A Touch Of Quirky

I love adding quirky and eclectic touches throughout our home if you haven't noticed. One trend that I see often in baby nurseries is fabric garland. There is something so whimsical and perfectly imperfect about the mixing and matching of fabric into the formation of garland to hang....really anywhere in your home.

Our headboard was the perfect canvas for my little project. Everything in our bedroom is stuff that my husband and I had prior to getting married. Our dressers and bed was my husbands, and our nightstands and headboard were mine. We painted them and made them our own but now we are in the process of getting more grown up stuff. Don't get me wrong, we LOVE what we have but some of it is childish....seriously, the dressers were my husbands since he was little haha. So eventually when we find pieces we like we will get them (thrifted of course). But until the search for new dressers happens I wanted to start on our master bedroom re-do and make a fabric garland for our headboard.

My vision for our bedroom is soft neutrals. Lots of whites and greys. But I wanted to add a whimsical touch and there is something so dreamy about fabric garland. So what better place than a bedroom where the dreaming takes place?!

I started with 5, 18x21 fabric squares from Wal-Mart. They were 97 cents a piece....STEAL! If you want your fabric strands to be longer you can buy fabric by the yard. I didn't want the fabric completely hiding my headboard so I opted for these squares.

I then took the squares and did 8 little cuts in each at about 1.5in apart to look like this. 

After doing this to each of the squares. I ripped each piece quickly. Your fabric will fray but thats ok, it gives it character!

You will end up with a pile of fabric that looks like this! I had 45 pieces of fabric in total. I then took a piece of twine about 5ft long and looped the fabric around the twine.

*There are different methods for doing this. You can knot it, twist it, loop it like I did...do whatever you like, it's YOUR project*

Once I finished I pinned the garland up onto our headboard and... voila!

Have FUN with it! Bedroom, living room, bathroom, nursery, etc. These adorable fabric garlands are the perfect touch of whimsical that your home is asking for! I can't wait to make some for Christmas to hang up around the apartment!

happy decorating

COFFEE TABLE RE-DO & RUG REVEAL

If you have been to our apartment or have been following my blog and/or Facebook, you have come to realize I love quirky, loud, funky, eclectic items. Our apartment is as I like to call it, "eclectic chic". From bright colored velvet retro chairs, to gum ball machines ..we have a little bit of everything in our apartment.

However something that we did not have, but I have been searching for, for far too long was a Turkish style area rug for our living room. I have had an obsession with these styled rugs for a long time now. I mean just look at these gorgeous creations sent from heaven above ...

(they add the perfect Bohemian flare in this little ones nursery)

 (I swear I am drooling on my computer screen right now! That pattern. Those colors. Amaze balls!)

(In this neutral living room, it adds the perfect amount of color. It is strikingly beautiful but not obnoxiously loud)

You are obsessed now too, huh? It's ok, it is completely understandable. If you weren't slightly obsessed I would have to check your pulse to see if you were alive. 

So I searched, searched, searched. Mostly on sites such as craigslist or a page I follow on Facebook that is a community based page where people will sell things (mostly home goods) for a discounted price. But I had no luck. And I just wouldn't pay full priced for one because most of them have a starting price of $1,000 and "you see the way my bank account is set up" *side note* if you don't know what that quote is from you HAVE TO check out Kevin Hart's Stand Up Skit, it's HYSTERICAL!

Ok, so back to how darn expensive these sexy rugs are. Some can range up to$12,000! Disgusting, I know. So I do what I always do when I want things for cheaper, I go to Amazon. I typed in "Turkish Style Rug" and BOOM up pops a company that makes rugs for the CHEAP. And when I say cheap I mean cheap. Take a look at what I'm talking about HERE...and maybe in the process order one for yourself hehe.

I looked through a bunch of different options, and I found two that I liked and let my husband pick between those two. He did good, y'all!! Just look....

I love the way it looks with our new black wall!!

And our bright green and teal chairs. AHHH I am in love!

