Playing with Jewel Tones

Guys!  I have a new apartment!  More importantly though, said new apartment has a GARAGE!!!  You know what that means my friends... I finally have my own StyleMutt workshop!  No more slugging pieces up flights of apartment stairs [and by me I mean Caleb].  No more heavy chemicals in the kitchen.  No more painting piece on the balcony - much to the amusement of our befuddled neighbors.  And since we moved in November, I've acquired not one, not two, not three, but FOUR new pieces to work on at once...  Praise the Lord for concrete floors, unloading in the driveway, and storage space.  I promise to give you a decor tour of our actually living space this week, but in the mean time one of my projects needs your input ;)  I have a STATEMENT of a dresser in the queue for furniture flip bucket list item number 5 [why do I always go out of order?!?]

Jewel Tones Text.jpg

Let's take a look at our pre-jeweled candidate.  Ain't she a beaut?  My super strong and oh-so-talented younger sister-in-law Casey [Chelsea's lil sis] helped me pick up this lovely lady.

With the help of some handy-dandy rendering, I have mocked up this dresser in some bright colors and would love your input!  Some of these colors I've used before in refinishes but I'm not ruling any repeats out just yet.  I want the dresser to tell me what color it wants [and you all too].  So first up, let's try on teal:

Yes yes I know what you're thinking - Cate, haven't we seen this color from you before...?  And you're right.  I have done a teal & gold one-two knock-out punch combo before with this lil bamboo number:

I just can't help myself.  I look at that teal rendering and I get giddy.  But I have more colors to try on so I'm open to being swayed...  Next up: Poppy.

There's just something about a pop of red am I right?  I could see her all done up in scarlet, making a statement in any room like this little she-devil: 

But what about an enchanting emerald?  Chelsea won me over with her emerald highboy last fall and I've been aching to give green a go of my own.

Green pieces are becoming more and more a symbol of luxe in the home - a saturated viridescent could be a winning hit for some shopper.

Or maybe I go really bold with a vivid magenta...

It's girly and glam and would be a show-stopping moment.  But would it be too risky for a prospective buyer?

I've always been drawn to a rich Chartreuse!  Anthro has the right idea here with a green-gold campaign piece.  

But again, is citron too decor forward or should I say decorward?

And then there's navy.  Another color I have played with before.  Last year I put a navy & gold dresser on my 2015 flip list and I LOVED how it turned out on this campaign piece.  

 

Even though the blue came out more saturated in these photos, a deep deep blue was such a winning look.  

Perhaps it's indulgent to include navy in my jewel-tone prospects but I couldn't help but mock up this long-and-low in a deep navy.  Where magenta and chartreuse may be too risky, navy is rapidly becoming the new neutral and so easy in integrate with any home's style.

so what say you?  Which of these gems would you like to see come to life?  I'd love your feedback in the comments below or on vote on instagram!

Reader Design: An Artists Bungalow

Well alert the papers and toss the confetti!

This isn't just our first reader design of 2016, it's our 50th tour on our Spaces page! We are incredibly humbled by the talent and inspiration spilling over that page and it doesn't slip by us that it's our most viewed page and generates the most traffic to our site. You are amazing and we are so very grateful for what StyleMutt Home is because of your generosity in sharing here. We wanted all our eclectic pals to feel at home and have a sense of ownership here at StyleMutt Home and sharing through the Reader Design home tours, (collected on our SPACES page), has turned out to be an amazing way to get involved. If you're a new friend here and interested in a home tour feature, all you've got to do is contact us at admin@stylemutthome.com! We'll be happy to chat with you!

We are celebrating our big 5-0 today with a true style mutt's home. Holly not only knows how to blend style and functionality, but her home also serves as a gallery for her brilliant art pieces. Let's take a look around!

Holly:

My husband and I moved back to Peterborough (my hometown), in Ontario, Canada two years ago. This 1300 sq ft bungalow was the only house we looked at and I knew this was where we should raise our family. We have two daughters age 4 & 6, our dog Dublin is our first child age 9.
In our foyer there was no room to hang coats or bags. My Uncle helped me hang salvaged pieces of wood on the wall and then we added hooks. I was on the hunt for the perfect hardware online and my mom mentioned that she had a bag in her basement I might be interested in. She had saved these hooks from her childhood home, I think they add character with the bits of pink paint chipping off. 

