We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you this important message:
I found a rug!
Well two rugs.
Well, two rugs, but only one has arrived so far.
Ta da! I am in LOVE.
(Oh by the way, please ignore the painting over the couch -- it’s my placeholder. I have a project in mind for the space that looks better and fits the space correctly.)
It feels so great with a rug in there -- it’s so “officially a room” looking!
But first -- obligatory back story.
I’ve wanted a rug in here, always. I knew I needed to wait till the room was pretty together. So now that the room's getting there Blake and I decided I could shop for a rug for my birthday present. (For me that's a fantastic present.) (I should also mention my parents also gave me the fantastic present of shopping for an new entryway light. What sweet family I have.)
I decided I wanted to get a traditional looking oriental/persian rug. I really want the room to have that eclectic musician vibe -- kinda fancy, kinda funky. I don’t see any other type of rug pulling that off.
Emily Henderson helped me figure out I needed at least an 8x10 sized rug for by my couch.
I wound up buying an 8x11’2”.
And then, without her advice to help, I opted to go for a smaller size (of the same matching rug), which I will angle, at the back of the room. It seemed weird to just set a rug square back there with the furniture not being much and with nothing to sit on.
old pictures to remind you the back of the room
I don’t have my second rug, but I plan to angle it off the amp and shelf on the left of the doors. It’s a 9’2"x6’ 11” -- I really hope it works the way I envision it. Cross your fingers for me.
Anyway….
The other night my mom babysat while Blake and I went out to dinner. After that we did some rug shopping. It was actually a very fun date.
We thought we found one that we liked, so I bought the tiny door mat size and brought it home to see in the space.
It didn’t make me happy. It was just ok. It was mostly tan with a small amount of blue. And it just kinda blended in too much.
So back to the drawing board. My mom was in town for a few days so I got to run around town looking all over at stuff.
I started that search by stopping by a “real rug” store (this one.) I’d never looked at nice rugs before, and I knew they could be pricey, so I wasn’t expecting for this to really work out. But I had to check.
That experience was both the best and the worst. The best because: I could wax poetic for hours about how stunningly beautiful those rugs are. (I’ll try to hold back for your sake.) The quality was something I’d never experienced, so it was….I don’t know, like walking into Downton Abbey, or something. The fibers they use can hold colors I’ve literally never seen before. (If you clicked the link to see the store -- those photos cannot even hold a candle to seeing them in person.) Generally speaking, I’m not a red person -- I usually feel kinda irritated by reds. But there was a red rug laying out in that store -- it was made of silk. It was a bold red, red, red and only red was on this rug. I could have stared at it all day -- it was gorgeous -- deep and and like you could swim in the layers of shade and sheens . And…. let me tell you -- touching a silk rug is an experience --- a very nice experience.
It was the worst because: you can imagine the price tags on these beauties was not in my target price range. I’m actually not sure how anyone can bring themselves to walk on these things -- they are both so beautiful and so expensive. (Although the desire to feel them on my feet does weigh in that balance.)(But I stopped looking at price tags when I saw $5,000ish on one of the first few I flipped.) There is seriously no way I could fathom having one of these rugs with kids, unless I found some kind of magical deal.
(By the way one of my favorite blogs littlegreennotebook, recommends finding great deals on rugs on ebay. She has found magical deals. But the way she describes it makes me think it’s not for us, with allergies to contend with. If that didn’t matter, I might have considered it. But it’s not worth it for me. Well not to mention, I wanted two rugs for my long room…that would be very hard to get right -- mistmatch in a good way is not easy.)
So I moved on and looked around else where in town.
By the way, if anyone is local and they are looking for a 5x7 -- check out Flooring Depot in Champaign. (It’s on Anthony Dr.) They pretty much just have 5x7s, a few are a smidgen bigger. But they have some really nice quality rugs for very, very discounted prices. (Some stuff is not quality, but some was very quality.) I’d go back if I find I need something that size ever.
But I found nothing in person. So I started my online hunt.
That was overwhelming. I got very confused on which direction to go. I was all over the place, both in design, and where to buy.
