New product love! {Miss Mustard Seed milk paint}

This came for me in the mail recently

I felt like an 8yr old version of myself on Christmas morning!

Anyways, if you've been following this blog for a little while you may have figured out that I use a lot of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint to refinish furniture. This has nothing to do with discontent with the product, I just wanted to try something different. I have read and seen how milk paint flakes and chips off - a finish I adore but is impossible to achieve with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint; they're just chemically two different kinds of paint. It was time to try the chippy milk paint.

Miss Mustard Seed milk paint comes in powder form and then you mix what you need with warm water. This is something that will take some getting used to as far as consistency and quantity. The directions said to mix 1 part powder with 1.25 parts water. I started with a half cup of powder and the appropriate amount of water and found it a bit thick. This covered my tester piece, (a 60"L credenza), with one coat. My second 'batch' of paint came out a bit thin. I'll have to play with it some more, but ultimately, it achieved exactly the look I was hoping for. As I learn more about how to work with it, I will definitely share!

{While waiting for the first coat to dry, this started happening. It was thrilling! I think part of the lure of milk paint is how unpredictable it is. It peeled heavily in some areas, not at all in others.}

I'm beyond pleased with the product. Miss Mustard Seed milk paint comes in a variety of colors and neutrals, similar to Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I intend to use both products now as I discern which pieces will look better with which finish.

{Credenza painted in 'Grainsack}

 SOLD

Thank you for reading!

~Chelsea

This post was originally featured under Chelsea's Garage, now affectionately known as StyleMutt.

Make your eclectic style work {5 Tips}

Hi friends! This is a topic I've been excited to talk about for a little while. It's my own little collection of tips on how to decorate with an eclectic style aesthetic. Eclectic style is simply having a broad range of tastes and inspirations. I am sure that many of you, like me, cannot define your decorating style in one category, (elegant, bohemian, mid-century, country, etc). In fact, I have walked into only a few homes that are of one style aesthetic the whole way through. Personally, I prefer a more mixed and less match-y feel. Most people like a bit of this and a touch of that - and that's wonderful! But, sometimes it's hard to figure out how to use this and that in the same space together. So, let's take a look at some ways to make various styles work in one space!

1 -Earthy tones & a few pops of bright

You really can't go wrong with an earthy color palette. It makes combining various elements in one room much easier when you keep the big things, (walls, sofas, large area rugs), relatively neutral. Then you can play around with distinct snaps of color on lesser committal things, (pillows, wall art, lampshades, small area rugs, window treatments). 

{I really wanted our chandelier to be something funky and unusual, so I kept the rest of the dining room pretty low key so the fixture could stand out - how to found here}

 {Even a furniture piece, like a coffee table, can be fun to bring out your favorite color}

2 -Layering

Who says that everything from floor to ceiling needs to be of the same style genre? A geometric pattern on a rug with an old chippy wood coffee table is just one example of combining modern with vintage. Or a traditional Persian rug with a Lucite coffee table, (looks completely clear, like glass or plastic); a different way of combining old with new. If you pull together a color scheme that works well, (keeping the big things neutral), mixing various styles gets easier.

{I found this funky area rug at a thrift store, originally from IKEA - since it's neutral, it is the perfect modern element to offset our antique heirloom bedroom set}

{With both a traditional, neutral area rug and a rustic coffee table, I added some bright and colorful ombre throw pillows, (made from placemats, how-to found here) and a metal hexagon side table}

3 -Natural greens, (fresh or faux)

Bringing nature indoors is a simple trick for tying an eclectic space together. Greens often add a peaceful and calming vibe to a collected, layered space. 

4 -Edit

It is hard to pull the reigns back, especially when you have an eclectic aesthetic, but sometimes it's necessary when your eye is drawn to a variety of styles. I do love a rustic vibe, but I already have several rustic pieces floating around my home. I contrast those with my white furniture and walls, simple, clean lines for light fixtures, and a bit of shine here and there.

5 -Don't take the decorating too seriously

Your home is your own retreat and sanctuary. If you try to copy what you see in the magazines, you'll probably be disappointed when all is said and done. Own your style and have fun with it. Be surprising, be different. Don't over think. Decorate for the fun of decorating. Here are a few of my own ideas that I didn't have to think twice about; they're just for fun.

{Red tool box used as bench for my kids to pull their shoes on}

{Big ol' Duck Egg blue china cabinet in dining room}

{I converted a beat up chair into a hanging wall shelf for a client}

{Brought home these flea market antlers and recovered them in antique homespun linen}

{Decorated our deck when the weather was particularly nice one evening in summer}

{Passing on my love for art and creativity}

Thank you so much for stopping by!

~Chelsea

This post was originally featured under Chelsea's Garage, now affectionately known as StyleMutt.

Follow your instinct {one-of-a-kind dining set}

Hi guys! Have you ever tried something a little 'against the grain' and then felt so glad you did? I love stepping out and trying something different! Such was the case with this spectacular dining set I found a few weeks ago. The cane on the chairs was in perfect condition and, while the lines are simple, I felt like the set had so much potential to be stunning. You may recognize it as the set I posted right after I found it, asking if anyone wanted to customize it for themselves. Without any takers I got to have my own way with this dining set.

BEFORE

AFTER

For me, this refinishing job was a gamble. I really wanted to see some dining sets that had black painted chairs with a grey or off white table. It was the direction I'd been leaning toward from the beginning but just wanted to see if there were any examples of that out there in the great world wide web. I'm telling you, I typed all kinds of things in the Google search box and could not find anything like what I wanted to see. Not. A. Thing. I started to think that if there were no examples of this then there may be a good reason why. Maybe folks had tried it and it turned out terrible!

BUT, I figured that paint can always be changed and I really felt that this was the right direction to go with this set.

I gave the chairs 3 coats of Graphite by Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Graphite is an excellent choice if you want to get a really great vintage looking black with a matte finish. I wanted the cane on the chairs to be highlighted and I think the Graphite achieves that beautifully. To contrast the strength that dark chairs can have in a room I painted the table in French Linen, (a warm grey with a taupe-y undertone), and then worked in a soft whitewash with Old White, both by Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, (to get a whitewash I simply poured about half a cup of Old White in a plastic cup and mixed in a few tablespoons of water - I brushed the mixture on a few widths of the table at a time and then immediately wiped it off with pieces of torn t-shirt). When wiping off the whitewash with the rags, the paint pulled up in areas along the edge which I just let be for a beautifully worn look.

SOLD

Thank you for reading!

~Chelsea

This post was originally featured under Chelsea's Garage, now affectionately known as StyleMutt.