 

My favourite spot to relax and enjoy a cup of tea is on our sofa in the living room. This room also gets incredible light and I’m able to look around and see so many of our collectibles and artwork. We love midcentury design and architecture, and bungalows are what I’m personally drawn to.

Well, hello there, Dublin!

The kitchen has a full wall of windows that opens up to a very private yard. In the warmer months it is filled  shade, something our last backyard was lacking. Our girls are able to play and we can watch them from inside if we are preparing a meal or lounging in the living room. The previous homeowners did a great job on the renovation in this space and it is filled with high end appliances. While the finishes may not have been my first choice, I’m learning to like them. My studio is in the basement so if I feel like painting upstairs I set up at the table & get messy with our girls. 
Our taste is definitely an eclectic mix of styles. I love thrifting and mixing vintage furniture and accessories with my artwork. I love colour, texture and pattern and I’m not afraid to mix things together. I think when friends enter our home they see our personalities in our décor choices and artwork. 

Thank you so much, Holly, for this amazing tour! What brilliant style; so inspiring. You can follow Holly and her work on Instagram @hollyyoung77 and on her site, www.hollyyoungart.ca.

Thank you so much for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

Show Us Your Bar Cart || and meet my Christmas tree ||

As Chelsea shared last week, the whole family shlepped out to a local tree farm to chop down our own Christmas trees.  Now, there's something more... intimate... about going the cut-your-own route for the holidays.  Don't get me wrong, I loved every minute of the process.  But let's just say, "organic trees" do not go quietly...

First we scourged an entire forest for our perfect candidate.  He's big, and rugged, and an all-around beast.  So we battled with the branches just to get our saw some bark to bite.  Then we [and by we I mean the fella's] applied some major elbow grease to get that bad boy to part from it's stump.  Now the candidate is officially a conquest and we have to drag it through the woods back to check-out so it can get prepped and wrapped for transport - a process which involved at least 5 men to shove our lush fur through the netting hoop.  After we strapped it to the car [or in our case, threw it in the truck] we hauled it home and wrestled it into it's prominent place only to find it had a diameter of like 5ft AKA half our new living room.  So we resorted to drastic measures and gave it's back branches a quick haircut [think an angled bob...] just so we could shove it deeper into the corner.  After the first round of needle-vacuuming, we were ready to decorate.  But our beast was not interested in getting gussied up: his razor like needles bit everytime I came at him with a bauble.  I eventually started throwing ornaments on from a safe distance, hoping they'll catch...  It's no wonder, after all that, your cut-your-own tree becomes a reluctant member of the family [meet Chelsea's tree Paul Pfeiffer].  We affectionately nicknamed ours...

The Beast [see the resemblance?]

 
 

He's ruing the day he met us I just know it.

 

We are still moving in to our new place so there's not much more to see just yet, but I do have one other holiday stop on the tour before you go: our pop-up holiday bar cart!

Caleb and I are not mixologists by any means so we rarely have anything "fun" in steady supply.  But when you hit the season of holiday hosting, it can be fun to have a pop-up bar for all your festivities!  So I put our suitcase table to good use with the help of a small vanity mirror, a strand of lights, a strand of garland, and some tree trimmings [from the Beast's haircut to be exact].  Viola!  A festive impromptu drink station.

So just to recap, my holiday recipe for an easy pop-up bar cart is simple:

1 Folding Tray Table
1 Suitcase
1 Mirror

And dear DIY friend Brandi over at Don't Disturb this Groove has kindly organized a whole slue of holiday bar cart inspiration for your perusing pleasure.  Be sure to browse the tag #ShowUsYourBarCart on Instagram at 10am EST to check out the other savvy ideas from some fellow fabulously festive creatives.

I promise to give you a formal tour of our new apartment in the new year dear friends!  I just need to survive the holiday's first ;)