining room and living room with the need for office space and entry way storage. It's turning out to be a real 'style mutt' space as our client is quite the eclectic lover herself! The concepts above have been tweaked a bit and we are just itching to show you the real deal!

But for today, I can show you a real deal update in my own home. Our master bedroom! Before I go any further, there was nothing wrong with our bedroom before except the need for more functional clothing storage. We have been fortunate to have a family heirloom bedroom set that's been passed down through several generations, but the dressers were a pair of tall boys rather than a long and low of any kind. Since our bedroom is on the larger side, we definitely had the room for something with a larger footprint, so we stuck one of the tall boys in storage and replaced it with the ivy buffet I refinished at the beginning of the year, (and intended to sell. Oops!) We moved out excess furniture that wasn't really needed, (including a pair of leaning wall shelves, a table for the tv, and a chest at the foot of the bed). The space has really opened up, now! Take a look:

A pair of sconces, (found here), on the wall open up some space on our floating bedside tables.

If you recall from the post on the Ivy Buffet, I really despised the carved ivy on the cabinet doors at first and then ended up falling in love with it! To incorporate this sweet detail out in the room I found some ivy patterned shames, (here).

The rest of the space is pretty much what was already in the room before or shopped from around our home.

The reading corner was another flipped project I had intended to sell - I stained the old chair we had in the room previously, (found at an auto shop years ago, hah!), and gave it a fun pattern on the backrest. I wanted to give it a footstool that 'went' with it but wasn't too matchy-matchy. I used one of the seats from the pair of stools Cate and I had found last summer, and just added some legs I had on hand, (you may recall that the bases of the stools turned into this funky custom order!)

My grandma, (who's family this bedroom set is from), painted the pots on the windowsill. I love this original piece of hers and it inspired me to use our own windowsill as a makeshift bedroom library, (helpful since we moved out the old leaning shelves we previously used to store books).

This morning I sat here with a sleepy kid in my lap and watched her wake up in my arms. Glad we held on to this piece. :)

That's it for our bedroom! It's a much more calming space to me now as there aren't as many pieces competing. I'm hoping to be back over again this week with another little tour of our main living space. We haven't done anything big, but after lots of little switch-a-roos and updates here and there, it does seem to have a different vibe - plus I cleaned really well last week!

Thank you guys so much for coming by! It seems the longer I don't blog the longer my posts get. That's not a problem for you busy bees with lives and projects of your own to get to, right?! ;)