DIY Succulent Wreath

November 20, 2015 Chelsea | StyleMutt Home

Over the past few years I've really enjoyed making holiday wreaths. Wreaths are such a fun way of adding your own personal flavor to holiday decorating and with a touch of creativity they don't have to be expensive or time consuming! I've made one new wreath each of the last few years but hadn't been planning to make one this year until I came across this simple twig wreath I hadn't done anything with from last year! I loved its simplicity and still do - but I thought of a simple way to add some fresh life to it over this holiday season!

I keep faux succulents mixed in with fresh ones throughout our home year-round. But in getting ready for the holidays I take the extras out to make room for evergreen branches and boxwood. So, I had this pile of faux succulents which I was about to bag up for the next few months, but had the idea to use them with the simple twig wreath!

This was SUCH an easy one - probably my least time consuming wreath yet - and these faux succulents were $1 from A.C. Moore. Easy and cheap; my kind of DIY!

The first step is simply laying your succulents over the wreath roughly where you want them to go. I played with a few asymmetrical looks, then tried spreading everything all the way around the wreath, but ultimately decided on arranging them all together at the bottom.

Faux succulents are attached to wire which makes it super easy to insert them into the wreath! I stuck the wire of each piece into the wreath at a slight angle and then curled the wire around the thicker twigs to keep each succulent piece in place.

What I love about using succulents is their depth! I love me a thick, visually interesting wreath and these beauties give this piece a lot of dimension; it's exciting from all angles!! (About as exciting as a wreath could be, that is...)

Here's a little walk through wreath memory lane if you want to give any of these a try for your holiday decor! Full tutorials included in each post; just click the picture!

Thank you for stopping by and have yourself a wonderful weekend!

Third Time's A Charm

November 13, 2015 Chelsea | StyleMutt Home

Sometimes silence speaks loud and clear.

I refinished this Anthropologie 'Sura' inspired dresser, (who's first life landed it in a dusty thrift store) ,last August and it slept through two Sweet Clover Barn sales, and months on Craigslist. Despite lowering the price, in all this time it has only received ONE serious inquiry, (but then the person asked us to not only take a chunk off the price, but deliver it 30 miles for free. What's going on in this world???). I had a better idea. The lack of inquires on this piece was screaming loud and clear.

I get it. Triangles aren't for everyone. And since the real estate in our single car garage packed with kids toys and lawn equipment is precious, precious, precious, I really can't afford to have a piece sitting for so long. So, I gave this piece another try with no looking back!

This time, a little toned down, but dapper none the less. :)

I used French Linen by Annie Sloan Chalk paint because I have always loved it layered over Old White. Since the frame was already painted Old White from my first makeover, I knew it would be fun to distress the French Linen enough to allow the Old White to peek through. And the contrast on the dark espresso stained drawers is just so rich. Gentle distressing just along the edges and corners instantly highlights the unique shape of the drawers, without being too much.

The best part of getting to do this piece again? Styling it again!!! I had a blast styling this piece this time around. French Linen is really fun to work with because it plays so well with a variety of colors! I've seen it work beautifully with vibrant blues and even chartreuse! Since I'm trying to sell this one fast, I kept the styling relatively neutral but still fresh and modern.

What triangles??

Available once again in the DC metro area!
40.25"H x 35"W x 19"D
$325
Contact chelsea@stylemutthome.com if interested!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Have yourselves a wonderful weekend.

Modern or Coastal ||Flip List Item No.2||

November 9, 2015 Cate | StyleMutt Home

So I'm trolling craigslist [like I've been known to do] and I found a modern dresser in need of some TLC. Now normally, I would pass right by a laminate dresser but this piece was... special.

It's hard to tell in this pic, but this "white monster" as I've affectionately nicknamed it, had a weird cream/white two tone thing going on. But it was still a modern dresser with glossy-fronted drawers that slide like butter. It the perfect candidate for Furniture Flip Bucket List item No.2: wrap a piece in a wood shim treatment.

wood shims taper off to one end so that you can wedge them in to help level something. I could have used flat wood and gotten more of a butcher-block look, but I wanted to use shims to recreate this uneven affect in my inspiration photo:

Source:  The Rycotewood Furniture Centre at OCVC — Source: The Rycotewood Furniture Centre at OCVC

So I went about covering the bright-white yucky laminate portions of the dresser with the wood shims: the top, sides, and toe-kick. I started out with the intention of creating a polished modern look like the photo above but as I worked on it, it began to steer me in a different direction.

I liked how raw and rustic the cedar shims looked untreated (and not to mention the cedar smelled AH-MAH-ZING). So I just went with it and ended up with a piece that's both modern and coastal:

To play off the unfinished wood's beachy vibes, I styled it with some tropical leaves [that I may or may not have harvested from a decorative potted plant in a parking lot. I kinda felt like Chelsea did when "smuggling" home some paint sticks for this DIY project].

I then added a couple seaside touches like this piece of coral.

To play up the dresser's more modern side, I added vintage candle sticks with clean lines. Despite the uneven surface, the shims are narrow enough that items large and small can find a flat surface to rest on anywhere across the top.