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

Operation: Being Content

My plan for this apartment was to keep it simple. Well that started to change rather quickly and our living area started to become quite eclectic which I L-O-V-E! Most of the stuff in our living area was given to us, and then received a face lift! Our couch, coffee table, and end table were given to us by my husbands parents. I painted our couch grey, yes PAINTED (I will do a future blog post on that because it is AWESOME SAUCE) made the oak coffee table into a tufted ottoman, and painted the dark cherry end table antique white and stenciled our initials and wedding date on it. Then of course I bought a vintage filing cabinet, a green retro velvet chair, a 10$ tv stand (which is temporary, I am on a mission to find an old dresser and refurbish that!) and a 15$ book shelf that I dry brushed white. Everything in our living space was either free or cheap. In my mind however, that gave me the ok to keep buying things and switching things out. I would buy some type of wall decor and then a month later buy something else. Then a month later I would buy wall sconces and then decide I did not like them. I finally realized the other day that I had an issue with being content with what God has blessed us with! My husband and I were sitting at the Ford dealership getting my car looked at and as I sat there I was looking at the other cars and said, "oooh I want that one" *mind you my husband just got me a new car less than 8 months ago -_- *yes I have an issue with being content. So I repented and asked the Lord to help me because not being content is not only unhealthy spiritually but unhealthy financially in my case! I then apologized to my husband for not being content with not only what God had given us, but what he has worked so hard for to provide for us (which is really God too).  SOOOO to make this post short, my objective for this home project was to create something that could be changed around when I felt like it, but would not require spending money to buy something completely different!

So without any further ado here is my project to help me practice being content!

I went to one of my favorite thrift stores and picked up some frames. The majority of them were 80 cents (STEAL) and the nice big gold one was only $2.12 (not to shabby aye?)

Then I broke out my handy chalkboard paint. Yes I LOVE chalkboard paint, get over it! You will also need some painters tape, OR I used masking tape because it was $3 cheaper, and go get yourself a nice flat brush. You want to make sure the bristles are smooth and silky to the touch so your chalk paint goes on smoothly!

I then taped around the border of my frames so when painting the glass, the chalk paint would not get on the frame itself. *If you get frames that the backs pop off of then I recommend doing that, so you can take the glass out and paint it without having to use the tape method. I, however got super old frames that did not give me that luxury :(*

This was the hard part for me. After doing one coat I had to sit around and wait for it to dry before I could do another uggggggh the agony! So I guess this project has helped me be patient as well right? Hahaha well not really because after 10 minutes I started on the second coat, WHICH I DO NOT RECOMMEND! Be patient, and let the first coat fully dry! 

Once they were dry I started to write some sayings on them with a chalk pen! USE a chalk pen, it is a more permanent option that will not fade or erase as easily as the traditional chalk.

Once they were all dried, I figured out how I wanted to place them on the wall and hung them up! I am so happy with how they came out and will start adding more to the wall over time! The touches of gold add a certain vintage feel that I really adore! 

This project has allowed me to make something that I can keep for a LONG time. And when I am not content with what is in the frames, all I have to do is use what I have by simply erasing the writing and write or draw something new without having to go out and spend money on more decor (that I would probably end of changing AGAIN anyway heheh).

happy decorating