But I’ll try to make my mental path look straight and tell you how I got here.
I pined over those nice “real” rugs. I mean I saw them in my sleep.
I got discouraged, thinking I wouldn’t be able to pull off a look I liked.
I looked at lots of Pinterest photos of rooms with nice rugs, trying to get the essence of them down. Pick up on patterns and colors that feel right, so I could avoid ones that feel wrong.
It seems like most traditional rugs are variations of reds or navys. Of course there is way more out there. And if it’s a real rug, it looks real. But I was trying to figure out how to make fake look the most real. So I wanted a known commodity playing into things.
Blake and I discussed how we were starting to feel like red/warm rugs were what we needed. And I tried to pick up on that idea, when I looked at photos of rooms to make sure that seemed right. And it did seem like the way to go.
After I got enough of that, I started looking through websites. I’d cross reference Pinterest as I went.
I tried all your standard online sites (wayfair, overstock and the like) and big box stores' online only stuff. Surprisingly enough, I first spotted this rug on Walmart .com. Which made me leery. But the look was good.
What I liked about it was it was red -- but not red, red. At the “real” rug store I had seen this special red (not the one I was talking about before) there that was kind of a fleshy wine red, that somehow made you think of pink, even if it wasn’t, and it had this lovely sheen on it. This rug reminded me of that. And I really liked that. I liked the pattern. And I liked that it said it was low cut pile -- less chance of showing it’s faux-fiberness.
So I googled and googled (using variations of the name, mostly shortened up enough versions were what worked) and found it sold on many sites. Amazon. Home Depot. (They had more photos of it than most websites.) I think Wayfair or Overstock had it too. (I think it was overstock where I found the only review on it, saying it was beautiful but that it was more pink than they had hoped for -- but I actually liked the sound of that.) After searching I found it sold on Houzz.com right now for a 40% spring sale. It was a GREAT deal. I didn’t know you could buy anything off that site, and I’d read bad reviews on OTHER sites about shipping issues, so I didn’t know how good of an idea it was to risk this big purchase on something unknown. But I figured I’d go for it.
I’m so glad I did. I ordered the rug on Sunday night. It estimated my delivery by March 2 -12. AND THEN, my bigger rug showed up on Wednesday night! Two business days! (It was free standard shipping.) I have NEVER gotten anything so fast. It was amazing. (I hadn’t even been tracking shipping because so often I’ve experienced a couple day wait before that information will even load.)
I’m not getting anything for writing this post -- I’m just excited and happy with my purchase.
So let me wax poetic about how much I love this rug.
It’s made to look old (Which confuses my kids. And may confuse some adults. But I’m in this for me. I think its beautiful.) So it has places that look darker, kinda dirty. But I don’t think it looks gross. It just looks like I bought an antique rug.
This rug’s fibers -- for a manmade fiber (viscose) -- it feels amazing. It’s clearly not silk. But of any rug I’ve touched that wasn’t inside that “real rug” store -- this is the nicest, silkiest, feeling rug I’ve felt. It really does remind me of the silk rug -- and that wasn’t something I was expecting.
It’s very thin and flat -- which makes it feel more convincing, and nothing like so many rugs I touched in the big boxes. (It rolled out and laid flat with no issues at all.)
The low cut, silky fibers gives this rug a big dose of sheen. Which I love. It kind of glows pink from one angle (depending on the lighting.) But looks deep wine red from the other angle.
Photo examples.
This exact dresser is linen wrapped. But I plan to just paint and add nail heads -- which will be silver thumb tacks from dollar tree. The linen wrapped version is $2,700. If mine works it will cost me maybe $30 in paint, hardware and tacks. Sweet! (But lets not count the hourly wage I won’t be paying myself to nail all those in! yikes! I’m up for it…I think. ; ) )
It didn’t make me happy. It was just ok. It was mostly tan with a small amount of blue. And it just kinda blended in too much.
So back to the drawing board. My mom was in town for a few days so I got to run around town looking all over at stuff.
