Rug Rules

You Squeezies didn’t think I would go without showing you the rug that inspired the whole family room redo, did you? No way Joe-say!

(Speaking of Joe-say, can I get a moment of silence that Kath and Kim isn’t coming back? That show was funny.)

I found our new rug at TJMaxx/HomeGoods – it’s a five by almost seven foot rug and it’s awesome. But my hope was to get a rug that was much bigger than our last, because the last wasn’t big enough for our family room, at least according to the “rules.”

There are many rules I’ve heard you should follow when purchasing a rug for a space. One mistake I know most of us make (I say “us” because I’ve done it many times!) is to buy a rug that is too small. I do it for one reason -- pure and simple – the cost. Big rugs are expensive, no matter where you buy them.

For example, a rug under the dining room table or kitchen table should be big enough so that when someone sits down to eat and pulls in their chair, the whole chair is still on the rug.

I found a fun, round rug at Target for our kitchen a few months ago, and I was so pleased to get it home and find it worked great:

I didn’t want one much bigger because we don’t have a ton of space in our kitchen, and anything bigger would have given the illusion of a cramped space. Smaller would just look weird. That’s the thing – you’ll know it when it’s not right. It just doesn’t sit right to the eye.

Our family room has had a rug from JCPenneys for the past few years that I loved:

It had all of the colors I’ve used to decorate our family room, kitchen and den – rust, green and brown tones. The only thing that bothered me was it was just a bit too small. It didn’t bother me too much, obviously. I mean, we had it for at least three years. :) A few months ago, I looked at JCP online for a larger one and this rug was discontinued, so no luck there.

Then, a couple weeks ago while at TJMaxx, I spotted a beautiful, bright, fun rug that had all of the perfect colors but was a bit more contemporary than I typically go for. It was one of those when I knew I loved it but didn’t know if it was right for me. You know that feeling?

I touched it, admired it, walked away from it. Turned around, looked at it again, touched it, put it on the floor, admired it. Put it back, touched it. Walked away, freaked out because someone might buy it while I looked around more (that happens there all the time!), ran back, smiled when I saw it was still there, touched it again and said what the heck Sarah just buy the dang thing!!! Whew.

It really was like that. Serious.

So I bought it. It always could go back, right? Well, it took a few minutes and some tweeting to my tweeters but I fell. in. love:

Only thing -- it was even smaller than the one I had! (By inches.) The “rules” are a bit shady when it comes to rugs for spaces like this. I’ve heard the furniture should sit completely on the rug (meaning all four legs of each piece) or at least have the front legs on the rug to anchor it. A rug that is large enough for all of our furniture to sit on it would be 9 by 12 feet, and I just don’t want to spend that kind of cash right now.

So…I thunk and I thunk and I thunked. And then while in World Market the other day – it hit me. I found a 6 by 9 jute rug for $99 and figured it would work GREAT as a “base” of sorts for the other new rug. They had a creamy color, which I went for initially, but I realized it would just melt into the other one. Instead, I picked up the green rug so it would make the smaller one pop:

And I luuuuurved it! (The kitty does too!) It looks like it’s a band around the smaller rug – if you just glance at it, it looks like it’s just one rug. Super cool. The green color is just a tad bit darker than I wanted, but it still gives nice contrast and the smaller rug keeps the room bright. I’m still playing around with the placement of it but I really love how it turned out!

So it wasn’t cheap -- $200 total for the two rugs. But I got what I love, which is the hardest part!

Of course this has started a snowball effect – the way too big coffee table had to go (I loved it but it’s always seemed too big to me), the lamps got a facelift (see below!), the accessories are getting lighter and now I am getting the itch to replace the drapes. ;) The new coffee table is almost complete, so I’ll show you that next week.

Oh, and just to show you how I kick the “rules” to the curb most of the time – the rug in the kitchen and this rug don’t really go – I mean, they are both floral prints, mostly the same colors – but I would normally do a solid and a print in spaces so close to each other. But I love them both, they look great in their separate spaces, and the rules can kiss my booty.

(Sticks out tongue.) ;)

Stay tuned for another great giveaway this weekend!!