I am thrilled with it. And I must say, the price did not match the quality of this rug. I was shocked! It is extremely well made, it flattened out fast, and was true to color and size.....I'm still wondering why on earth I ever bought from any other company.

Because this rug is fabulous as can be but also very busy I had to re-do our coffee table. If you have been following my blog you know our coffee table use to look like this...

I painted it and then tufted the top with this retro printed fabric I found at Wal-Mart. It was great for the time being but with our new rug I didn't want the patterns to clash so I opted for something a lot more simple and rustic.

I originally wanted to take the entire top off the table but this thing was built like a fortress so I had to think of another plan. So I ended up taking the tufting off the table top, which took me FOREVERRRRR but whatevs, I got the job done. Then the next day I went to our local hardware store to pick up some 1x4 pieces of untreated wood and had the gentleman there cut it into 7 46" pieces. I also bought some PL Premium Polyurethane Adhesive. I put some of the adhesive on the tabletop and then placed the wood pieces on top of the adhesive. This adhesive is the BOMB DOT COM....however you want to use it on surfaces that aren't painted or treated and the table top of our coffee table had paint on it, so just for extra security I used 3" finishing nails cause they are thin and have a small head, and hammered a few into the wood. Those bad boy's aren't going anywhere AYEEE!

This is what it looked like once the wood was attached to the top. I ended up hitting the wood with a hammer in some places to give it a more distressed/worn look once the stain went on.

Next came the staining! I had a few different stain colors in my stash of paint and stains so I ended up using my favorite, Rust-Oleum's Antique Walnut.

I think that the best way to stain is to rub the stain into the wood and not brush it onto the top of the wood. I used this same stain on some shelves but I painted the stain on the shelves and it gave a painted look rather than a natural look which you will get when you rub the stain in. I took an old t-shirt of mine and cut a piece off, made sure to wear gloves cause getting stain off skin is a pain in the booty, and rubbed only one layer onto the wood. I could have done more but I liked the contrast of the light wood and the bright colored rug.

adorable, right?!

Voila' a new and beautiful coffee table!!

Do you have a coffee table that could use a little face-lift? Give it a try and tag me your re-do pictures on INSTAGRAM @rebelydecor, I would LOVE to see!

happy decorating

A Home is Built in Time

Hey there décor people! I’m currently sitting on my couch with Mr. Rango watching Glee pushing off going food shopping cause this weather is STANKKKKKK. That and I have a butt load of stuff to do around the apartment. Our sink is just about to overflow, I have laundry that is screaming to be folded, a couch that needs vacuuming because Rango decided to shed and create another animal with all his hair…but as I stood in kitchen making a mental list of what needed to be done today, I just looked at our 900sq ft apartment and felt comfort, I felt at home. “Well duh, it is YOUR home, why wouldn’t you?” I shall explain. I have lived in 2 other apartments since being married, and in each one I was so focused on wanting brand new things cause I thought that is what would make me love our home, and when we couldn’t afford them I would get a bit bent out of shape. I wanted new furniture, I wanted a new headboard for our bed, I wanted a new dresser and this gorgeous tv stand that I had my eyes on for some time. You know, if we bought everything I wanted right away it would cost us a good 2 grand, AT LEAST. As newly weds and just starting out in our careers, dropping 2 thousand dollars was not a priority or realistic. And going into debt just because I wanted new things was not something we were willing to do.

SIDE NOTE If you like brand new things, if you can afford to buy high-end items for your home that is great! I have plenty of friends who do and their homes look stunning! I am not bashing that at all, REMEMBER this is a blog aimed towards BUDGET FRIENDLY DÉCOR and making a home beautiful for LESS!

