NITTY GRITTY BEFORE PICTURES

Howdy guys! So if anyone has noticed, I have not been blogging too much lately :/ uhhhhh, sorry! Since we are in this moving phase I have not been doing too many projects around the apartment, well because it would be pointless since we are about to move!

UPDATE: We have been signing so much paperwork for our fixer upper of a home! At this point I don't even know what we are signing, we are just signing away hahah! Just kidding, we clearly read everything carefully before we sign! Thank God our realtor, broker, and contractor have been amazing through this whole process! They keep us informed with everything and answer all of my annoying questions that I will think of at like 2 in the morning haha.  For real though, they are such amazing guys, we are beyond grateful for them!
So for those of you who have been asking, we are so close to our closing! Hopefully within the next few weeks we will be closed and construction can begin!

So I wanted to show you guys some before photo's that I was able to get when we were over there last. I know once we sign at closing, things are going to move fast and I wasn't sure if I would be able  to get all the before pics that I wanted to get! So I went picture crazy! I won't share all of them because I took literally a TON but I will share the majority of them!

Our home is one of the only ones in the neighborhood that is set far back off the street! We are removing those two big trees. Sorry tree huggers but it is killing our front yard's grass!

The house is a pale yellow with blue shutters. I do not know who made this color decision. EW. We are brain storming what colors we want to do. We are def doing a black front door and black shutters and then the siding either grey or while. We shall see!

The hubby is excited about yard work! He is going to uproot all those sad looking bushing. I found some blue festuca grass and may night meadow sage that we are thinking of planting along the house! If you don't know what either of those plants look like, take a look:

Aren't they AMAZING?! They are vibrant which I adore but they are also low maintenance and drought tolerant...win, win!

I'm eager to make this little space welcoming! The lantern we are looking to get to replace this outdated one, it a matte black pineapple! I mean, come on! A pineapple to greet you at the door! How could you not love that?!

Ahhh the arched doorway! The beautiful accent to our home that makes my heart flutter every time I see it! The flooring is going to get ripped up and will match the rest of the house which will be laminate. The cabinets we are keeping cause despite their ugly appearance they are in GREAT shape so I am going to give them a little facelift. The counters will be new, new lighting to replace that hideous "hospital" light as I like to call it and new pretty stainless steel appliances!

 I just adore our cathedral ceilings in the living room! We love high ceilings so this makes us so happy! The popcorn ceilings are going to be the first things that will be removed, thank God! Again, new floors throughout! A new ceiling fan. Originally we said we were going to do a wood beaded chandelier BUT then realized having a fan in there would be nice if it gets hot when we have company over during the cooler seasons when we won't be using our AC. We are going to do white paint throughout the whole house (Except the bathrooms. We will probably do them a super soft grey) We have a lot of bright pieces so I want them to be the focal point and the walls be a perfect backdrop for our furniture and accents. 

This is our dining area! I am super excited about this because I just found our dining table and it is every bit of gorgeous! It is this old, worn, rustic, some may say beat up; wooden circular table (with inserts if we need it bigger) I am SOOOO excited to put it in this space! We are still trying to decide on what type of lighting we want here. Wooden or metal? Probably metal since the table is so rustic. 

So there you have it! That was the main living area! Later I will share the bedrooms and bathrooms. Our bedroom is obviously the main bedroom that needs to be done, the other two we can take our time in putting together since there won't be an immediate use for them just yet!

We are so so sooooo excited to get started on making this place our own! Once the floors and ceilings are done we are going to move right in and live there while the rest is being done and then obviously do some ourselves over time! But the big things we want to get done now!

We cannot wait to share this process with you! The moment we get our keys and the crew gets in there, I can guarantee lots and lots of photos of the work being done!

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