Chelsea's Bedroom Makeover

Hi, friends! We've had a lot of fun furniture and eDesign reveals to share around here lately, but it's been quite some time since we've shared anything new from our own home fronts! As our plates have been filled up with these various projects, the ones we've desired for our own homes have been set aside for quite some time.

But I can only partially blame the busy schedule.

I've always felt like our bedroom was the black sheep of our home. It's not that I never felt satisfied with it, but it's always stuck out as an entirely different style and feel from the rest of the house. Our home has evolved to this cozy minimal bohemian look that's very laid back, understyled and layered for function. Since before we were married I've had the pleasure of using a family heirloom bedroom set that was anything but laid back! The carved antique wood was completely unique, remarkable and unlike anything I've ever seen.Still, I couldn't figure out how to make the large and ornate pieces work in this house. Here's a shot from last Christmas:

Like I said, this was beautiful to me! I loved our bedroom, truly. But as I really started to embrace a style that felt a lot more 'us' as a whole, I needed a clean break with the fancier bedroom set so our home could be consistent the whole way through. I found inspiration from a very simple shot I took last year of a chair, a plant and a wall hanging:

Don't worry, you're not missing anything here; it's really about as dull an inspiration pic as one could strum up. But here's what I liked and why I thought it worth setting as my guide - it's both simple and interesting. It's monochromatic yet cozy. It's fresh. These are the things I wanted for my bedroom and I did revert back to this photo to keep myself in check when I was tempted by evil things like color and pattern. HAHA! I'm totally kidding. I love color and pattern, just in very particular execution for my own home. So let's take a look around at our brand new bedroom!

My main objective was a quiet and calm space that still had that interest and unique appeal that I so love. I knew I didnt' want another headboard, but also that I didn't want nothing. After using the idea for horizontal trim in this clients bedroom, I loved that touch of something on the wall that didn't scream for attention. I strummed up this idea to install vertical trim pieces that start close together at the center of the bed, and then fan out, getting wider and wider. The pieces that are close together anchor the bed just as a headboard would! Don't you just love visual tricks?! I think I get those kicks from my Mama. Looking around, I kept my white dresser that I had refinished a couple years ago, but the bed and Matt's dresser were lucky Craigslist finds. After many years of a matching bedroom set, I've welcomed some inconsistencies and mixed pieces.

The idea to use floating dark green two-drawer file cabinets as nightstands came a while before I actually found a pair of dark green two drawer file cabinets. These guys were tucked in the corner of a local antique shop for $35/ea. Not a bad deal! (Of course, Matt was the one who handled the installation logistics) Fun fact: My kids have been writing each other a lot of notes lately.. They write apologies when they've been unkind, thank you notes when they've been helped, and don't even get me started on all their correspondence to the tooth fairy. Now I have a 'Small Letters' drawer for these precious small letters.

Another major component to pulling off an interesting beige and white room is choosing the right bedding. When you go monochromatic, texture and pattern can make a huge difference! When Cstudio Home reached out to introduce themselves, I was smitten with their use of texture and tone-on-tone pattern! The way their blankets are stitched, the subtle weave of the sheets - it's all a minimalists dream come true! We've got the Studio Quilt in Sandstone, the Canvas Sheet Set in Moss, and the Woven Shag Pillow Cover. I've made our bed and am more than willing to sleep in it!

I love the subtle pattern on the sheets - I've never had sheets worth looking at so I've never turned them down like this before! But the subtle mossy green is just so lovely with the white and beige pieces. Fresh, just like the plan.

Of course the only true way to make your space truly unique and one hundred percent you, is with your own personal pieces. I may not be able to look at this photo of my grandpa yet without a lump forming in my throat, but I absolutely want to see this every day. I miss him so. The dish to the left is a saucer from my grandma's china collection, and it's where I keep all my studs. I haven't found another way to keep them organized until now! (Well, they're still not so much organized as I can just see them all better)

This vanity mirror hung horizontally was an estate sale find last Spring. I loved the wood pieces of the frame fit together like a puzzle, and it's such a lovely shade of wood; couldn't turn it down.

That's a wrap! Thank you, friends, for coming by. I realize it's a pretty underwhelming room reveal compared to what's out there, but I really believe simple can be interesting, too, and wanted to share my own experience with this room's evolution. Onward and upward, I say! Grateful to finally be at this end of the transformation. :) We would love for you to come back tomorrow to see what Cate has whipped up in her room!  It's so beautiful, completely 'her' and I'm just smitten...oh, I can't wait for you to see!

Reader Design: Linzi's Mod Apartment

Happy November, Mutts! I hope you all are slowly coming off your sugar highs - but we're here to keep the excitement going with a tour of Linzi's mod apartment in Providence, Rhode Island.

She and her longtime love and fiance Spencer love all things retro and have a true penchant for Ikea, with a heavy dose of thrift to keep things interesting.

“We both grew up in upstate New York in a very small town where there wasn’t much to do. In high school, we loved to go thrifting and decorate our bedrooms in our respective houses with our small vintage finds. When we moved in together here in Providence, it was great to combine all our stuff and pick out our own larger pieces of furniture like bed frames and couches together.”

Now, most people think of "basic" and "starter furniture" when they think of Ikea. But that really doesn't have to be the case. In our world of e-design, we know that Ikea can offer so many options for pretty and affordable furniture (this isn't an ad for Ikea, I promise). Linzi didn't shy away from the brand when designing her own home, though; in fact, she had to consciously reel herself in!