Ok back to business……Soooooo, our first apartment I loved but I was not happy with it because I was not grateful for what we already had. I did not see the beauty in the hand-me-downs. I did not appreciate the things we got for the cheap. I was “OK” with it but was not thrilled. Then we moved to our next apartment. And I became more content. But that “content” feeling was brought about because I would spend way too much money on décor and then a month later not be happy and go and spend more money to replace the stuff I just bought a month ago. Example. I bought some new wall décor because we “needed it”, now almost a year later I have gotten rid of just about all of it. Not because it wasn’t nice, but because we did not need it. I overloaded on buying EVERYTHING AT ONCE and in doing so I bought things I eventually was not happy with. I just got them, to fill our space and it caused me to never feel at peace or comfort in a place that was supposed to be our home because I was never happy with what I already had and was constantly striving to make it better. Fast forward to our recent move to our current apartment. We got rid of A LOT and just kept the things we needed and loved. We kept my husbands dressers that he had since childhood, our couch (that I painted and love) and end table from my in-laws, our nightstands that I got in college, our 15$ book shelf from Wal-Mart that I painted, our coffee table that my in-laws gave me in college and I turned into an ottoman, our metal filing cabinet I found at Habitat For Humanity, our dining table our in-laws bought us, and a tv stand we got for 10$ at a thrift shop.

Our apartment was bare, it was simple, it was a blank slate and I LOVED IT!  I was not in a rush to fill it up and decorate it. I wanted to slowly add things to our home that I knew we would love and want to keep for years to come. My first purchase was an old pea green retro velvet chair. I am in serious love with this chair, like for real I just stare at it sometimes, it’s kind of weird. I found it at an antique mall and was able to bargain for it and got it for 40$. My next purchase was 2 yellow industrial bar stools cause we needed some seating at our bar since we don’t have a dining room in our new place. I was able to get both of the stools for 45$ (originally 90$). Since we got rid of our bigger couch to make more space, our sitting was a bit limited for when we had company over so I was then on the hunt for a chair. I was checking craigslist and different websites but I either found something I liked and it was expensive or I found something that was cheap and I was not thrilled about it. So for about 2 months we held off on getting anything and I kept searching and one day I found a vintage navy blue wingback chair in our neighborhood bulk dumpster! I freaked out! And just to clarify, the bulk dumpster was for furniture ONLY, no trash was in there, EW. I called my husband and told him to get his truck and we loaded the chair up, I sanitized it and now we have our extra seating and we didn’t have to pay a penny for it!

Over the next couple of weeks I collected some old frames for less than 1$ apiece and hung them up for some wall décor, I got some old items from thrift stores, I found some neat little items in Target’s HOT SPOT, shopped around our apartment and took things that we both had for years and refurbished them, and SLOWLY but surely our apartment has come together; in my opinion, BEAUTIFULLY. Every time I walk into our home I fall in love with it over and over again. I feel comfort and cozy, and not just because it’s a small apartment, but because almost every item in our apartment has meaning to it, whether given to us by our families, brought from childhood, from another era, previously owned,  or refurbished and given a second chance. It’s a special place, it’s home.

I have learned that your home does not need to be filled RIGHT AWAY. It does not need to be fully decorated within days of moving in. A home is made a home in time. It is the unique, old, run down, new, antiques, weird, family items that make your home YOURS!



happy decorating

Don’t Forget YOU Live There

           

            We live in a world that is so focused on appearance. Make sure your hair is always perfect, be dressed in the latest fashion, get those eyebrows on FLEEK, have a big house and nice car even if that means struggling to make the payments. My struggle with appearance comes in the form of décor! I would look through magazines, see my friend’s homes, or even worse; look at PINTEREST and all of a sudden I am not content with our home. A new couch would be nice, a new area rug would look pretty, and because we got a new couch new pillows and a new throw are a must. And then the latest HGTV magazine comes out and the new must haves for your home are spread throughout the pages and I look at our home and my mind starts racing, AGAIN.

