Small Business Saturday: Planning Guide + A SMH Deal!

Hi friends! The holiday season is blissfully upon us and Cate and I have some exciting content to share with you over the next few weeks! Kicking things off I wanted to help you guys out as you prepare to check off your gift list, (substantially this weekend if you’re anything like me!) We’ve shared favorite finds on here before but today I wanted to focus on Small Businesses. As my friend Collin, (a skilled woodworker), recently shared, “Let’s plan for Small Business Saturday, guys!” Meaning, 1) You do have to plan for it! Shopping from small businesses or local businesses can take a tad bit more time than a one-stop box store. Hopefully we can help you out with our round up of favorites! 2) There is a designated day to shop from small/local businesses, did you know that? The Saturday after Thanksgiving is when many small businesses offer their own deals and discounts! Shopping small is a tremendous way to support entrepreneurs depending on successful sales for their livelihood. We know LOADS of families where one or both parents are supporting their family on the income provided by their small business. It’s risky and takes around the clock work. So let’s support these brave makers and give in more ways than one!

Dani Barbe Dani makes the most beautiful pieces right from her own home - we designed her studio and workshop, in fact! Her jewelry magically suits literally every style out there - from glitz and glam to earthy and casual.

Salty Brothers Soap Started by high school friend, Billy, my entire family can attest that these soaps more than just clean. Using tried and true combinations of all natural elements like dead sea clay, charcoal, locally sourced olive oil and CBDs, these soaps revitalize, detoxify, and aid in relieving muscle soreness.

Willow and Rush Kaity, a sweet Mama balancing stay-at-home life with the cutest babes and her self-started candle company probably doesn’t realize she is dominating the candle market, in my opinion. I need three things in a candle - a gorgeous container, (hello amber jars), small scale size, (8oz jars are a perfect size for grouping with other objects on a coffee table/shelf), and an out of this world scent that doesn’t make me dizzy, (White Birch for me - all day, every day).

Mae Woven When Emmy started sewing things for herself and her home, little did she know a booming business was in her near future! Now she leads her team supporting other women from around the globe to source the highest quality material to create the highest quality home goods.

Sugarhouse Ceramic Co. A husband and wife team creating small batch pottery from their cabin in the woods of Vermont? I’m in.

Simply Eco Store There is something contagious about a company who’s mission it is to reduce pollution and help our precious planet. Our family has been taking steps using products from Simply Eco Store to decrease our waste and it feels good. Gift yourself and gift a friend because it’s a mission we will all benefit from.

And finally, we want to gift you, too!

Saturday 11/30 over the entire 24hrs you can purchase 45 Minutes of Design Tips for $45 to redeem anytime in 2020! The Design Tips will be done via video chat, (Facetime, Google Duo, Whats App, etc), so you can show me around your home and discuss your needs! I will listen and make suggestions including paint colors, furniture ideas to consider, furniture layout, art arrangement, styling ideas, and anything else I feel would be helpful for the way you live in your space. If this sounds like something you’d like to treat yourself with, or someone you love, please email chelsea@stylemutthome.com and I will direct you how to pay and send you a digital certificate you can share with your loved one.

We hope this list helps you get started on your holiday gifting! Remember to take time to slow it down; time is truly the best gift and spending it with those you love will never be a regret.

Living Room Feature Wall Makeover

I’m never short on ideas for our 1980s partial split level, it’s true. But they go through a rigorous filtering system, I promise! Step one: Tell Matt the idea. Ha! Over our 9+ years as homeowners, I’d say we’ve become a pretty good design team! Never thought I’d be saying that, but Matt's background and interest in basic construction has rounded out to a really creative eye as well. It’s been a lot of fun seeing this side of him come out, and I genuinely trust and depend on his opinion.

So in January of this year when I tossed out the idea of doing an electric fireplace on the main wall of our living room, I trusted it would take him some time to mull it over. Which I was prepared for! I had created a digital design of what it would look like in our space and had gathered some inspiration to get the creative juices flowing. But first, let’s take a look at what our living room looked like at the beginning of the year!

The industrial pipe shelves were one of our favorite DIY projects together, (how-to here!), but after we did our kitchen renovation last Fall, there were a lot of industrial elements in the space and these were easily the heaviest. I really love these shelves, but I have grown a strong appreciation for design that suits the space, and our home just doesn’t have that kind of industrial vibe. I love that style, personally, but I need to be careful with how to implement it. SO, I sold these at the end of the summer and made room for a new wall feature!

