Design Reveal: Family Home for Life to Happen

April 18, 2024 Chelsea | StyleMutt Home

Well hello there! It is such a treat to get to share this home with you today - I got to work with the sweetest of friends and realized very quickly how kindred we are. After nearly a decade in their home, they came to the decision to stay put and continue investing in the roots they’ve sewn in their neighborhood and community. It’s a very similar story to what led Matt and I to add on to our home last year after 13 years in our house. Life is beautiful when we open ourselves up to the possibilities God has for us; I can think of no greater adventure!

My first reaction during the initial walk through was how heavy the home felt. The dark neutrals with very little contrast just made their main floor feel weighty. They desired something lighter, airier, and more conducive for their love of gathering friends and family.

Family Room

When all the elements in a home are of similar color and saturation, everything melds together and can look heavy. One of the biggest things we did was paint! Getting the walls a fresh, clean white allowed the colors we used throughout to really stand out!

Not the first fireplace I’ve re-imagined without a total overhaul. The ornate mantle was removed and replaced with gorgeous wood, and the ‘fluted’ sides were covered with a quarter strip of drywall and painted.

These clients gravitated toward a somewhat coastal color palette, specifically teal, coral, blush, mustard. To anchor this palette, the area rug makes for a vibrant element in the room that allows a lot of flexibility in branching off with surrounding textile colors.

I’ve really never gravitated to heavily filled mantles, but do enjoy using interesting pieces and balancing the visual weight!

While this family room really feels light and airy, using a variety of textures, materials and wood tones makes it feel so warm and inviting! Mixing pieces lends to such a casual vibe and I love the contrast among the main players in here.

Ready to see the pink dining room peeking around the corner?

Dining Room

The paint alone completely transformed this space. I mean, I feel that way with the entire home, but in here it’s incredible the difference! I chose the paint color first, fully recognizing what a massive risk it might be to recommend pink. But it totally works! It’s definitely unexpected and fun. We’re not taking ourselves too seriously here, which I just love.

Living Room

In this space I essentially wanted to swap the color on the wall for color in the furnishing! As you see this room right off the front entrance, using a stunning, but neutral wallpaper, with a vibrant teal velvet sofa and rich leather ottoman couldn’t be a better mix to draw you deeper into this home!

That’s a wrap! I always feel sentimental when a project is completely finished, but my motto over the years has become ‘a finished room is a new beginning’. My part is done, and now these rooms are ready for life to happen in all its wild and beautiful forms. Thank you so very much for coming by to check this project out! I’m grateful for you.

Design Reveal: Sweet Dreams, Brooklyn

September 15, 2020 Chelsea | StyleMutt Home

It’s weird times, indeed. I know every single one of you has had to adjust your regular way of life in some way, shape or form. If you have been fortunate enough to still have your job, there’s a good chance that looks a lot different now than it did 6 months ago - So many companies are figuring out how to continue their operations remotely and out of office. While I have always done my design work remotely, there is one aspect I’ve thoroughly enjoyed doing in person - finishing photos! I’ve shared before that I only get to take photos of about 15% of my completed projects, so when the opportunity arises to take pictures it feels like Christmas morning!

About a year ago one such project was wrapping up just beautifully in Brooklyn, NY, and I was hoping to make it up to take pictures along with another project in the Chelsea neighborhood. As it happens, COVID struck before I made it up there and I was sorely missing this project in my portfolio (and getting to share it here with you)! So I reached out to the client who I’ve been in touch with by the natural evolution of friendship in the process, and she was totally open to taking the pictures for me! We even scheduled a virtual styling session, which looked a lot like this for an hour:

Despite my face it really was a lot of fun! Hah! Having someone else take pictures was such a good practice in letting go of something I normally like to have control over, and boy am I glad I let go. She absolutely knocked it out of the park! I sent her the same photography tips outlined in our Interior Design Starter Guide, and she nailed it.

Before I show you around let’s take a look back at what this room started as. Now, I have nothing against lime green walls. In fact, our design assistant, Joy, absolutely rocked this StyleMutt Home project with lime green walls. But when this client and I were discussing her ultimate vision for this space, her bedroom, the lime green walls just didn’t support the end-goal.

