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The setting at alice + olivia
Photographed by Hadley Tamburo
--because good taste shouldn't be compromised by a low budget--
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Make heart shaped tea bags. (It’s a good idea to handwash the muslin in a gentle soap before using for tea.)
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chevron, chevron, chevron
My roommate and best friend Emily recently sent me a proposal for our new apartment. CHEVRON WALLS.
I’ve always been and advocate for bold colors and wall paper, but it never crossed my mind to paint a print— nonetheless, she showed me this spectacular photo from apartmenttherapy aka, my new favorite site which gives me the impulse to do EXACTLY THIS.
Chevron is amazing in more ways than one: its bold, simple, classy, elegant yet edgy- it adds the perfect POP to a small space by adding dimension to an accent wall (as seen in photo)
in other words: love,love,love
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Operation Shag: day 1
After 8 hours of cutting fabric aka ripping old tees, and about 2 hours of dying different shades of purple and failing to achieve the perfect deep violet, I was finally able to get a dent on my shag rug.
Here’s the progression of day 1 of Operation Shag
1) The rip session (8 hours)
2) Pick your dyes—I originally wanted a Taupe or grey, but AC Moore didnt have the greatest selection, so I went with making variations of purples and blues
3) After many attempts of mixing and matching shades, I added steaming hot water and salt to the solution—dying and re-dying over and over
4) so attractive
5) First batch of cloth strips!! After sticking them in the dryer, I started to latch hook them into a rug grid— remember those pillows that were made from looping shreds of yarn in the 90’s? I had (and still have) a tiger pillow from elementary school.
Well,its the exact same concept. You just loop and pull the fabric through
6) End results of day 1.
A good start if I do say so myself, although I dedicated about 10 hours in one day for 8 or so rows
:)
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Operation Shag
As I moved into my new apartment this past December, I realized that the entire flooring was hard wood—which is great to look at, but let’s face it, its like ice on your feet during the winter. Looking at all the amazing space that I had to decorate, I thought the first addition ought to be the perfect shag rug.
Shag rugs serve as the perfect pop of color and/or texture to a room, and gives the right amount of oomph I’ve been looking for for my new home. So excited for this idea, I ventured to the usual stores: Target, Homegoods, Ikea, etc. and was shocked at what I saw—Shag rugs ranging from $120-$300’s! Now, maybe I am a naive, amateur home decorator who expected to dish out a days worth of babysitting money for a decent cubic square of shaggage, but that was (and still is) unacceptable.
As a college student who is a firm believer that great taste shouldn’t come with high cost, I looked at the assortment of shag rugs presented before me and made a realization: I can totally make this. Shag rugs, broken down are essentially plushy shreds of fabric that are looped through a basic carpet canvas. And based on the looks of some of them, the fabric looked nothing more than a bunch of old clothes.
Challenge accepted.
And so I drove home and looked into DIY rugs and came across this amazing tutorial by XOELLE who had mastered the art of the t-shirt latch hook rug. Next thing I knew, I was digging though my family’s closet for old white t-shirts to be shredded into bits.
As winter break draws to a close, I’ve decided to give myself the task of making a 5x7sq foot rug, requiring nothing more than $15 worth of materials at AC Moore (with coupons) and a whole lot of time. These next few days will mark my journey to make my first (and maybe ever) rug.. wish me luck
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