Maybe Mauve Dresser

Creatively speaking, I don’t have much to show for myself lately. When the world shut down, many of you found sanctuary in projects while stuck at home. I found myself going to my day job in full PPE. Suddenly I was signing waivers at the door each morning, bruising my nose and breaking out under an N95, getting COVID tested twice a week, limiting my water intake to avoid taking off my mask, wary that a single mistake that could compromise my health or that of those around me.

My 9 to 5 is working with residents at an Assisted Living Facility - a very vulnerable population that I have seen wither under sequestration. My creative bandwidth was eaten up by how to keep spirits up among the residents and how to keep us all safe.

For these reasons, my garage workshop stayed quiet for most of last year (well that and because Caleb turned it into a home gym for a while). My 2020 flip list fell by the wayside with only one project completed and others never tackled or never shared.

I have a lot of hope that this year will be different. I do want to see more pieces unfold on this platform as my time and energy will allow. These projects still bring me great joy and your support and positive response to them are such a source of encouragement for me to keep creating.

I found this gem listed in Facebook as a curb alert. It was free and in the neighborhood so I snapped it up while I was already out running errands.

I was kinda digging its dusty color but the original paint job was a HOT MESS. The body was shellacked with thick drips of high-gloss beige while the top was and unfortunate clash of flat cream from what I can only assume was a bad repair job.

The stripping process revealed several layers of paint that started peeling off like wallpaper - indicative that it wasn’t applied properly in the first place.

This piece had lived at least three other lifetimes as a shabby chic dresser with obvious brush strokes in a white paint finish. Then it did a stint as a vivid aqua/teal dresser. Then it turned into the mauve-meets-beige mess that landed it in my workshop. But that mauve gave me an idea to try something new so I picked up a new color to try.

Now mauve is technically in the purple color family but that scalloped detail was calling for something soft and pretty and reminiscent of Shire’s pink room circa 2018. I browsed my favorite paint line (Behr Marquee) and chose Retro Pink that lands in right the dusty hue range.

The scalloped detail lends itself to a sweet overall look while the dusty pink color still reads mature for all you millennial-pink lovers out there.

Keeping with the original dresser’s look, I painted the tapered legs in the same color as the body.

I did not however, keep the ridiculous pulls from the original dresser. Instead, I filled those holes and drilled new ones for a single gold whistle knob on each side.

Just enough gold to give it a touch of glam.

I had wanted the color to be reminiscent of a dried clay so naturally I had to style with a ceramic touch.

I pulled this trio of ladies from various corners of my house and invited them to come smirk from atop the dresser.

They agreed to make eyes at the dresser’s potential buyers until the right one comes along.

Maybe Mauve Dresser
Now Available for Sale
$545

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

Wink of Wood

This pair. This pair of 3 drawer chests. This pair of 3 drawer chests with their clean lines and their gold buckle hardware. I wanted them so bad that I drove two towns over to pick them up. Twice.  No - not because they didn’t fit in my car but because for the first time in my furniture flipping career, I had to call an audible on account of the screaming baby in the car.

When I set up the meet, I figured all I really had to do was get baby H and me dressed enough to be considered decent, drive out there to pick them up, throw them in the car, then head home. Easy, peasy lemon squeezy.

That was my first mistake.

Baby fell asleep on the way. The seller was running late - no big! We can just wait in the car.

Strike two.

I had scheduled this pick up during what I learned later that many moms call “the witching hour” - that hellish time of day where baby can seem inconsolable…

YOU STRAIGHT FOOL YOU.

Never. Stop. Driving. If baby is asleep in the car, you keep that magical motion going or you’ll have hell to pay. Unbeknownst to me, the delicate window to get these pieces and be on our way without a nuclear meltdown BEGAN TO CLOSE as soon as we pulled up to the rendezvous. After 10 minutes of waiting, baby H went all Chernobyl and we had to evacuate STAT.

