During the process of renovating our home, I have found choosing a rug to be one of the most difficult decor challenges. That, and curtains, but that’s a story for another day.
I fell in love with the rug that’s in our living room months before our floors were even fully uncovered and refinished, and it kind of set the tone for the downstairs with its greys, blues, browns and blacks. The rug in G’s room was a no-pressure choice because we were looking for a fun flat weave in gray and white, which turned out to be pretty easy (it’s no longer available at UO, but it’s similar to this), and we just layered a brown and white cowhide from Etsy over it to make it more interesting.
Finding a dining room rug was a more difficult task. S was adamant that he didn’t want a traditional-looking rug; he wanted something mostly solid as opposed to patterned. And, while I could get on board with simple and modern, it is very difficult to find a large (8×10 or 9×12), non-traditional rug that is attractive and matches a specific color scheme without spending a lot of money.
After what turned into weeks of searching, I finally found a rug that I knew would be perfect: this beautiful jute boucle rug in 9×12 from West Elm. I think it was somewhere around $350 when we bought it, which is affordable for the size. And let me tell you, that rug is gorgeous. Heavy, but gorgeous. When it came, we lugged it inside and rolled it out, and I knew immediately that we made the right choice. The rug read as neutral with the other gray tones in the room, (which I love because I prefer my dining room to be a blank slate) but it also had a great, noticeable texture that really brought some interest to the room. I was worried it would be too scratchy, but it wasn’t at all. The only drawback was the shedding. I knew that natural fiber rugs shed, but wow. One vacuuming would fill the vacuum chamber to the top with rug fibers and the carpet pad we placed underneath was continuously filled with “rug dust”. But that was all okay with me, because the rug was truly gorgeous. G thought so, too. He enjoyed lounging on it before we brought in the furniture.
But then, I saw that one corner of the rug was coming apart! It was actually unraveling, and upon closer inspection, I saw that a few of the thick fibers had completely broken in half. I think that this was caused by G’s walker continuously snagging the edge of the rug as he tottered by. So, I made sure to flip up the rug’s corners when G was in his walker. Cut to a few months later, and I saw that another fiber had broken, this time on the other side of the rug, where our crazy redbone coonhound Leia runs to the bay windows to bark at squirrels 87 times a day. And as the days went on, the rug really started unravelling at that end! My heart was broken. As beautiful as that rug was, it obviously couldn’t hold up to baby and dog traffic. (And, apparently I was too sad to take any photos of the damage before we rolled it up and brought it to the attic. Hopefully we can use it in a bedroom or the sunroom someday, with the unraveled end covered by a piece of furniture.)
So, the hunt was on again. I definitely didn’t want to spend a lot of money this time, seeing how quickly our last choice had met its demise, and I obviously wanted to find something durable. But considering how much I loved that rug, I needed something just as beautiful, neutral and textured to live up to it.
Here are a bunch of great options I found during my search:
From top:
Mudhut Beaded Flatwoven Stripe Area Rug
South Padre Area Rug
Oriental Weavers Sphinx Revival 119 Rug
Safavieh Courtyard CY6062 Rug
Safavieh Montauk Gray Abstract Area Rug
Mirage Diamond Rug
Kilner Stripe Recycled Yarn Indoor/Outdoor Rug
Dot ‘N Dash Recycled Yarn Indoor/Outdoor Rug
Oxford Stripe Recycled Yarn Indoor/Outdoor Rug
Islander Area Rug
Suffolk Indoor/Outdoor Rug
Saddlestitch All-Weather Area Rug
Pueblo Outdoor Area Rug
Tradewinds Pattern Hemp Rug
Border Chenille Rug
Emery Rug
Basic Diamond Recycled Yarn Indoor/Outdoor Rug
This post helped me a lot with the search, but then I veered off into the world of indoor/outdoor rugs. I’ve been seeing a lot of people online using indoor/outdoor rugs in their main living areas, and there are actually some really beautiful options out there. This seemed like a great choice for us at the moment because indoor/outdoor rugs are usually a) durable and b) affordable. I was particularly impressed with the choices at Pottery Barn. In the end, I chose this one, and it arrived in two days you guys! That is very fast and it made me very happy. (Don’t judge my photos you guys! They come complete with crumbs on the rug from the baby and window smudges from the dog. We keep it real.)
The rug is an 8×10 instead of a 9×12 like the old one, allowing lots of room for G’s walker to pass through, which is better for us at the moment. It feels like a sweater under our feet; it’s much softer than I expected. The synthetic fibers don’t have that plastic-y look or feel that some indoor/outdoor rugs have, and the pattern is so subtle it reads as a texture. Overall, the new rug was a great choice for the price and we love it in the room. Now, hopefully it can stand up to puppy and baby monsters!
Park and Division 