New Trend Alert: When Fashion Meets Decor

Hi Friends! With so many factors influencing today's trends, it's gotten near impossible to keep up! We find it best to balance the classics with nods to our favorite trends in an effort to keep things fresh without losing appeal. While we approach trends with caution and choose wisely which ones we'll incorporate in our work, there is, every now and then, a trend we are ready to run with at first sighting!

Today we're sharing such a trend we have recently come upon - and whether you're a traditionalist or a trend-setter, this is one we can see taking all of design by a storm! The best way to share it, we figure, is to show you!

There's a new phenomenon of dressing throw pillows in clothes. Silly as it may sound, it's actually brilliant! Add instant versatility to your wardrobe and get even more bang for your buck when you wear your clothes AND dress your pillows! Save on pillow covers and multiply the use for every article of clothing:

Afraid to step out in grandma's old fur for fear of animal rights activists? Pish-posh! Dress your pillow with finesse!

Getting ready for a cozy date-night-in? Set the mood with something a bit more....revealing.

Hosting a dinner party with mixed-company? Play it safe with a transitional piece that is sensible and sweet.

This trend is so versatile that you can also incorporate it in the bedroom.  It makes for a fun twist on his and hers pillows - no mistaking who's side of the bed is who's!

The proximity to your closet makes it even easier to color-coordinate your pillow's outfit with the other décor of the room. 

And as you switch out your wardrobe each season, you can easily do the same with your accent pillows.  We've been sporting the chunky sweater look for fall and winter, but just think of the countless possibilities!  

And as an added bonus, you can easily reposition the looks to keep things spicy...

Well we hope you all are having a wonderful joy-filled Easter with your loved ones.  And we hope you found this quick PSA both inspiring and insightful!  

Catch up past trend alerts:

2017

2016

2015

Oh and also...

Meet StyleMutt Home's NEW Design Assistant!

Hi Friends! We are THRILLED to introduce you to StyleMutt Home's newest team member, Joy Lewis! When we started the process of bringing on a design assistant to our team, we were completely humbled by the response. The turn out of passion and talent far exceeded our expectations, but we just kept coming back to Joy through each phase of the process. After meeting her it was the feeling I needed to have; total peace. She is someone that makes this growing process feel like the most natural thing in the world and she has already slid right in and taken on her first job, (with our first Australian client, nonetheless)!

It's such a delight to celebrate bringing Joy on our team with you today!

Joy has an impressive portfolio of projects under her belt that includes both her own home as well as corporate and private clients. We thought it might be a fun way of getting to know her better if we shared a few snippets of her past work!

Joy has the impressive skill of refinishing furniture to suit the style of the project at hand - this sweet storage cabinet was refinished by her hand and we are just smitten with her attention to detail, from color choice to the styling!

Joy and her husband tackled their own kitchen renovation recently and turned it into a functional, family friendly space that still maintains the character of their home.

The following are just a couple furniture makeover projects Joy has done. Isn't that ottoman the sweetest?!

Please join us in welcoming Joy to the StyleMutt Home team! We couldn't be more excited to have this sweet and talented lady on board with us. She truly is an answered prayer and the way she's jumped right in and gotten down to work in the brief time since she's started has already blessed our business in various ways.

We look forward to sharing the work that Joy is doing for StyleMutt Home as her projects progress! If you would like to see more of her previous work we invite you to head over to her site, Joy Lewis Design!

Thank you all so much for coming by!

eDesign Reveal: Dani's Dining Room

StyleMutt Home hasn't been offering design services for very long - just the past few years, with last year being a break through year that accounted for 23 individual jobs as I switched gears to follow my passion for design full time. I won't get into dull shop talk except to say, we are a small but mighty team! Each of us, Cate, Mckenna and myself, all share a passion for home, and I've discovered that we each bring unique skills to the table. The reveal that I've got for you today is such a fun example of what happens when heads and hands come together.

