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.

Vintage Hotel Dresser || And a Giveaway ||

Have you heard the news?  We're hiring!  We were so thrilled and humbled to find ourselves wrapping up 2017 with a waitlist of eDesign clients.  But making our customers wait is not our MO so we're onboarding a new design assistant to keep 'em happy and keep 'em coming!  If you meet our qualifications and are interested in applying, we want to hear from you!  Applications are due February 12th so get to it!

While Chelsea is heading up the expanding design branch of our business, I'm still steering the furniture front - and I've landed a new piece with quite the untold history!

The seller told me that his dad rescued it from a closing DC hotel somewhere on Florida avenue.  Let me tell you, he is certainly durable enough to have survived many-a-hotel stay.  But despite being built like a tank, he does have a few marks I couldn't mask: a scratch on the side, a sliver of missing veneer, and a faded water mark on the top.  All things I could have hidden with paint but OH that wood grain!  I couldn't bring myself to do it! 

So I shined him up and celebrated the scars of his rich and storied life.  

I removed the old damaged apron (those housekeeping sweeps had not been kind to that thing) and added sleek metal legs. 

I did want to  keep the original knobs so I refinished them to match the new gams.

He's also hides a secret: his top drawer is a hidden desk!

The drawer front folds down to create a handy little work surface or mail drop spot.

Complete with cubbies for stationary and office supplies.

But the crowning jewel of this vignette is this canvas print by a local artist!

This piece is just one of the many stunning abstracts by Laura Gunn Art.  I mean just go to her website and you'll be mesmerized by her process - its a riot of color in a dreary world (name that movie!).

Laura Gunn Art

Originals + Canvas Prints
Washington, DC
 

To me, art has always been personal.  I'm most drawn to the emotion in a painting.  Which my abstract mind most often finds in abstract paintings.  I doesn't matter what it makes me feel just that it makes me feel. 

I could stare at Laura Gunn's "Still" for hours.  Sometimes I think it's a quiet ocean horizon.  Sometimes its a soundwave with the gentlest flutter, a tiny reverb.  I love that it changes for me, and yet stays the same.

And we're delighted to announce that we at SMH are teaming up with Laura Gunn for a very special giveaway!  You could win your very own 24" giclee reproduction of a Laura Gunn original on gallery-wrapped canvas (that's a $149-$169 value!).  Follow these 3 steps to enter:

1) Follow @cate_stylemutthome and @lauragunnart on Instagram
2) Browse Laura Gunn's the Gallery Wrapped Canvas collection and
3) Comment below with the piece you'd like to win!

Winner will be announced next Wednesday, February 7th on Instagram!

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Vintage Hotel Secretary Dresser
Now Available for Sale
40"W x 19"D x 38"H
$545

And if you are interested in this piece or a custom order like it, email me at cate@stylemutthome.com for availability or to ask about our third-party shipping policy.

A New Kind of Play for an Old Toy Chest

Grandpas are special.  They let you eat sugary cereals and watch early morning cartoons when you’re parents are out of town.  They slip you gas money before you drive back to school.  They build things in their basement workshop and teach you all about their tools.  And sometimes they even give you the old family toy chest he built for your mom and her siblings and tells you to “have at it!”

 If you’re popping by from Apartment Therapy, welcome!  We are StyleMutt Home, a sister-in-law duo  (Chelsea & Cate) who love to mix and match a myriad of styles in the pieces we refinish and the spaces we design...

Now my husband (Chelsea's brother) and I don't have any kids of our own yet so I was challenged to rethink what else I could do with this piece of family lore.  So I got to thinking... what if it could still be used for a more grown-up sort of play...

It was a simple transformation really.  I took the lid off the toy chest and flipped it on it’s side to screw in some hairpin legs I had from a thrifted find and boom: record player stand.

Inspired by grandpa's original paint color, I refreshed the muted black paint on the exterior. of the box.

But for the interior I couldn’t bring myself to sand out the assortment of dings.  To me, they are the map of a playful childhood.  

So I just waxed the wood to at least give it back its buttery sheen.

It turns out that the chest is the perfect size for a standard LP sleeve!

For the styling, I used plumb foliage (scavenged from the parking lot no less) + DIY moon phase chalkboard art + a framed floating ghost lady (taken from Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer ).  To me, they all subtlety tip their witches' hats to Halloween without being overly ghoulish.

Adding legs gave it the height it needed to be used as a record cabinet or even a bar - either way it's ready for a more grown-up type of play.

And as much as I’d love to keep this bad boy in the family, we simply don’t have the space!  So DC Metro area: my loss is your gain.  If you are interested in this piece - pop over to our shop to get more info.  

Hairpin Legged Record Cabinet
Now Available for Sale