There were a lot of images that inspired our plan, but I narrowed down to share my top three. We will be incorporating elements of each of these in our final design!

This image by Carol Estes won me over the first time I laid eyes on it. The ‘nook’ created by the fireplace bump-out and the adjacent wall is the perfect size for built-in shelves. Our plan includes a similar sized nook which we will run the full length up with shelves. Carol is one of my favorite designers to follow on instagram! Her spaces are earthy but interesting, and she always peppers in some details that are unique, like the dark painted wall behind these shelves! You can follow Carol here!

This is the tutorial we are following almost precisely for our surround! When Erin from Kismet House shared that they built a surround for their electric fireplace, I completely hung up my idea of doing a real fireplace in favor of this maintenance-free, less invasive option for our particular home. Her tutorial is here and we followed the shopping list and step-by-step almost exactly. We have a vaulted ceiling, so our measurements and cuts were a little different, but you get the idea!

Amber Lewis is my absolute favorite interior designer. I have been so inspired by her story of starting from scratch, (college dropout), and hustling hard to grow her business. Her style is laid back but full of interesting pieces. This image inspired a little built-in bench we’ll be doing on the other side of our surround. We need storage on our main floor so ours will have a flip up lid, like a piano bench. You can follow Amber on Instagram here!

So our plan is a mix of other peoples designs. This is what I created and showed Matt, and what we are attempting to build! Thankfully, we have a very talented friend helping us out so it shouldn’t be too far from this when all is said and done!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Come back soon for the final reveal!

Easy-Glide Dresser + Art Sugar

There are pros and cons to tackling a refinishing project for a dresser that is not actually vintage:

1) Usually the dressers aren’t made of solid wood.
2) Sometimes that means it’s too difficult to remove the drawers for easier transportation
3) On the plus side, they more often than not have smoother gliding drawers than their older counterparts

Like Mr. Easy-Glide here:

I liked his clean lines and tapered legs but he is definitely an assemble-yourself number. All his guts are labeled with little A-G alphabet stickers. But what you loose with newer construction, you gain with functionality. And these drawers slide like a pad of butter on a hot skillet. So he was worth a second look in my opinion - and a second chance to stand out.

My go-to secret for instantly updating a dresser is usually adding legs. But Mr. Easy-Glide already had a decent set of gams.

So I deployed my next go-to trade secret: change the pulls placement. Instead of leaving them dead-center, I changed the pulls and moved them to be perched right at the top of each drawer. It’s a very subtle move, and patching in the old holes meant painting the body, but it allows for a fresher take on a standard box store dresser.

For the body color I chose “Swiss Coffee” - an StyleMutt staple I might add, but usually for wall color. I decided to try it on this piece because 1) I needed a warm white to play well with the wood tones and 2) I had plenty of it lying around ;)

The dresser is actually painted the same color as the wall here - see how beautifully it holds both light and shadow? We love this color because it’s like a living neutral. It’s not devoid of personality just because it’s white.

And yes - that’s a cameo from my cantilever chair flip.

I asked him to step in as a supporting roll to some fall foliage and my new favorite pieces of art: these two Art Sugar abstracts by Caroline Orr.

You know you’re getting happy mail when the box has Sugar in the name. And opening these art pieces when they arrived was like unwrapping some confiscated Halloween candy. I’m talking KING sized bars if you’re picking up what I’m laying down.

Known mostly for their pop art prints, Art Sugar has prints in multiple sizes supporting a myriad of artists - with a portion of each purchase going to charity. Their prices are affordable but if you’re not sure, you can even rent one of their pre-framed pieces for 90 days to make sure you’re in love with the look.

When I saw Caroline Orr’s abstract collection, I didn’t need 90 days. Caroline’s watercolor shapes, whispered handwritings, and torn paper mixed media all spoke to me. And most notably her strong moments of color! I believe that when you bring art into your home, it should elicit a guttural response - otherwise it’s just wall filler.

Together, they were the inspiration of my whole vignette - Tupelo Honey with his mossy greens and pops of blue…

And Etta James with her soft pinks and bold red and orange accents. They demanded a visually striking foliage that could handle their spotlight so what better than some maple branch clippings in peak fall colors?

If you’re shopping for ready-to-hang artwork, check out some of their fun and sometimes cheeky prints.

And if you’re shopping for a fresh dresser, email me for more about our purchase and shipping options.

Easy-Glide Dresser
Now Available for Sale
54"L x 16"D x 34"H
$695


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