“I think one of the biggest things I’ve wrestled with is loving Ikea almost too much. I love everything that place makes, but I had to step back and make sure I wasn’t living in a place that looked like it could be in their showroom. ”

I don't know about you guys, but I can hardly pick out the Ikea pieces in this space. Linzi and Spencer did such a great job adding character through both thrifted finds and family passdowns. In fact, Spencer was lucky enough to get one of the most incredible inherited record collections I've ever seen, gifted by his dad. Those records on display really help this couple achieve the overall feel they're going for:

“I try to evoke a feeling that is fun and comfortable, in a vintage way. I want people to feel like they can come hang out with us and listen to a record. ”

Linzi also wasn't afraid to get hands-on to make this home special.

“In the kitchen, my favorite pieces are the vintage wooden table chairs. I got all 4 for $10 each and put in a lot of elbow grease refinishing them (they were painted bright green before).”

The retro and bauhaus vibe is carried through in every room, all the way to the bedroom. It's bright, happy, and effervescent, just like the 1960's era on which it draws.

Linzi, thank you so much for showing us around! We love what you've done with the place. Follow Linzi along on Instagram at @linziclary for more.

See you next week,

Reveal: Eclectic Equine Condo

Hello, hello! It's good to be back here with you for another eDesign reveal! If you're newer around these parts of the great World Wide Web, first off, welcome! So glad you're here! I'm Chelsea and peeled off from doing furniture refinishing about 2 years ago to focus on the design branch of StyleMutt Home. It's been a really exciting challenge to learn how to do design work, (primarily eDesign), and navigate where the specific skills can be used. Although we have been blessed with a full load of individual clients this year,  I accepted and began a freelance design job over the summer with a corporate company who is similar to Airbnb. They're purchasing condos in major cities around the US and Canada and making them available to travelers as home-away-from-home stay places. But between their purchase and that first lease, there is a lot of work to do on these condos! My job is the design, (i.e. the fun part)! The work is very fast paced and often unpredictable. I design these spaces from the comfort of my own home, never stepping foot inside the physical space.  I never know what information they'll be able to supply me with on a unit before I get started on the design. Many times they give me a floorplan with measurements and that's it. If I'm lucky I get pictures, and maybe even a video tour! Regardless of what info I'm given for a space, they require all the details that make up a complete eDesign in a day or two. It's a lot of fast research, drawing, note taking and, <gulp> math, but the exciting part is having the creative freedom to design the spaces how I wish. The company always gives me a style direction, (industrial, old world, California cool, etc), but from there I can run with it.

The space I'm sharing today is in Chicago and came with all the lovely before photos a girl could ask for. It is a 2 bedroom condo with a comfortable living space complete with a full kitchen. When I saw the before photos the space just looked tired. The blue-gray walls just made the it all look kind of 'blah'; especially the kitchen. There is absolutely nothing modern or industrial about the architecture here like in many of the other spaces I have designed for this company, so my desire was simply to freshen it up and make it cozy. In my short experience with design thus far I have learned that the most successful designs are a natural extension of the space. Since this space is already very traditional, I stuck to fairly classic pieces that read traditional with a modern twist. When I first showed Cate her remark was how very equestrian it felt with the dark moody colors, rich velvets and warm leather. So I'm calling this the Equine Condo! Lol!

Let's take a look!

LIVING ROOM

Below is a before picture of the living room paired with my design plan:

BEDROOM 1

I'm telling you, it's so hard to design rooms without the current season on your brain. I worked on this space right as the days were turning crisp and pumpkins were being displayed on doorsteps. Can you tell?! I went all out cozy. It's a rather large bedroom and I just wanted to make it feel inviting, quiet, and relaxing. It's like a big green cave and I just love it.

BEDROOM 2

They said a bed couldn't be done. They said a dresser could never fit. Literally - I actually (accidentally) stumbled onto other designers' notes on this room. The client deeply desired this space to be a second bedroom, and with an en-suite bathroom it surely made sense.  I studied that floorplan and researched beds. I knew if the measurements were right that a full bed mattress would absolutely be doable. A bedframe, maybe not. So I found an adjustable bedframe that could be pulled inward a few inches if need be but still support the full size mattress. And with the bed nestled cozy in the corner there was more than enough space for a modest tallboy dresser with a small footprint. I'm not usually one to sit and work on puzzles, but I thoroughly enjoyed figuring out how to fit the pieces together comfortably in this room!

And how about that wallpaper?! Target has a gorgeous line of peel-and-stick that is ~$30 for 27.5 sq ft! That's a lot of impact for a tiny bit of $! I'm still fairly weary of using wallpaper, but I'm so pleased with how it turned out in this space. It's the perfect tiny room for it.

KITCHEN

I admit I wasn't thrilled with these cherry cabinets and cherry floor - it was a lot of red wood, hurt my eyes. Hah! But once again I am floored by the magic of a fresh coat of paint. My design for this space included painting the entire main living space in Swiss Coffee by Benjamin Moore and it absolutely wakes this space up. With all the red wood, the stools may seem an odd choice. I totally get it; why add even more red toned wood? Well, for one thing I didn't want any statements in the kitchen. I was adding a lot of contrast to the living room right next to it and wanted the kitchen to just be easy on the eyes, nothing sticking out. Secondly, although the red toned wood itself is not my favorite, keeping it all the same gives this space a slight modern feel. It's monochromatic which I love.

That's a wrap! I hope you enjoyed looking around - I sure am grateful to you for coming by!