Design Reveal: Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY!

We’re in Brooklyn!! This project represents a long time dream - designing in New York City! What can I say, I’ve always been charmed. This was actually my sixth or seventh design job in the Big Apple but the first one I’ve had the opportunity to take photos of. Coincidentally, I am working on two more apartments just around the block from here, (one being a generous word of mouth recommendation from these home-owners!).

When these adventurous globe-trotting clients approached me with little more than a random piece here and there in each room, I was so smitten with them, the stunning archways in their home, and their goldendoodle, Nala, that I couldn’t wait to jump in. Over the course of six months we worked together room by room, item by item, detail by detail. Oh how I have looked forward to this day!

It all came together SO well and I can’t wait to walk you through! The MO with this home was to achieve a simple but eclectic look with a balanced global vibe. With space being limited, we enlisted the help of local contractor Ethan Abramson to design and install storage in every room. I’ll point out his work as we go along but I can’t tell you how fun it was to work on custom pieces with such a skilled craftsmen. Would highly recommend Ethan to anyone in the area! Let’s head in, everyone!

Entryway

You walk into this apartment and immediately enter a long hallway. Creating depth of view is one of my favorite design elements - giving you something to see down the length of a space from either end. A personalized curated gallery wall pulls you into the home, while a graphic wallpaper, and architectural accent chair bid you farewell. (If you’re interested in the sources used throughout this home, please see our list at the end)

When less is more, I like to use interesting pieces. A single accent chair by itself had better be something special, otherwise, why?

The wallpaper was possibly one of the first decisions in the whole home! This is the only place it’s used which I think just makes it that much more dramatic.

Speaking of dramatic…

Dining Room

We were so intentional with every detail in this space I can’t help but look at the collective whole and remember the conversations and design renderings created for particular elements. It is a process of pure creativity that I have fallen so in love with over the years.

The clients had this idea for a gallery wall here and my gosh did they hit a home run. Notice the continuity among the frames - all thin, and either black, white, or natural wood. That’s it! There is nothing visually connecting the actual images, but the carefully collected frames create cohesion and freedom to display whatever suits them.

The light fixture was actually left by the previous owners and totally works for our purposes. Its thin and the right scale and the only brass used throughout, setting it apart as the primary decorative accent in the dining room. With the cutout looking into the gallery wall hall, I opted not to add anything else to the wall space surrounding the table, so this visually impactful fixture works beautifully.

Living Room

I can’t move on without pointing out the trim. First of all, so thick, old and regal. I’ve never ever painted trim a contrasting color, but the clients had this idea to do something different and accentuate it. In the early renderings I used black and that felt too stark. Gotta start somewhere, right?! After doing some research on similar architecture I found three images with white walls and beige trim and fell. in. love. I sent over three color options, the clients tested, and we came to a unanimous decision to use Clay Beige, by Benjamin Moore. Walls in Swiss Coffee, BM.

The first of Ethan’s pieces - this wall unit! He built the cabinets and shelves above, using Rejuvenation brackets we selected.

The triptych is just the bees knees! The clients found the street artist, Dede, in Israel and looked him up upon returning to the states. They commissioned this special piece for their last apartment and were not sure it would have a place in this one. My top choice was over the sofa if the dimensions fit. It’s just the right kind of drama needed for this room! Still so thankful this installment fit!

I honestly don’t believe we ever considered any other light! We had started down this road of edgy pieces with a subtle flair of drama. I’ve used similar sconces before and this France and Son number was just right for our far corner here. Can we also take a moment to acknowledge the clients incredibly green thumb - I’ve been loading up on her generous tips!

Bedroom

Hold on, scroll back up and take in that pocket door pull. The details of this home are just incredible! What a privilege to work on such a fun space!

You’ll notice in this room as well as the office coming up next that we opted for reverse walls - beige walls with white trim. They’re itty bitty spaces so it just felt like a fun opportunity to try something different in this home.

The bedroom is a story of small business owners. You may recognize Ethan’s work in the bedside tables, (inspired by similar I found on Etsy). You may also recognize some items StyleMutt Home has used before! The Marylou sconce from our friends at Rough Luck Studio, and the fibre art by a favorite, Designs by Filia.

More small businesses are represented on the bed. Pillows from fair trade global artisans, The Citizenry and Mae Woven, as well as Brooklyn local business, Brooklinen. The bed itself, as well as the office desk, (coming up), and the olive tree stand, (living room), are from Floyd - a company establishing the standard of modern-day furniture. They make furniture that is easily portable to those often relocating, but without sacrificing quality. West Elm recently partnered with them so I’m sure you’ll see more of them soon!

Curious how New Yorkers manage such tiny spaces? Epic closets. These were installed by the previous owners who gambled some solid square footage in the room. And worth every inch, if I do say so! Who could deny those leather pulls…

Office

We have two fine installments from Ethan in this space - a cute corner shelf that I wanted to use to soften the deep narrow space,

and the coolest bookshelves I ever did see!

