New Kitchen Rug

Well, I figure if you’ve stuck with me this long, you’re cool with me having a split personality on here. Some days I’m gonna just blurt out depths of soul. And some days I’m just gonna show you my house. Deal? Deal.

Ok, So my other rug for my living room showed up a couple days after the first one. And it’s perfect.

I had a short bit where I worried I should have gone bigger with that one. But I think that was just due to my mental place of slightly crazy. (Not that the mental-process with the rug was crazy -- just that my whole mind is a mess.)

I’ve since come to think yep, just right.

The only thing that’s a bit weird is that this rug’s sheen is kinda wonky from shipping. It’s like the fibers lay opposite on the ends than it does in the middle. It’s not terrible. And I think it will smooth out over time and with vacuuming. (I guess we will see.) Either way -- super happy with it.

So you notice that suede coat laying on the piano bench?
I brain stormed what to do with this problem…

No idea -- it came to us in essentially that state (although it got worse on our hands, because you can’t set anything on it without the finish getting worse.)

Somehow the vibe off the blog ChrislovesJulia (they’ve got a cooler edge than me) got me onto thinking I needed leather.
And the only way I can even figure out how to get my hands on real leather (the small amount of time I online shopped for the stuff, all I could find was faux gross looking stuff for still a decent chunk of change) was a thrifted leather jacket.
I had been hoping for non-suede leather -- but after a long trip around to all our stores, this what what I got. And I think it looks fantastic -- I’m just not sure how durable it will be.

I love the way the seams work out. I’m going to cut it to size (using a rotary sewing cutter borrowed from my mom) and then staple it down on the underside of the bench. I might add a bit of padding too. (I should -- I’m just not sure how much I care to go buy it.)

If I have enough left over suede I’ll make something more -- maybe a pillow. I pondered sewing a tote -- but I don’t think there’s enough. (Maybe another coat needs to come home with me?)

Anyway -- so after the living room became amazing to me with rugs in the space, I suddenly became highly aware of the power of a rug.



Which means I needed a rug for my eating area. I got my table and chairs done. (Took for-stinking-ever. I mean…life was rather intent on slowing me down -- but the project of “table and chairs” is not a small one.) But the room was not looking done enough to me.

I decided for us -- we needed and indoor outdoor rug for the space. I didn’t want to mix kids, food and rugs in a tricky way. The idea that you can take your rug outside and spray it down with a hose if you need to is very appealing.

I spent a few days online shopping and came up with this baby, and I love it!

The iphone pics are not doing it justice in the fill room shots. Here’s a close up.
(Seriously some day, at least I like to pretend that someday, I will get out my real camera and act like this blog is pinterest worthy.)

It’s really a really cool rug as far as I’m concerned. It looks a lot like a jute/sea grass/natural fiber rug. But it’s low maintenance. And it’s quite soft for an indoor-outdoor. The raised parts are fluffy without being too fluffy. And the woven parts are softer than I would have thought (but not silky or anything.)

And the rug had no weird smells. It’s only minus in my book is that it’s taking a bit longer to un-wrinkle since it’s a stiffer fiber, but it’s getting there.

I’ve vacuumed it already and that went great. I actually felt like it was faster and easier to do that than sweeping the hard floor. (So far anyway -- that might just be the new-ness fun factor.)

I got it on overstock. And for the size (8’8” x 12’) the price is awesome. (See it here.) (I get nothing for sharing -- just sharing for sharing sake.)

I also love the size for my room because I wanted to cover as much of the parquet as I could. I don’t necessarily hate parquet -- it’s just that this house as so many types of flooring going on I wanted to minimize this one. (I feel they should have tiled in this room to match the entry, bathroom, and kitchen. If we live in this house long enough that’s one of my LONG term goals -- change and tile all that space the same.) Anyway the rug helps me care much less about all that.

This is a good time for a flash back -- because I feel the need to feel good about something right now. And that something can be how far my house has come in two years time.

We bought the house with it looking like this (and carrying a smell you can’t get through your screen. That is now gone, with the yellow! Phew!)

Aww look at the littleness! Heart eyes!

Then I removed the yellow. And went grey. Which was SO MUCH BETTER.

(But later I changed my mind and went off-white.)

Look how bad this was! Sheesh! That’s looking through the eating area into the garage, family room direction.

And here is the table we are using now. And the chairs I sold in favor of my chairs I gave a makeover.
(I actually made money in the process of selling these vs how much I spent on the chairs plus makeover supplies.)

And here we are today. (I have both leaves in my table because we just had company over.)

(Sorry the color looks crazy from the phone this time -- normally it’s not THAT wonky. Oh well. That’s all the energy I have for now.) 

The plan stills calls for me painting the cabinets white. And we want to add some cabinetry to that corner where the excersaucer is now -- like a tiny sort-of butler’s pantry.

And switching out the range hood.

But so far so good.