I started that search by stopping by a “real rug” store (this one.) I’d never looked at nice rugs before, and I knew they could be pricey, so I wasn’t expecting for this to really work out. But I had to check.
That experience was both the best and the worst. The best because: I could wax poetic for hours about how stunningly beautiful those rugs are. (I’ll try to hold back for your sake.) The quality was something I’d never experienced, so it was….I don’t know, like walking into Downton Abbey, or something. The fibers they use can hold colors I’ve literally never seen before. (If you clicked the link to see the store -- those photos cannot even hold a candle to seeing them in person.) Generally speaking, I’m not a red person -- I usually feel kinda irritated by reds. But there was a red rug laying out in that store -- it was made of silk. It was a bold red, red, red and only red was on this rug. I could have stared at it all day -- it was gorgeous -- deep and and like you could swim in the layers of shade and sheens . And…. let me tell you -- touching a silk rug is an experience --- a very nice experience.
It was the worst because: you can imagine the price tags on these beauties was not in my target price range. I’m actually not sure how anyone can bring themselves to walk on these things -- they are both so beautiful and so expensive. (Although the desire to feel them on my feet does weigh in that balance.)(But I stopped looking at price tags when I saw $5,000ish on one of the first few I flipped.) There is seriously no way I could fathom having one of these rugs with kids, unless I found some kind of magical deal.
(By the way one of my favorite blogs littlegreennotebook, recommends finding great deals on rugs on ebay. She has found magical deals. But the way she describes it makes me think it’s not for us, with allergies to contend with. If that didn’t matter, I might have considered it. But it’s not worth it for me. Well not to mention, I wanted two rugs for my long room…that would be very hard to get right -- mistmatch in a good way is not easy.)
So I moved on and looked around else where in town.
By the way, if anyone is local and they are looking for a 5x7 -- check out Flooring Depot in Champaign. (It’s on Anthony Dr.) They pretty much just have 5x7s, a few are a smidgen bigger. But they have some really nice quality rugs for very, very discounted prices. (Some stuff is not quality, but some was very quality.) I’d go back if I find I need something that size ever.
But I found nothing in person. So I started my online hunt.
That was overwhelming. I got very confused on which direction to go. I was all over the place, both in design, and where to buy.
But I’ll try to make my mental path look straight and tell you how I got here.
I pined over those nice “real” rugs. I mean I saw them in my sleep.
I got discouraged, thinking I wouldn’t be able to pull off a look I liked.
I looked at lots of Pinterest photos of rooms with nice rugs, trying to get the essence of them down. Pick up on patterns and colors that feel right, so I could avoid ones that feel wrong.
It seems like most traditional rugs are variations of reds or navys. Of course there is way more out there. And if it’s a real rug, it looks real. But I was trying to figure out how to make fake look the most real. So I wanted a known commodity playing into things.
Blake and I discussed how we were starting to feel like red/warm rugs were what we needed. And I tried to pick up on that idea, when I looked at photos of rooms to make sure that seemed right. And it did seem like the way to go.
After I got enough of that, I started looking through websites. I’d cross reference Pinterest as I went.
I tried all your standard online sites (wayfair, overstock and the like) and big box stores' online only stuff. Surprisingly enough, I first spotted this rug on Walmart .com. Which made me leery. But the look was good.
What I liked about it was it was red -- but not red, red. At the “real” rug store I had seen this special red (not the one I was talking about before) there that was kind of a fleshy wine red, that somehow made you think of pink, even if it wasn’t, and it had this lovely sheen on it. This rug reminded me of that. And I really liked that. I liked the pattern. And I liked that it said it was low cut pile -- less chance of showing it’s faux-fiberness.
So I googled and googled (using variations of the name, mostly shortened up enough versions were what worked) and found it sold on many sites. Amazon. Home Depot. (They had more photos of it than most websites.) I think Wayfair or Overstock had it too. (I think it was overstock where I found the only review on it, saying it was beautiful but that it was more pink than they had hoped for -- but I actually liked the sound of that.) After searching I found it sold on Houzz.com right now for a 40% spring sale. It was a GREAT deal. I didn’t know you could buy anything off that site, and I’d read bad reviews on OTHER sites about shipping issues, so I didn’t know how good of an idea it was to risk this big purchase on something unknown. But I figured I’d go for it.
