2019 Furniture Flip Bucket List

OK 2019. Let’s be real. After how the 2018 Furniture Flip Bucket List wrapped up, I’ve come to the conclusion I’ll need to be a bit more realistic with this year’s flippin’ goals. This year’s list is going to be a little shorter than usual for one really exciting reason:

Baby!

It’s true - last year I only crossed off 6 of the 7 flip list items and yet this year I’m still plowing ahead with a set of goals plus a baby on the way?!?! In fact, let’s just blame last year’s shortcomings on moving in the spring followed by my 1st trimester in the summer. I may be nuts - especially because this little girl is our first and we are both acutely aware that we have no REAL idea of what we’re in for. But I do know that I want so badly for my girl to see me invest in something for me. I grew up in a family where my mom had all sorts of creative irons in the fire and where every time my dad was stationed to a new country, we encouraged each other to find outlets outside of the home in order to establish some roots quicker. So I very much intend to still tackle as many items on the 2019 list as possible. You ready to read what I have on deck?

I’m limiting myself to only 5 items this year and I already have a huge heap of grace reserved in case I don’t get to very many of them. With all the unknowns of new parenthood up in the air, I’m sure I’m going to need it. What if she’s colicky? What if I have crippling post-partum? What if she never sleeps... like ever? What if I go back to my day job after maternity leave and just can’t function without her so I want to spend all my time with her when I’m home instead of working on a piece in the garage? I just don’t know what to expect this year but I’m excited to find out. Let’s take a closer look at what I’m hoping to tackle circumstances permitting:

No.1 Man Cave

Let’s just say my husband may be my toughest client. He recently asked me to take a second look at his “man space” to see if I could make it more homey but in a totally manly way. Challenge accepted.

Source: Jackman Chiu

No.2 Cantilever Chair

I have been crushing on cantilever chairs for years now [see my dining chairs for example] but would like to make a standalone cantilever statement chair like this dreamboat.

Source: Okay Art

No.3 Lighting [of my dreams]

This exaggerated wall sconce has been infiltrating my pinterest feed for years. And it’s high-time I do something about it. This year, I aim to source the perfect one to design a dramatic moment in our home.

Source: France and Sons

No.4 Back to Black

I mean, how sexy is that black and wood?!? I’ve used an inky blue/ black in several of my past projects [exhibits A, B, C, and D]. I want to really play up this contrast by using jet black on a piece or two [or three].

Source: Amber Interiors

No.5 Nursery

Again - this is the reason I’m only giving myself 5 items this year. I’m no fool - who’s to say what I’ll actually be up to accomplishing this year with our first little one on the way. But I do know that at some point I’ll have a nursery reveal to share!

Source: Miss Moss

I hope you follow along with this year’s progress (both in furniture and in our little family). Here’s to new projects and new chapters!

Catch up on past Furniture Flip Bucket Lists:

2015

2016

2017

2018

Small Step To A Healthier Home

Hi Friends! I already checked off my only New Years resolution this past week - to get a physical! It’s so hard to make these appointments when you’re feeling well and have a busy schedule. Visiting the doctor is something you carve out time for only when you’re sick, right? Matt and I both needed to get physicals as it had been a few years, so we made a date out of it and scheduled ours back to back. Mine started with a series of questions about my lifestyle, (Do you eat a well balanced diet? Do you exercise regularly? Do you get enough sleep?), and with the choice of answers being limited to Always, Inconsistently, and Never, I found myself in the unavailable category of ‘Interested’.

I am always interested in taking better care of myself and my family. I have spent many a late night in bed browsing information on essential oils, cancer fighting foods, and apparent toxins found in sunscreen. There is so much information out there - too much for me to handle, that’s for sure! It just isn’t feasible for us to make the number of changes that would be needed to avoid every single possibility of sickness. But small changes we can do!