The plan, shown below, was to create a really soft and soothing space using various neutral textures and patterns, contrasted by just a few grounding elements. We wanted to create a sophisticated retreat that represented the client’s fun and joyful personality.

And here is our plan brought to life! ALL pictures are in huge thanks to this sweet client. Her pup, Peggy, seized the opportunity, for sure!

Another look back at the beginning:

One of my favorite aspects of this project was getting to source from some small businesses I’d had my eye on for a little while. The sconces and overhead fixture by Cedar and Moss really make this room feel special. They were an opportunity to use something a little different from the mainstream. All by themselves these lights fold in that sophisticated vibe we were looking for, but they’re still unique and fun.

Hey, over here, Peggy!

This is such an awesome example of how to make a neutral palette visually interesting. Breaking up a monochromatic palette with varying textures and patterns and elements brings a room to life.

And then adding in a few contrasting elements in deeper, saturated tones grounds the space, and actually helps in making the whole room feel lighter and airier!

The beginning again,

and now.

One more time:

It was important to remember while working on this space that the same person I was designing this room for was the same person that, at one time, liked the lime green - you know that person has a bold aesthetic that doesn’t feel the need to fit in any one style box. While we wiped the green clean, we replaced it with a fun graphic paper that nods to the vibrant personality of the client.

A single statement pillow by my talented friend, Abbie at a. Naber Design pulls together the blues from the nightstands and the rug.

With bedrooms I like to make the bed and bed wall the focal point of the room. Since this client said she didn’t have any use for a dresser, we decided on a chic low lounge chair nestled near the natural light, and called it a day.

That’s a wrap, folks! This is one of my all time favorite bedrooms I’ve had the opportunity to design, and getting to share it with you is all because of the great effort of my client. Sarah, thank you. You are amazing and this was such a treat to work on with you.

Thank you all so much for stopping by today!

Lightened Up With Magic Linen

March 4, 2020 Chelsea | StyleMutt Home

Spring is so close we can practically taste it! With the warmer temps already upon us it is the perfect time to lighten things up around the home. The easiest way to do this - textiles! We sure love the feel of soft velvet and fur over the colder months, but we can’t get far enough away when things start to warm up, (both of us style mutts happen to run hot)! Enter, linen.

We have the privilege of helping introduce a small, family run textiles company that prides itself in luxurious linen goods. Please meet Magic Linen - even a brief browse through their goods and we feel confident you’ll be as smitten as we are! With a couple quick swaps we’ve been able to transition our beds in preparation for the warmer months ahead. Take a look!

Funny thing - as our family has grown, so has the number of pillows on our bed! My minimalist lean is at odds with truly desiring a family home where our kids are invited to cuddle up for a Friday night movie or Saturday morning Sports Center. I had more pillows on this bed this past winter than ever before, and you know what? They got used hard! That was the whole point, after all. So when thinking about refreshing our bed for the next seasons, I felt compelled to retain the pillow count, even if my style preference is less.

A few extras that our kids can drag to the foot of the bed or the bench at the end doesn’t hurt one bit. And these feel so light and airy that I still get my visually lighter bed!

I already had the green linen duvet so all I really needed were a few pillow covers to replace the velvet and fur ones I’d had all winter. Aren’t those wood buttons sweet? Magic Linen sets itself apart by the details. (White pillow case)

(Natural and White Stripe pillow)

(Blue Lumbar pillow)

Across our bed I finally hung a family gallery wall that I started last October! I had those pictures taped there for months until I could find and save up for the right frames, (turns out the frames I wanted ended up only being $8.99 at Michaels). And with that, our bedroom feels fresh and ready for the reprieve from the steamy days ahead!

You know the best part about linen bedding? It can be wrinkled AND luxurious. Like unpacking your suitcase after a fabulous Greek vacation.

In our house, the bed is officially made for 30mins each day AT MOST. Caleb will only make it each night right before we get in it so that it’s perfectly smooth to settle into.

I wouldn’t mind starting each morning with the discipline to make our bed but honestly there’s no point because when we’re out of the house…

Our sunshine-loving pup will undoubtedly make himself comfortable no matter what state the bed is in (even curled up on the bare mattress in laundry day that hooligan).

Maybe it’s the dog with white fur or the fact that I love to accessorize our spaces with vibrant colors and warm tones, but I’ve always gravitated towards white or light bedding for our bedroom.