There is nothing wrong with having nice things, I believe that when you can, you should treat yourself to nice things, but the question is, who are the nice things for? Are they because you want them or because you want them so OTHERS see you have them? I am sitting on our couch as I write this. A couch that my in-laws GAVE us. A couch that we did not have to pay for. A couch that would have cost us hundreds of dollars. Hundreds of dollars that we did not have to spend when we first started out. This couch has been the place that we fall on when we get home from a long work day, where we cuddle when we watch Netflix, where we eat breakfast and watch morning TV, where we are lazy with our dog on rainy days. This couch despite its age, is in AMAZING shape. Yet, there are days that I want DIFFERENT, I want the latest trend in couches. I see my friends couch and I WANT! My dream couch is a white slipcover sectional. It looks beautiful, especially against a grey wall with white molding and dark wood floors (sorry just dreaming here) I can imagine it now, my friends coming over for drinks and admiring our beautiful couch with the fur throw hanging over the back of it saying they love the way I decorated our home, and then I yell, “NO DON’T SIT ON THE WHITE COUCH WITH YOUR GLASS OF RED WINE! YOU WANT TO EAT CHIPS AND SALSA ON THE COUCH? ARE YOU CRAZY?! “ Then when we have little babies running around that means sticky little fingers and food covered mouths and crayons, lots of crayons and creative minds with a big white canvas in arms reach! And what about our little fur baby, Rango? I refuse to have paw prints on a white couch. So I have finally come to the realization that although a white couch would look beautiful, although my friends would think it looked great, we would not be able to do what we normally do on our current couch on a white couch. Yes it’s a slip cover and can be washed, but how often am I really going to want to take it off and wash it and not sit on it for 24 hours?

            My husband recently received a large photo of himself from his football days. It’s a pretty decent size photo! In the photo he is running out of the tunnel at one of his home games from his last season at Liberty. It’s a really awesome photo, and it brought back so many memories for me. We met at Liberty. I cheered my husband on in the stands for 3 years of our relationship while he was on the field doing something he loved. Our relationship grew deeply at Liberty, and I remembered all of those special moments we had there just by looking at that photo, but once those thoughts faded my next thought was, “where the heck am I going to put a picture like this?” It doesn’t “match” our décor. Our guests are going to look at it and think our home looks weird. They won’t appreciate it. They won’t understand it. One, I’m pretty sure my friends could careless, and two even if they did think it was weird/out of place why should I care?! That photo means so much to us. Since my husband was a little boy football has been a huge part of his life. He got a scholarship because of football which ended up in him being able to get not only a Bachelor’s but also a Master’s for free. He touched many lives through his platform playing football. That photo reminded us both of a wonderful time in our life and our relationship that was truly special. So why wouldn’t I hang it in a place that we will see it all the time? It may not match our décor, it may not be what is in “style”, it may not be appealing to our guests, but it is US.

            My husband and I love candy! I always look forward to when we have our movie dates because we make a pit stop to the dollar tree and get our sour gummy worms and gummy bears. We would totally eat them everyday if it wasn’t bad for us hehe. So when I saw this vintage gumball machine at an antique store you better believe that I bought it! I filled it with a bunch of gumballs….and then we ate all the gumballs. It isn’t something you would see grace the cover of Southern Living or HGTV magazine, but it fits perfectly in the Vinson household.

          

  I did all of that babbling to get to this point, DON’T FORGET YOU LIVE THERE. Don’t forget it is YOUR home. When all of your guests leave and it is just you and your family (which it is 95% of the time) you want to be able to relax. You want to be able to eat chips and salsa on the couch and drink a glass of red wine without caring if you spill a little while you sit back and look at your husband’s football photo hanging along with a picture of a bull skull, and reminisce about college days. You want to be able to cuddle up with your dog under a blanket that he most like chewed a hole through but it made no sense to run and spend money on a new one just because friends were coming over for dinner and you didn’t want them to notice the imperfection (because he would chew a hole through the new one too). If you can afford to buy high-end furniture and you enjoy your home looking like the cover of a magazine that is great (seriously, everyone is different), maybe I am just speaking to myself here. But I have come to realize, that when we live in our means/according to our budget and decorate with things we love and hold dear; whether they clash or not, whether they are in style or not; that is when our home looks the best, that is when our home looks magazine worthy! So if you are looking to decorate your home, don’t just buy things because you know they are popular. Don’t pay extra for something just because you want your friend to be impressed. Décor trends fade. Buy décor that you love, buy things that describe who you and your family are! That type of décor will be timeless!

happy decorating