This past year I became more aware, (through my sister, actually!), of some of the harmful ingredients in our day to day hygiene products, (soaps, lotions, hair care, etc). A doctor friend of mine who blogs about these topics shared a list of where to find healthier, ‘clean’ products. As I scrolled through, thinking I’m going to change our entire regime, I was stunned by the prices - and the quantities! $15 for 12oz of shampoo. Are you kidding? There are 5 heads of hair to wash in this house! And after dealing with lice this time last year I am not skimping on hair washing, people!!!

It couldn’t have been better timing when Public Goods reached out to ask if I wanted to try some of their products. In their first email introducing themselves, they shared their desire to offer cleaner products for every day prices competitive to what you could find in a typical store. Game changer!

Public Goods ingredients are similar to their packaging - they leave out a lot more than they put in. Both are clean, simple and high quality.

Most impressive is the variety of products! They offer personal care, household cleaning supplies, linens, paper, oils - it’s an impressive line that doesn’t stop at just hygiene, or just household, as a lot of companies do. Since Public Goods is an online company, you pay a (very low) yearly membership fee in order to purchase their (very well priced) products. Items are delivered extremely fast, (mine arrived 2 days from when I placed the order), making planning ahead a cinch.

Purse friendly and pretty, too.

Health is always something we can do better on and I am okay with that. We’re still going to drink Swiss Miss and grab a weekly $5 deal at Little Caesars. But this is one change that is easy for me to make that I feel is worth it. These decisions are so personal as everyone needs to decide for themselves what changes are feasible for them. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to have tried Public Goods products and decide if they are worth swapping into our daily routine. If you would like to try, too, you can purchase one little item and then try out a free Travel Kit with smaller sizes of more items with code STYLEMUTT at checkout!

Cheers to baby steps and small changes towards better health! A huge thank you to my Mom and Dad for lending their BEAUTIFUL master bath so I could share these products with you. (You DO NOT want to see my bathrooms). And thank you so much for coming by today!

Best Laid Plans || 2018 Flip List Recap

Oh hey there January. When did you get here?

I came so close. Close but no cigar as they say. It’s not the first time I’ve neglected the final item on my annual Furniture Flip Bucket List (see what happened in 2016 for example) but I really did come close.

Every January, I publically declare my resolutions for the year with a list of projects or challenges I’d like to see myself complete. And sometimes the year gets the best of my despite my most noble intentions.

I may have left completing Item No.2 undone but I at least have something to offer the New Years Resolution Police:

My Plans

So what happened? Why didn’t I crank this last project out? I mean - I have the plans and measurements right here don’t I…? Did I run out of time? DId I get a little lazy? Did I change my mind?

Yes.

I admit it. I ran out of time and gusto to make this project happen in 2018. This happens sometimes when I hit a creative wall - when I sat down at my metaphorical drawing board, this project began to accrue a long list of challenges that I just couldn’t ignore:

• How to connect each table top + leg to each other with dowels

• How to stain tapered legs to match table tops

• Will the table tops be large enough to feel proportionate to leg length?

• Am I spending too much on the components to still make a profit

Maybe with some more time in the year I could have solved this puzzle, but the main reason it ended up on the cutting room floor was moolah. Without the connecting dowels or stain, I’m already running a tab close to $80 just for legs, table tops and mounding hardware.

Source: West Elm

Consider this: West Elm’s Clover Coffee Table (now discontinued) is the polished/ mass-produced version of my plans. Although no longer available, they were able to market their tables somewhere around $250. Even f I were able to assemble a table that looks as polished and try to list it for a similar price in the shop, this still means my profit margin would below my comfortable threshold.

It just wasn’t a practical project to take on. Maybe if I were in the market for a piece like this in my own home, I would give it a go. But the unknown risks far out weigh the potential for reward so I had to pass. For now.

So my 2018 list is incomplete. Alas. But exciting things are coming this year so stay tuned for the 2019 Furniture Flip Bucket List!

Catch up on the 2018 Furniture Flip Bucket List: