Geometric Tallboy

In all my furniture hunting, I have not seen a piece with that geometric detailing down the drawer fronts.  When I saw it on the Facebook marketplace, I just had to get my hands on it! 

Now I have a rather strict price-to-distance ratio where I am more willing to buy a piece if the pick-up is local.  This hit my price point just fine but was waaaay outside of my usual driving radius.  I decided to reach out to the seller anyway only to find out there was already a lot of interest (I figured as much) so I was ready to let it go and keep hunting.  A few weeks before the holidays I ran across the listing again.  It turns out the seller was preoccupied with selling a house and hadn't locked in a buyer yet.  I blew on my fingers, rubbed my hands together, and went to work... 

Despite her slow response rate, my persistence paid off and paid off big!  Turns out it was already loaded in the family van and her husband was going to be traveling my way for work.  Score!  Over a month of begging the seller for updates while weighing the logistics of driving deep into Maryland and her husband literally dropped it off at my garage door at no extra expense!

Once I had it in the workshop, I realized I had to do some serious repairs to the veneer on the sides - repairs which I could not mask without the help of paint.  And so I turned to my new favorite "Black Boudoir" by Behr Paint. 

But I wanted to save as much of the wood grain as possible (just look at it!!!) so I settled on a two-tone look:

While he was dropping it off, the husband told me it was his mother's dresser.  I tried to do her justice by bringing it back to life.

The original knobs got a quick refresh.

The exposed wood on the drawer front got some serious conditioning.

Because of the repaired damage, the top, sides, and geometric detailing got a coat of paint and sealed in a wax which I buffed to a satiny sheen. 

For styling, I decided to play with faces - literally.  I hung a few of my favorite Matisse portraits above an offset it with my new favorite home décor accessory: a Jonathan Adler-esque Dora Maar-inspired vase.

Geometric Tallboy
Now Available for Sale
36"W x 18"D x 42"H
$495

If you are interested in this piece or a custom order like it, email me at cate@stylemutthome.com to ask about availability and our shipping policy.

Masculine Two-Tone Dresser

I know - shop inventory has been light.  But that's actually good news for StyleMutt Home.  It means that we've been busy working on some of our eDesign projects like this one and this one.  This new branch of our business is growing rapidly which means our furniture flips have become less frequent.  But luckily spring cleaning + yard sales go hand-in-hand this time of year and I found a new (free!) project I just couldn't pass up!

When I first saw him, I actually liked the black and gold he was rockin'.  Yeah he was a little beat up.  And was reading a little 80's to me.  But look at those lines!  I decided to keep with his darker hues but modernize him a little.

I chose to refinish it in a color called Black Boudoir by Behr. It's a dark color that dances between gray, black, and blue - which I think makes him a bit more mysterious.

The dark color allows the unusual brass handles to pop.

But instead of painting the whole piece, I stripped the paint off the sides to reveal the beautiful wood grain.

Chelsea and I have often favored two-toned flips in the past:

Our MO is usually to do a white + wood combo.  But this time I wanted to take a different spin on it by doing the dark + wood.

The dresser's maker's mark says this piece is a local!  From Waynesboro, VA to be exact.

I kept the styling more masculine in color pallet but still playful with the amazing hanging planters from Apollo Box.

They come in three delicate shapes (tear drop, diamond, and chemistry flask) and look pretty with living or dried greens in them. 

Disclaimer: affiliate links ahead

Apollo Box is an online shopping platform that celebrates the act of discovery. Apollo Box is dedicated to providing customers with creative products and unique gifts they can get excited about. With their AR shopping feature in the Apollo Box app, they designed a new way to play and share virtual products before you buy them.

Hanging Planters

Wooden Planter

Pineapple Cocktail Shaker

Wire Planter

Old School Cell Vase

Geometric Wall Vase

Edison Bulb Lamp

Glass Milk Carton

Diamond Tumbler

Pineapple Shot Glasses

They have LOADS of stuff ranging in home décor to tech gadgets.  I've rounded up a few of my favorite quirky finds if you don't want to wade through the vast selection.  If you  like these hanging planters or are in the market for some of their other fares - use code STYLEMUTT for 15% OFF at checkout!

There's more inventory in my garage that will be following this guy to the shop - so stay tuned friends!

Dark + Wood MCM Dresser
39"W x 18"D x 42.5"H
SOLD

If you're interested in this piece or a custom order like it, please email cate@stylemutthome.com.

Quirky MCM Nightstand

One of the perks of being the furniture flipper in my friend group is sometimes they give me er... presents...  In the form of discarded furniture.  

This asymmetrical wonder came to me when a friend got a fish tank off craigslist that came with a quirky base.  They kept the tank and were about to kick it to the curb when they probably thought, "Waste not: Cate not" and passed it off to me for some hail Mary refurbishing.  

But the good news is, being quirky has its perks.  In fact, mid-century modern furniture is iconic-ly quirky.  Besides making the piece stand out in a space, there's something... endearing about their asymmetrical lines: 

Source: 1st Dibs

Source: Unknown

Source: Blood & Champagne

Upon closer inspection, this little odd-ball was certainly a little worse for wear: deep scratches in the finish, funky Christmas tree pulls, yellowing paint...  It would be undoubtedly be easier to paint the whole thing but that burled wood grain!  So in the end I put in the extra elbow grease and restored him with some repurposed leather pulls.

Yes those stylized tree pulls had to go.  They were easy to unscrew but the awkwardly-placed holes made finding new pulls to fit difficult.  And the textured drawer fronts made filling them in to drill holes for new pulls just as challenging.  So here's where I had to get creative with a touch resourceful: I had an old camel leather string belt lying around and cut three lengths that were long enough to fit the off-center holes with a some extra slack for easy grabbing.  

I punched holes in the belt for the cabinet screws, threaded them through with a washer for extra reinforcement, and secured them on the inside with a nut.

To add to the quirk of this piece, there is a slot cut into the left side of the nightstand.  At first I couldn't make sense of it.  I mean, was the nightstand designer so lazy that he didn't want to have to open the top drawer to put some papers away?  But then I realized, this designer wasn't lazy - (s)he's tech savvy!  This slot turns the top drawer into a charging hub for your personal electronics so instead of having a rats nest of cords cluttering up your bedside surface real estate (like I do), you can stow them away discretely!

Keeping the piece two-toned lets the texture of the drawer fronts play off of the banding in the warm wood grain.

Keeping the burled wood grain did mean I couldn't mask some of the discoloration along the edges.

I'm not sure what caused the "worn" edges but they are completely flush so the surface is still baby-butt smooth.  Plus, I think the markings lend themselves well to the vintage character of the piece.  

As a beloved teacher once told me, you have to earn your wrinkles.  I think the same goes for vintage pieces: they don't get to be this old without collecting some storied markings along the way ;)  

Two-Toned Mid-Century Modern Nightstand
21.5"W x 14"D x 24.5"H
SOLD
$85

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