Here's how a frugal woman turned affordable purchases into gorgeous DIY home decor items in her loft.
She told me not to sleep at Five Below, which sells the materials needed to make expensive-looking rugs at a fraction of the original price.
Mariah Vanessa (@mv.esco) enjoys sharing various aspects of her life online, including how she combines her loft with affordable bargains.
In a TikTok video, she showed viewers how she made a DIY living room rug using discounted items.
“If I could give anyone any advice, it would be this: Don't sleep in Five Below,” she said.
Mariah purchased six 3 dot x 5 foot white chindi rugs for $0.555 each for a total of $33.
“We decided to sew them together. I've seen a lot of people use duct tape. Well, we sew them together so it looks like they're joined,” she said. .
She photographed herself sitting on the floor while completing an interior design project.
Since the rug arrived, I didn't actually choose the color, but I still said it was “great” and “no problem.”
“I sewed up my little heart. I mopped the floor,” she added.
Towards the end of the video, she showed how well it would fit in her space before layering a cowhide rug on top of it.
“That's a $1,200 rug out there for $33.33,” she said.
Mariah displayed the finished work in her cozy loft in Los Angeles.
“Five Below doesn't even have this kind of luxury. It makes me sick,” she said before the video ended.
Mariah also wrote in the video's caption, “Honestly, I never expected it to go this well.”
Viewers provided supportive feedback in the comments.
“Very clever, I'm an independent student trying to decorate my dorm. Thank you,” one person commented.
“I literally never thought of sewing together a small rug,” said another.
A TikTok user advised, “Put a Dollar Tree shelf liner under it to stop it from shifting.”
“It's literally amazing. The floor is stone so I bought a cushion to put it under,” the woman added.