Reader Design: Amy's Perfect Imperfection

It'sssssssssssssssssssssssss Friday!  And I'm particularly excited about sharing today's reader design because of the heart behind this home in Minneapolis, MN: Amy from Modern Chemistry at Home.  While emailing back and forth with Amy about sharing her style mutt space on the blog, it became very apparent she's a kindred spirit.  Much like us, her desire is to see people encouraged and empowered in their own home decorating.  She too believes that creating is a form of worship.  But like many forms of worship it can be too easy to get caught up in the beauty of what you're creating instead of why you're creating it.  We just love how Amy has made it her mission to embrace her home's imperfections and create a real, raw, and inviting space.

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From Amy:

Hello, everybody! My name is Amy, and I really am a style mutt. In fact, my blog (Modern Chemistry at Home) got its name partly because my husband and I have very different tastes and my decorating is something like a chemistry experiment as we merge our styles.
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My style perspective has definitely changed over the years. My point of view has developed through having children and learning to think about function just as much as how a space looks. 
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I’m definitely drawn to spaces that have a mixture of styles. Some of my favorites include Midcentury and Scandinavian Modern, but I also really enjoy children’s spaces and would seriously put pretty much anything from Land of Nod in my living room or bedroom. 
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I love a cheerful room. Natural light, lots of white, fun patterns, and bright colors speak to me. Clearly, my decorating isn’t too serious!
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And a big part of my story as we renovated and decorated our fixer-upper is how God worked in my heart to help me be content and understand that my identity is not in how my home looks. Our home is a place to raise our littles, live life together, and bless others through hospitality. It can be beautiful, but perfection isn’t my goal. 
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There are quite a few things in our home that I inherited from my grandparents. There is a special joy in decorating with these furnishings. 

GASP!  I must have this entire vignette - especially those bookends!!!!

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One of my favorites is the big dresser in our bedroom. My sister-in-law discovered that it is probably an Empire style dresser. The shape is so lovely!
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My favorite DIY might be the white bookshelves a friend helped me build. They flank the fireplace in our living room and I just love them so much. It’s satisfying to make something with your own two hands!

Well done Amy - those bookshelves look like they should've come with the house!

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And my favorite room is probably the nursery. Again, I enjoy children’s spaces because they are often so bright and cheerful.
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Decorating this room helped me develop my style and gain some confidence. So with this room as a sort of guide for how I wanted the rest of our home to feel, I reworked other spaces in my home that didn’t feel right to me. I made a lot of mistakes the first time around! But the process of trial and error can be really enjoyable—in hindsight, after we get it right. ;)
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I just love decorating creatively and it is my heart to help and encourage others to do the same.
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Thank you Amy for so sweetly inviting us into your perfectly imperfect home.  Follow Amy  @modernchemistryathome for more decor goodies and check out her full home tour on her fabulous website!

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You want in on this? Submit to #stylemuttspaces for your chance to be featured in a Friday Reader Design.  No design experience necessarily you just got to love your space and what to share it ;)  

Reader Design: Veronica's Boho Haven

So this Friday reader design can practically write itself.  It's just that picturelicious and our bohemian princess of a host does such a wonderful job of narrating the entire juicy tour.

Meet Veronica of Hamlet Interiors in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Source:  Carley Page

Bonafied bohemian princess no?  Just wait till you see her kilim-clad, plant-pleothra,  breathy-boho palace:

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This space is right off the kitchen. As you can see I'm obsessed with plants. I currently own over 35 and don't plan to stop. We had the benches built. I found these chairs thrifting and had them covered with a Kilim.

You must mean 35 plants per room right Veronica?  Your home is practically dripping in beautiful touches of flora!

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I collect textiles. I just started a textile company that debuts in December selling Moroccan textiles.  The one shown here is a Turkish prayer rug.
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I may have too many plants on the table. They make me happy

Nonsense Veronica.  If you can keep them all alive - then you can have as many plants as you want.

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Proof I change things a lot :-)
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Just a close up of my kitchen. We opted for gray cabinets and quartz counters. We renovated the entire home. This space took the longest to complete.

But boy did that reno pay off:

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This is a shot of my kitchen before plants came into my world. You would be surprised to see all the greenery now.
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The shelving area near the kitchen. Where I store all my pretties. And my plants.
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This is a close up of how I have styled my shelves near my kitchen nook. They change on the monthly. As a designer and creative I constantly crave change.

Yup.  We style mutts have caught the same constant-change bug.

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We had our home featured on design sponge early on in my design career.  I found these equipale chairs and knew they would be perfect for the space.
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My dining space evolved over time. I started with a small shelf and then realized I wanted a non symmetrical shelving unit to house all my knick knacks. I'm hoping over time to add more pieces from my travels (I've been to over 13 countries) our contractor made this from plumbers pipe sprayed black and stained pine. I don't DIY. So there's that

Teehee - not everyone is up to a DIY as massive as built-ins!   But if you are, Chelsea has this great tutorial for pipe shelves.

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This is my DREAM COUCH people!!!  Warm leather.  Ugh.  I want.
  Veronica, if you find it missing one day... well I may have just incriminated myself...