You may recall our reveal of our dear client, Dani's, living room and breakfast nook from last Summer. Prior to that reveal we had already begun work on her dining room which is just around the corner from those other areas of her main floor. As you can see below, it was very important to me that her home tell the same story throughout. No surprise colors or accent walls! Dani's style is soft but edgy and she's up for taking risks as long as they're practical.

Want to see a before picture for the books?

It's amazing, isn't it. Hah! Dani and her beau, Nate, did the hard part - they painstakingly peeled the wallpaper and painted the room before we even started working together! That's a gigantic first step for any space! So it was a fabulous white box when we arrived, except for the gorgeous Anthropologie table that Dani had already purchased, and the fancy-schmancy chandelier that they'd been instructed not to remove by the landlords, (this is a rental).

The chandelier was a stumper. It's not Dani's style but at the same time this is a formal dining room, afterall. There aren't many of those around anymore these days! So with my first formal dining room to design I was thrilled by the challenge of figuring out how to make it Dani's style and 'speak the same language' as the rest of the home, as Cate says. The three design boards below were the original ideas for the space, with the final design being a blend of 2 and 3.

Final design! I happened by my favorite local stop-in, Valerianne of D.C. to see what they had as far as storage pieces and art - it was a hoot snapping all the viable options that day and texting them to Dani for her thoughts! The piece in the board below won her heart and she snatched it up right over the phone while they wrapped it!

So the room was coming along as decisions were made regarding the larger items, but we needed a lot of things to layer in. As much as I adore those shelves for the way they're constructed, they weren't cutting it totally empty. I had an idea of what I wanted them to look like but it was fuzzy, like I couldn't make out the precise details. So I reached out to Cate and McKenna explaining how I thought a really monochromatic look with a lot of white elements and some fresh greens would complete the space really well. They proceeded to scour the internet for all the pretty, neutral things, and then Cate took those items and created a digital rendering of how to stye the shelves.

I mean, who gets to work with someone who can produce THAT?! It's pretty special. So with the big stuff and little stuff decided, our first formal dining room was born.

Oh yes, the old man sketch was also a Valerianne of D.C. purchase, framed at Michaels. We all like him and we don't know why. That's the best art though, isn't it?

Oh yes, before we go any further someone would like for everyone to know who's house this is:

Lonny has our hearts forever. We have a stack of pics of this sweet boy, but we'll stick with the room for today. ;)

One week before heading up to photograph the space with Cate I wasn't quite feeling a table centerpiece. I was toying with the idea of completely setting the table for the pictures, or creating a floral arrangement that would be placed off center...but nothing was sticking out as a winning idea. I texted my Momma, (who has a very good eye for this stuff), an unstyled progress picture of the room and asked for her thoughts. She suggested a long and narrow container full of tiny plants. Bingo! With little time to shop around I went to our local Lucketts Antique Store and found a galvanized metal feeding trough. Though the finish was too rustic for the space, there are times when you just can't beat finding the perfect dimensions. So I brought it home and gave it a couple coats of Rustoleum White Enamel. It's definitely a statement centerpiece without overwhelming the space. Exactly what the room needed! Way to go, Mom!

I think Cate had just a little bit of fun playing with these shelves before we took pictures. She styled them out of the park! That fuzzy idea I'd had months ago of how the shelves would look finished - this was totally it. How'd she do that?!

I love the peek-a-boo touch of brass on the chairs - such a subtle element but when I was looking into durable, wooden chairs that would measure up to the live edge and brass dining table, these spoke the language very well, indeed. I don't typically think of wooden chairs in a formal dining room, but these are pretty special.

Oh yes, and there's a gigantic mirror anchoring the entire other side of the room! It's not antique but it sure looks like it. That piece really ties the chandelier and other elements of the room together well.

Details for days...

Dani begged us to be in a shot where she was pretending to cut flowers. NOT! We asked her .237 seconds before snapping this if she'd mind jumping in so we could grab a living shot of the room. And guess who was right at her heels. :)

Well, that's a wrap! Sorry for the length today but I wanted to share a bit of the progress that went into transforming this space - it was such a fun experience! Dani just handed over her bedroom and we are thrilled to dive in and get started in there. We'll keep you posted!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!