This is artists work right here, people. The detailing is just everything!

And that’s it! I had so much fun working on this home I feel guilty calling it work - not every job feels that way but this one was a joy every step. The clients were beyond amazing and, as always, I am so touched to be trusted so fully with their home. Designing someones home is an honor I don’t take lightly, so when it’s all said and done there is definitely a bittersweet feeling left that it’s all over.

We have worked so hard to get here with StyleMutt Home Design but it still feels surreal to be sought after from around the country. It takes so much time and strategy to establish yourself not only as capable of doing the work, but as the top of your field. I don’t know what is next for us, but I have had this desire for some time to dig into how we got to this point in our business and use what we have learned to help other aspiring designers. With the completion of this project and wrapping up a couple others this week, my plan is to take the rest of the summer off from design projects and eat up the time with my babes. With design work on hold until September, I’d like to dabble in some writing to publish an eBook loaded with all the info of how we got to this point from scratch. It’s so much more than just dreaming big and I am really excited about creating a guide to help others reach their goals! If you’re interested in doing interior design and/or eDesign, shoot me an email at chelsea@stylemutthome.com and I’ll be sure to send you a note when the guide is complete!

Thank you all for coming by today! It’s always so fun to get to share these projects with this community and I truly am so grateful for you.

Some more photos of the trip - Matt and I went up together and had the BEST weekend celebrating our 13 year anniversary! I still can’t believe our marriage is a teenager now. There is absolutely no aspect of our life now that I would have guessed for us on the day we got married, and I think that’s just what makes it feel so grand. Making a life together with this man has been the adventure of a lifetime, that’s for sure!

SOURCE LIST
Entryway:
Sideboard - Article
Lamp - CB2
Rug - Loom and Kiln
Runnger - Etsy
Chair - Stowed Home
Wallpaper - Etsy
Tassel wall hanging - Holistic Habitat

Dining Room:
Table - Room and Board
Chairs - Serena and Lily
Linens - Parachute Home
Rug - AllModern

Living Room:
Rug - Serena and Lily
Sofa - Article
Coffee Table - Anthropologie
Table Lamp - AllModern
Sconce - France and Son
Pillows - Serena and Lily, Mae Woven, Anthropologie
Planters - Holistic Habitat

Bedroom:
Bed - Floyd
Duvet - Brooklinen
Pillows - The Citizenry, Mae Woven
Fibre Art - Designs by Filia

Office:
Desk - Floyd
Desk chair - Urban Outfitters
Yellow planter - West Elm
Pillow - Mae Woven

SMH in NYC: eDesign Project Update

Today’s the day for more PROGRESS!! I told you friends last week I wanted to start sharing and celebrating design project progress with you more often on here, so here we go again!

This apartment is in NYC right by Prospect Park. I can’t tell you how much I adore these clients, (and their sweet pup, who you’ll see with her friend in some of the pics)! When they gave me the initial walk through via video chat, it was love at first sight. Those arches, those windows, that molding, the floor! It’s different architecture than I’ve ever had the privilege of designing within before, so I was excited about that from the get-go. Take a look at these ‘befores’, (all photos in this post were taken by the client)!

BEFORE

This is actually a 4-room project: Entryway, Living Room/Dining Room, Office and Master Bedroom. This fun couple has traveled quite a bit and accumulated a collection of artifacts and pieces from around the globe. They expressed interest in doing some unique things in their home which I was really excited about! It’s always fun to work with others who have a vision and enjoy wandering off the beaten path a bit, stylistically. The trim was one of the first elements we discussed as an opportunity to do something a little different! I chose Swiss Coffee for the walls, (a StyleMutt Home favorite), and Clay Beige for the trim, (both by Benjamin Moore).

I am going to wait to detail out here the pieces we’ve selected, but it’s getting there! Now the space is ready for the next phase of it’s makeover - built-ins! I’ve been in touch with their contractor working on a built-in shelving design that will work with the structure of these walls. The TV will sit in the middle of the shelves and we’ll have hidden storage cabinets under the shelves…I absolutely cannot wait, it’s going to look SO GOOD!

PROGRESS

Hi, Nala and pal! Those faces…

The hallway was papered by the previous owners, and while the idea was splendid, the paper was not making any particular statement, (it was white and had a grayish swirl pattern on it). We loved the idea of something really bold that you’d see beyond the living and dining area, and this navy geometric does not disappoint. In a home that does not have an open floor plan whatsoever, one way to expand the size of any room is to draw the eye beyond the walls of the space. The images below are a perfect example of this!

We are working on selecting art, various rugs for the hallway and office, final details for the bedroom, and then we’ll have some shelves to style! We are using a very large triptych the client found from a street vendor in India over the sofa - oh my gosh, it’s going to be amazing.

