Transform Pavers Into Upscale Luxury Interior Decor With A Neat DIY

Rustic luxe is the living room decor trend that combines all your favorite things: natural materials, muted hues, precious heirlooms (think old sepia-toned family photos and that ceramic vase your grandmother gifted you last Christmas), and modern art. Sounds pricey, right? Well, it certainly can be. But as with most interior trends, there are clever ways to recreate luxury looks in any room in your home even on a tight budget. While natural stone is undeniably expensive, your interior decor budget isn't going to take much of a hit when purchasing a single paver. And then all you need is a decent hammer to break the paver up, a good eye for arrangement, and some favored keepsakes.

Travertine is a type of limestone with specific minerals — namely calcite and aragonite, to get ultra science-y. It's been used for centuries in architecture and interior design; it was one of the most popular decorative materials in Ancient Egypt, for example. Today, it's often referred to as travertine marble, despite not being a true marble. It's most commonly used for cornices, tiles, countertops and, relevant to this DIY, floor pavers. Get a 12 x 24 inch cream travertine floor and wall tile for just over $5 from Lowes. Walmart sells an 18 x 18 inch tumbled travertine field tile samples in ivory for about $6. If you're not ready to commit to a big stone, a 3 x 6 inch antique tumbled travertine paver from Squarefeet Depot cost just $10. If possible, look for a stone with visible blemishes, cracks, and crevices. These naturally occurring fissures ensure you'll get clean splits at the next stage of this DIY.

Here's how to nail this quiet luxury decor trend ... Cover the ground with towels and place your towel-wrapped travertine paver on top. Hit the paver with your hammer multiple times; it doesn't really matter where since the idea is to get a bunch of different sized stones. If you're working outside, you can also drop the tile onto a towel-covered floor from waist height. It should shatter into multiple pieces. Clear away any crumbs, and sort your pieces in small, medium, and large, or group them into stacked pairs and stones that look best on their own.

Before arranging the resulting stones on bookshelves, your nightstands, coffee table, or fireplace mantle, get yourself some clear self-adhesive dots — Eshanmu sells a pack of 100 for about $4 — and stick them in each corner of each piece of stone to protect your furniture. Once that's done, play around with placement, stacking pieces atop one another, and pairing them with decorative candles, porcelain vases, framed photos or artwork, statement jewelry pieces, books, and other favored accoutrements.

If you want something more permanent, glue select tile pieces together with Loctite construction adhesive (a 9 fluid ounce cartridge costs a bit over $12) or a similar stone glue and turn them vertically to form book ends, combine with a mirror, or glue on brass tap washers to make candle holders. Best of all, this DIY is highly adaptable. You can rearrange the pieces whenever you think its making your shelf styling look boring or retire them altogether without any damage to walls or existing furniture.