TikToker decorates apartment with Oscars red carpet after dumpster diving adventure

WASHINGTON — One person’s trash is another person’s treasure, and that’s especially true for TikToker Paige Thalia, who, thanks to a dumpster diving session, now has a piece of the Oscars red carpet inside her Los Angeles studio apartment. 

“I would like to thank the Academy … for this free rug,” Thalia said after unfurling the chunk of carpet that likely bears the footprints of A-list celebrities like Michael B. Jordan and Jessie Buckley.  

A video Thalia posted of her vacuuming the carpet received nearly 5 million views as of Friday. 

“I set a personal mission of getting this three days ago, and it actually happened omg,” Thalia wrote on her TikTok. 

Accomplishing the mission, it turns out was as simple as showing up to a dumpster near the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, where the 98th Academy Awards were held last Sunday. Thalia said she was the first one to arrive at the dumpster and ask for the piece of the cinematic carpet. 

“If you need a rug for your apartment, the Oscars red carpet is over in a dumpster on Hawthorne,” Thalia said in a video. “Security is just letting people take it. I was the first person who asked to take it, but if you just ask, they’ll let you.” 

A crafty content creator, Thalia was able to cut up the carpet to make the piece fit inside her studio apartment. Now, Thalia’s pet dog, Cove, can be seen lounging on the rug. 

And the rug really ties the room together, to quote Academy Award-winning actor Jeff Bridges.