WOVEN WALL HANGING

Hey everyone!! I am sorry to say "I am sorry" yet again for the lack of posting. I have taken a little time off from the blog the past few weeks because I wanted to give my time and energy to my family over the holiday's! It was so nice to be able to remove myself from cyber world for a bit and just enjoy being with my loved ones!

BUT it is a new year and I am back to doing what I love, DECORATING our 900sqft apartment!

I have been seeing a lot of awesome woven wall hangings lately and I must say I am drooling over them all! I love the natural element they bring into a room. They are so simply yet make such a profound statement!

My only issue with them however is that they cost A LOT of money! I have seen them go as low as $65 and as high as $250. Yeah, about that. I do not have $250 to spend on a woven wall hanging. #sorrynotsorry! 

So I studied a photo of one and I made my own and I must say it is so simple, but takes some time cutting all the yarn.

I started off with 4 different colors of yarn from Michaels (they were having a nice sale on yarn so I was able to get all of mine for $15) and a stick (I have no clue the name for it) from Wal-Mart for less  than $2.

the stick is hard to see :/ but it is right under the yarn! 

I then cut the yarn into about 4 ft pieces

I did 5 pieces of yarn for each looped section. (does that make sense?)

Once I had my pieces cut I started to add them to the stick! I wish I took a video doing this, meh! But I will explain it the best I can. 

Take your first color you want to do and have all five pieces of yarn together. Then fold them in half. Lay the stick on top of the yarn and then feed the ends of your yarn through the loop. Ugh, I REALLY wish I made a video for this BUT Michele1218 on YOUTUBE shows you how to do this technique but on fabric garland. It is the same technique to get the results for this woven wall hanging!

you can see here how the wood piece fits snug between the looping. I also braided some of my yarn for additional texture!

I worked on both sides evenly, bringing the design to the middle just to make sure that there was enough space for the amount of yarn on both sides to be even!

Once I finished adding all the pieces of yarn it was time to cut it. This part is super simple but for anyone who needs guidance: All I did was angle my scissors downward and cut from the outside in, to create a sloping effect that meets at a point in the middle.

SUPER EASY RIGHT?!

 I am soo happy with how it came out! It is the perfect piece to fill our naked wall in the hallway!

Give it a shot! And if you do tag me @rebelydecor on instagram so I can see your beautiful work!

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