I’m so glad I did. I ordered the rug on Sunday night. It estimated my delivery by March 2 -12. AND THEN, my bigger rug showed up on Wednesday night! Two business days! (It was free standard shipping.) I have NEVER gotten anything so fast. It was amazing. (I hadn’t even been tracking shipping because so often I’ve experienced a couple day wait before that information will even load.)
I’m not getting anything for writing this post -- I’m just excited and happy with my purchase.
So let me wax poetic about how much I love this rug.
It’s made to look old (Which confuses my kids. And may confuse some adults. But I’m in this for me. I think its beautiful.) So it has places that look darker, kinda dirty. But I don’t think it looks gross. It just looks like I bought an antique rug.
This rug’s fibers -- for a manmade fiber (viscose) -- it feels amazing. It’s clearly not silk. But of any rug I’ve touched that wasn’t inside that “real rug” store -- this is the nicest, silkiest, feeling rug I’ve felt. It really does remind me of the silk rug -- and that wasn’t something I was expecting.
It’s very thin and flat -- which makes it feel more convincing, and nothing like so many rugs I touched in the big boxes. (It rolled out and laid flat with no issues at all.)
The low cut, silky fibers gives this rug a big dose of sheen. Which I love. It kind of glows pink from one angle (depending on the lighting.) But looks deep wine red from the other angle.
Photo examples.
Now it has to be noted that this silky feel causes rub marks. I don’t mind that, but it drives some people crazy. And I’ve yet to see but, vacuuming lines could be weird till it rubs back out.
wax on/ wax off
baby finger lines
Overall I think this rug is gorgeous. I really wasn’t expecting to be this blown away.
If I can’t own a “real rug” this beauty really does my heart good.
Can’t wait for my other one to arrive!
After all this, I will never watch “The Big Lebowski” the same -- I now deeply relate to his need to get his rug back. (His looks like a “real rug” too -- if so, that’s actually no small theft! I had zero perspective when I watched it before.)
Anyway, since I’m taking the time to blog…
I wanted to show you my (more than likely) plans for my entryway dresser (that I once got free on the curb.)
nail head trim!
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This exact dresser is linen wrapped. But I plan to just paint and add nail heads -- which will be silver thumb tacks from dollar tree. The linen wrapped version is $2,700. If mine works it will cost me maybe $30 in paint, hardware and tacks. Sweet! (But lets not count the hourly wage I won’t be paying myself to nail all those in! yikes! I’m up for it…I think. ; ) )
I haven’t put my finger on what exactly the mirror needs -- I’ll probably need to finish the dresser before I know.
Ok, well I hope you enjoyed this update.
Still not sure when and what I’ll be blogging, still very sad, still very disheveled.
But I’m doing it in style -- at least my house is -- my current personal style is still yoga pants all day every day. And I don’t care. But I have started washing my hair.
I think your rug is incredibly stunning, well done! The Big Lebowski reference made me chuckle - I had just been thinking of that movie lately, in that my postpartum wardrobe ended up less stylish than yours, more of a cross between The Dude and Mokey Fraggle.
ReplyDelete(and I'm so glad for this update - I've been thinking about you & sending prayers & wanting to say something supportive but not knowing what)
A cross between The Dude and Mokey Fraggle….thats great. That was a much needed chuckle. He’s actually almost sporting pinterest sloppy chic looks…you might have nailed it. :)
DeleteI’m making up for lost time in the crazy wardrobe department lately. And I can’t catch my breath to lose this baby weight yet. We’ll be in good company together.
Thanks for all your sweetness and prayers.
Here is an idea for the mirror. http://www.epbot.com/2013/10/diy-antiqued-mirror-wall-panels-or-fun.html?m=1
ReplyDeleteLove the rug.
Sending prayers and hugs.
Ooo I like that!
DeleteThank you for the prayers and hugs.