This is gonna be one of those, should have been an
email but I'm gonna make it into a meeting because I have thoughts.
I'm Letitia, I'm diying my way through my home renovations so be sure to like and subscribe
to this video so that you can be notified for any new diy home stuff coming in. I'll be walking you
through all of my favorite home stuff, where I got the best deals, some honest feedback on
things that I got that maybe weren't the best, and secrets on how I added personality to the home.
Also stay tuned to the end because I'm gonna give you guys a sneak peek of what we're doing next for
the home. This is the third place that Stef and I have lived in. The first place that we lived in,
we didn't even have a bed frame and now I think slowly after collecting over the years, we've
really fleshed out and now where we live I would say has a lot more personality than any of the
places that we used to live in. Right off the bat everybody wants to know is my article solae sofa.
I haven't hung up my painting yet. Apparently online a lot of people have complained that
the sofa is way too firm. So to provide some context, we sleep on a firm mattress.
We went to the mattress store, went and asked for the firmest mattress and tried it out and it felt
too soft. Then went to a chinese warehouse, asked for the firmest mattress there and it was too
firm. I would say that this sofa feels like an overstuffed cushion, and I personally love it.
We sprawl out on the couch every single night. I kind of wish that we got an even longer sectional
since we slump down a lot, we can't extend our legs all the way past the couch,
but then I also don't like the traditional um two-seat long sectional look. This was
the compromise. So the gripe that I have is that the fabric on this
pills. I have to run through it with a shaver once in a while. Durability wise it's great.
We scotchgard it as well so it's very stain proof. I would say it hasn't been as scary as I thought
it would be living with a white-ish couch. I pretty much built the entire living room color
scheme around this chair. This chair has come with us from our apartment. If you live with pets you
need something that's super durable but you're also looking for something that has a statement,
velvet. Reid's not allowed to bring toys on the sofa but she's allowed to bring toys up
here. This is also her perch spot to look out the window, and it just stood the test of time.
I've never scotchgard-ed it. It's also very firm so just letting you know, but this is so deep that
I can snuggle in curled up perfectly. The shell cushion looks so good on this chair no? Once I
built everything around that chair everything else went out the window when I got this rug, and it is
the worst shedder I have ever met. I have a dog. I have met many dogs that shed,
nothing compares to this rug. I was wary about this rug at first. I know checkered is super
trendy right now and I don't know if it'll last forever, but when it came it was it just felt
right. I will link this rug again. I am always asked about this link, and if you guys end up
getting this rug please send me pictures I would love to be part of the family. I got it for 400
USD. I was not charged customs. It's a huge item, this is an eight by ten. So the issue with this
rug is that it's a hundred percent wool and they said that it would be shedding for several months.
I got it october, it has not stopped shedding. I can literally pick up pieces and show you
that it just keeps on shedding. I have a roomba that runs every few days and it can't keep up.
This one is a medium pile so it's a very thick rug they tell you not to vacuum it for the first
while because it'll just stir up more and just to let it naturally shed, but I have vacuumed it a
couple of times. The brand of this one though is called Safavieh, safafili. They have great stuff.
So if you're looking for unique rugs, I would say overstock they have incredible selection, terrible
search engine because I typed in checkered rug and this did not pop up. This just took
hours and hours of scrolling. So I wish thrift stores were still open if so I would be like
my favorite home decor places are thrift stores, but unfortunately I haven't been thrifting since
september. Previously I was using a bartering app called bunz, my butt planters are from
bunz. Most of my house plants are from bunz. There's Geoffrey. I got him off bunz. I do find
that there's a lot of sifting to get through in order to find something great, but when there is
something great it's amazing. Like that gigantic conference table that I got for free and I diy'd,
but those are few and far between. The alternative that I find is just way better than anything I've
ever found before was facebook marketplace. I can create notifications for search terms so I was
looking for coffee tables, dining tables, there's a lot of vintage resellers that are posting their
stuff on facebook so this is where I found my coffee table set. The previous coffee table that
I had was from homesense. It was temporary so I was willing to spend 400 on it, and it was not
great. This coffee table set popped up on my notifications for 250. The seller's name is
moonboomvintage and you can find her, she's one of the few vintage resellers that also offered
delivery for a small extra price I think it was like 35 dollars extra. Black wasn't exactly what
I was going for, but the shape of it is perfect. The legs are beautiful and it came with two side
tables, so I have one side table beside the couch and then I actually have one up in my office.
Vintage resellers I think is like the biggest thing to pop up during the pandemic so I will
link some of my favorite vintage resellers in the description as well. This is from a vintage
reseller in montreal this is a vintage ikea ice cube lamp that I bought it when I was high.
Didn't need to be spending money on it, but I did it was impulsive. Marketplace is also great
to find discontinued ikea items. This was an ikea side table, I don't know why they got rid of it
because it's amazing. Something that I didn't expect to be my top place that I bought everything
under the sun and this year has, it is the number one place that I shop from, is aliexpress. I'm not
trying to create a giant footprint here and I know that this is coming from china, but what I
am seeing is that a lot of dropshippers and a lot of places, like even if you're buying off amazon
or if you're buying off a retail website that you think designs their own things, you'd be shocked
when you realize that so many of these places are supplied by aliexpress. They even use the
same images so then I'm like, with that markup, I'd rather just buy straight from the source.
This is aliexpress. They package and ship really well it's always well protected never get charged
customs. I buy all of my light fixtures from there. It's a weirdly surprising thing to buy.
I feel like I'm torn between the two because I am such a thrifty person and I love saving money,
but I also want to support local artists and this is where indego comes in. Indego is a non-profit
organization that sells handmade woven goods woven by women in Rwanda and Ghana. It's all
laid out on the website, they include their financials on the website, which is incredible
but everything on there is spectacular. I got a big woven basket, I also got a hat that doesn't
fit me but I'm going to make it fit me. I don't know how they do it, the shapes that they make.
Definitely worth checking out. I hold all of my extra blankets in here.
So when it comes to art prints you'll notice that
I have a lot of commitment issues with putting art up on the walls. I'm not a gallery wall person but
I would say if you're looking for prints society6 is good, the poster store is good. Obviously
buying original art is tricky. It's not always the most affordable. I'm very lucky that I have
artistic friends uh this one was a christmas or birthday present from Cleo, my friend and I mean
they take commissions if you're interested in their drawings, like look at the detail work.
This one is society6 it looks like shinjuku (*shibuya). This one is a tattoo print that
my friends had at their own tattoo shop which is no longer open. This is society6,
that Stefan's grandma painted and that's his grandma and she's watching over us. This one
is actually also Stefan's grandma painted. She always writes little things. You might
recognize this rug from the apartment. The good thing is that this is washable.
The only thing is that I would say this is more of a mat, it's very thin. I think it's great except
it's not convenient if you have to pull it out from under the bed, wash it and put it back
so if you have an area that's high traffic, I wouldn't recommend it. So we are working on the
backyard currently our backyard is very unlivable, previously it was as well. There's a lot of mixed
interlocking. We're going to be building a deck out. This is the state of it right now
but that's all I have to show you right, now just a big dirt pit. That's all my home decor stuff
I'd say that it's a culmination of scouring the web for hours and shopping second hand. I'm also
going to make a video about home essentials that I find very useful around the house, more functional
stuff that has really helped me with keeping up with the home cleaning and organizing. You can
find me on instagram and tiktok @letitiakiu, and I will see you guys next time, bye!
you