Driving home, my hormones triggered a meltdown of my own. I had been so hell-bent on maintaining my need to create that I hadn’t stopped to consider her needs. What if we drive all the way out there and we can’t get the pieces to fit around her car seat? Where will baby wait if I have to finagle them down some stairs?? What if something breaks in transit and there is super sharp debris rattling around her in the car??? These questions were raising an unforeseen growing pain of new motherhood (emphasis on the pain): how to rewire a ME to better think about SHE.

As she was wailing for relief from the car seat, I realized I had popped her in the car like an accessory. Something I could just bring along with me on a craigslist pick up like a tape measure or moving blanket. Yeah… NO. Babies are not tape measures people. And they will (un)happily let you know that.

It was a valuable lesson about new motherhood and I have a hunch that I’m not done learning it. And perhaps never will be. Yes these dressers were a great buy for the business but if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. I pulled a new-mom mulligan and reached out to the seller to explain our no-show. She was gracious enough to reschedule with me the following day so I had a second chance to make juggling baby and a small business work. So we set out again - this time I made sure that baby had a full belly and a clean diaper first, and that the pieces were grab-and-go ready, and that they would fit safely around my most precious cargo (the baby… not the dressers). Fortunately for us this time, it worked out in the end but I’m acutely aware that that might not always be the case. And that’s ok. The beauty of owning your own business is that you should make it work for your family. Not make your family work for it.

With the challenges of my first postpartum pickup behind me, I worked on the dressers when it wouldn’t interfere. Stringing together bursts of productivity during naptime or when Dad was home - and even sometimes with baby snuggled up and strapped to my chest.

A series of nicks and dings meant I had to paint the majority of the pieces after all the repairs. I chose a favorite sIlky black paint finish for the body but still wanted some way to keep at least a touch of wood.

The only place I could salvage ended up being a unique opportunity for a wink of wood. I knixed the original concave metal backplate in favor of staining the recessed cavity behind the gold buckle pulls.

It’s just a peek but I hope someone will appreciate the subtle detail.

I added dark walnut legs with brass sabots (that’s fancy furniture talk for brass shoes) to play up this little detail.

With such richly dark pieces, I decided to keep the styling simple with a couple white accessories and a pair of arched floor-length mirrors.

These babies are ready for a new home and I’m ready for a new project - provided I’ve figured out how to be a mom and a maker… *wink*

Black 3-Drawer Dresser Set
Now Available for Sale
32”W x 18”D x 30”H
$795 for the pair

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

Chrome Cantilever Chair || 2019 Flip List Item No.2

I know. I know.  I said that my last post would be the last flip before baby.  But what can I say?  She was apparently too comfortable to vacate the premises any earlier than she had to so I’ve been left to my own devices while she takes her sweet sweet time.  Is this any indication of what she’ll be like on the outside?  Heaven help us. 

We all know I love me a good cantilever chair (see here and here).  In fact, I’ve been hoarding a chrome cantilever chair in my workshop for a few months now so it was the perfect quick flip to crank out in my impatient 39-weeks state.

It was a gray vinyl with a speckling of rusty patina on the chrome.  What drew me to it was the mod lines and I started to see it becoming something modern and lux.  Plus it was the perfect opportunity to try out a new decor crush of mine:

Burnt Orange Velvet

We also know that I love me a good terra-cotta color but guys...if you put it in velvet then I’M JUST SMITTEN.

As I said before, the chrome wasn’t in the most perfect but it was easy to shine up for the most part using some wadded up aluminum foil and water.

That velvet - I mean COME ON!!! 

On the back of the chair, I added some matching chrome nailhead trim.

And styled the whole shebang with stark shapes and vivid contrasting colors (also faves of mine): chartreuse and aqua.

Ok that’s it I promise - I’m officially on maternity leave.  The good news is, with baby’s due date being today and all, this means I’ll at least have one more bucket list item to share in the near future - No.5: the Nursery!  So stay tuned for that reveal and Baby H’s big debut!

Burnt Orange Velvet Chair
Now available for sale
$295

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

Three down, two to go. Catch up on the 2019 Furniture Flip Bucket List.