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This is the master. We decided to paint the back wall bohemian black. The name sold me. I'm a boho girl! This space will probably change again but I'm all about letting a home shape the design aesthetic. Exterior and interior flow
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So this corner of my bedroom has been changed 4 times or so. To curb my desire to purchase things I just move around what I already have. Nothing against buying something but usually I think about whether I really have a spot for it and if it's functional. Although peacock chairs are just pretty and not that functional. I have 3 of them.
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Close up of all the texture that I love
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What an adorable little office-let!  You would never realize it was in such a small little nook because it's so light and airy!

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We have a daughter with special needs (Down syndrome and CP and heart defects) that wasn't supposed to survive past birth but she is Gods miracle baby. She is now 5. We call her our fierce girl. We keep a bed in her room in case the nanny stays over or if we need to be near her.

Doesn't that just make you catch your breath a little?  That typographical art has so much more power knowing the meaning to Veronica and her little miracle.  Chelsea has a chalkboard in the kitchen that says speak words that make souls stronger - she says it's a "gentle, visible reminder to build my children and loved ones up."  Not being a mother myself, I can only imagine how many daily prayers like these you all whisper over your children.  Such meaningful artwork is a powerful glimpse of a mother's love.

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Here is another spot in my special girls room. More plants to behold
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This is a old shot of my sons room. I'm not finished with the new space yet. This is from our design sponge tour.
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We decided to keep a paneled wall. We like to keep things interesting. It's the only space we left original to the home
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My front door situation that changes every 3 months. Just for fun.

Thank you Veronica for guiding us through such a sweet tour of your bohome.  I can't wait for your textile company's launch this winter.  If it's anything like the tour of texture we've just seen in your home, then I will start saving to be one of your first customers.  Be sure to follow Veronica @hamletinteriors for more bohemian inspiration and sweet peeks into her precious family.

And friends, we just can't get enough of these Friday features.  If you have a home you love, then by all means - let us show it off!  Just tag your pics with #stylemuttspaces on Instagram or post them to our Facebook page and we'll contact you with further details.

Boys' Room Reveal + A Stencil Giveaway!

A stenciled room makeover - again!

After 8 months since my first stenciled room makeover, (which was followed by another a month later at my grandparents' assisted living home), it was only a matter of time before using Cutting Edge Stencils to transform another room in our house!

Colin and Mason's room!

After bunking the beds we had an entire wall to play with. My hope for this room was that it be a fun, open space where our imaginative wild things could let loose and be themselves. And like most wild things, they love being in their natural habitat where they're simply free to be. Our house backs into woods filled with all sorts of wildlife, and the kids enjoy finding interesting things back there every day. The Birch Forest stencil just seemed too perfect for bringing a bit of the carefree outdoors in!

As with the previous walls I've stenciled, this was a piece of cake! Cutting Edge Stencil's sheets are 26" x 48", which makes rolling the pattern on super easy! I blue tape the corners and edge of the stencil in place, use a foam roller, (with a bit of paint, not too much or it cakes inside the small details of the stencil), and roll the paint on in a matter of seconds. When finished with one area, I lay the roller down on the paint tray, gently peel off the stencil sheet, and line it up in the next spot.

Here is a quick tutorial video from CES that shows these steps in action!

 

This stencil is really the only major thing going on in the room! I considered a few different options for toy storage, but when this petite mid-century cabinet turned up at a yard sale for $30, I decided to reuse the guys' bookshelves which were previously painted blue, to flank the little piece. I love these pieces as a unit and it's exactly the right amount of room for their toys and books.

The funny little LED lights are exactly like the clip-on lights we have in our master bedroom. I found them at Lowes and sprayed them gold, (just like I did to ours). They don't ask for a lot of attention in the room which is just what I was looking for. :)

With so much going on on the opposite wall, I wanted to keep the beds simple. White comforters and homemade quilts from the boys' Nana, (my sweet Mother-In-Law), do the trick just fine. I also hung wire file baskets on the walls for bedside books, and hung simple reading lights, (both from Target), so my guys can have some quiet reading time at the beginning and end of the day. Our Colin's reading light goes on long before the sun comes up - I LOVE that he has this space to quietly read and play before getting ready for the day. It fills my heart to see this room getting loved and used so well.

Mr. Fox here came from H&M and I swear I catch him winking now and then. Such a sly guy. I found him in store on super sale for $5! I've looked for him online with no luck, but this guy is available, as well as his friends, Owl and Wolf. Love how these gorgeous pillows double as art!

This mid-century wicker chair is by far my best freebie find yet! I saw it sitting outside a thrift store with a modest price tag of $10, (!!!), but when I went inside to pay they told me I had accumulated enough customer loyalty points to take a piece for free!

Life is so much more fun with pattern, isn't it?!

If you agree then we've got a huge treat for ya! The ridiculously gracious team at Cutting Edge Stencils has offered to give another one of our readers a complimentary stencil of their choice! Last Spring we partnered together to give away a stencil, and our lucky winner, Julie, did this with her prize:

It's amazing what a little bit of pattern can do. You can turn any ordinary piece of furniture, or an entire room, into something extraordinary! We are completely smitten with Julie's use of pattern here and it's a great reminder that even if you're not into an allover wall pattern, there are still impactful projects you can do with a stencil!

1. Check out Cutting Edge Stencils and pick a favorite pattern
2. Leave a comment below with the name of your favorite stencil
3. That's it! For bonus entries you can like their Facebook page and follow their blog.

We'll take entries until Thursday, October 1 at 12 noon EST. We can't wait to see which patterns catch your eye!

Thank you all so much for stopping by!