Here is the rendering we used to show them the vision - cool piece, huh!

It reminds me a bit of when we used Ali’s Cambodian photograph over her own living room sofa, and then when she moved, over her dining nook banquette! I just adore large-scale pieces - especially when they have deep meaning to the client!

So we still have a ways to go, but this is some progress, isn’t it! The paint on the walls and trim is making me so ridiculously excited. I’ve never done white walls with beige trim before, and truth be told, there wasn’t a ton of inspo I could find as an example, But it just felt so right for this home and now seeing these progress shots they sent is giving me so much encouraging confirmation. I’m in love! It’s sophisticated and subtly dramatic - the perfect canvas for a home to a couple of globe trotters.

We are in cahoots over here on the finishing details for this beautiful home, and I am busting to share everything with you here and now….but I’ll refrain. Gotta save some surprises! Just wanted to share this exciting project in the works now because it’s making me too giddy to keep to myself any longer! I can’t wait to visit NYC soon to hug these fabulous clients and take all the fun pictures to share the final reveal with you! It’s going to be a good one, friends.

As always, I’m so grateful to you for coming by today!

@chelsea_stylemutthome

SMH E-Design Projects in Progress!

Hi Friends! It’s been a little while! I realized when catching up with some friends I hadn’t seen in a while that I’ve neglected sharing StyleMutt Home design work on here in a big way! I have to be honest, if I don’t have a final reveal to share with you guys, I don’t really know what to share. The truth is I am up to my ears in design projects but have very little hope of seeing many, if any, of the jobs completed. For one thing, many clients are not local. This presents the hurdle of coordinating travel, (and paying for it), to go take pictures of any projects that are actually completed according to the design plan. The design plan is another hurdle! Even when I deliver a design within the clients budget, with all the tools to make purchasing the items a cinch and an annotated floorplan indicating where every single item goes, many jobs don’t get completed exactly according to the vision. And as a homeowner I TOTALLY get it. Financial ‘surprises’ come up and sometimes the budget you had for fun stuff, (think art, pillows, a pretty rug or lamp), goes to not-so-fun stuff. This is the number one reason why more jobs don’t ever make it on here, and even though I absolutely understand it as a homeowner myself, it’s a tough reality to face.

This is, indeed, a creative job. It’s a profession that attracts creative personalities! Creativity has always been a part of my life in a very tangible way, and my favorite part of the creative process has been seeing a vision come to life. It just so happens that in this particular creative field of work, I very rarely see the vision come to life. I’m working on some ideas to improve the process, but I have had to really come to terms with that and press forward with my best effort. While this has been an unexpected challenge, I am so incredibly grateful that I have the opportunity to work and make some income on such a flexible schedule. I feel like I am able to be ‘all in’ with my kids and be available and present in their lives, and I am able to work around our family time. What a gift!!! So, despite some unexpected challenges with the job, it is still a dream come true.

And despite not getting to share as many finished projects with you as I would love, I’d like to make a better effort of sharing and celebrating project progress! I absolutely love putting design concepts together for our clients and since that’s what I am doing every week, I figured why not share them with you! So here we go; A quick breeze through of some recent design concepts that I’ve completed since New Years! For each project I create a design board that is more or less a ‘collage’ of the pieces that will fill the room, a floorplan that maps out where all the items will go, and a 3D rendering of the design as it would look in their own space. In addition to these, I also provide a complete shopping list that our clients can use to conveniently purchase through the pieces in the design. A single design project can take from two weeks to a year, depending on the scope of the job!

Project 1

Project goal: Transform the over crowded space with more comfortable pieces that will enable this basement to function as a lounge area, colorful play room, and small workspace.

Project 2

Project Goal: Use client’s existing sofa, rug and art to create a comfortable living room with surrounding pieces that still allow flow in this very narrow room.

Project 3

Project Goal: Create a modern, yet cozy formal living room suitable for entertaining.

Project 4

Project Goal: Work with the existing kitchen to blend the space in with the rest of the home - modern yet casual pieces that are warm and inviting.

Project 5

Project Goal: Create a very minimal yet warm formal dining space. Client needs space for their piano and favorite pieces of art.

Project 6

Project Goal: Transform this sunroom into a relaxed but chic office and lounge space. Specific request for asian inspired art, shelves for books, and a chaise lounge to read.

I have had such a blast with these projects over the past two months! In addition to starting these since we rang in the New Year, I also now have 4 additional projects that are on track to be completed this Spring. I’m feeling hopeful, guys! Fingers crossed there will be some really fun fresh design projects to share here soon! I do have a little refresh I worked on in our basement ready to share, so stay tuned!

Thank you all so much for stopping by!

@chelsea_stylemutthome for more!