All I want for my 40th Birthday is a Missoni stair runner

Is that so wrong?

(sneak peek of the happy hallway)

I love that either of these striped runners (in the photo above and in the design board, below) pretty much encapsulates the whole palette of the house, and plays well with all the rugs it touches.

Here is the "rug story" for the main floor of the house.  

The runner (middle, below), can be seen most directly next to the moroccan jute sisal dining room rug and the afghani wool entry rug (bottom right and bottom left, respectively).  The beni ourain is in the living room and the green concentric diamond in the master.

Those stripes.  Super fun, right?

File under: I never would have done that, but it looks good!

Sometimes I realize that I have hard and fast design rules of my own that aren't, you know, like real rules.  And of course fake rules are meant to be broken.

Case in point:

Heather's rule: when layering rugs, one of them must be solid.

Breaking the rule beautifully:

A cowhide over a large-scale printed dhurrie!

What WHAT?!

And yet it works.  I think because both patterns have organic shapes, but one is high-contrast and one is low-contrast, and one has a regular repeat while the other is random.  See the house tour of these geniuses here.

I'm a gonna try my hand at this.  Look for some pairings next week!

Have a great weekend,

Heather

So how did that impulse rug work out, anyway?

I'm kind of cheap, did you know that?

It's true.  For myself, I think I would rather "get a great deal" than "pay for the perfect thing."  But.  The more I work towards a finished product around here, the more I realize that it pays to wait.  It's the lesson I refuse to learn. 

The moment I opened the package for this rug, I knew it was not going to work.  The colors were brighter/cleaner/ sharper than they had appeared online.

But of course I unpacked it anyway, and moved all the furniture, and tried it out right proper.

And: nope.  Still didn't work.

It's actually pretty cute in the room as seen here, but in an open plan house that's just not enough, and it fought with the living room.  Like, dukes up.

And it would have been cats and dogs with the leopard print chairs I just bought.

Yup, I will leave that one hanging.

Oops...I bought a rug

Here's what happened.

I thought this was the perfect rug for my dining room

(save for the $6000 price tag).

I recently decided this one would work well, especially in keeping with my new found Kathryn M Ireland obsession.

(if only it was wool and not cotton.)

I had the sample floating around the dining room for a while, feeling like it had just the palette I was after. My price for a 9x12 was going to be under $400...not bad at all.  But I didn't pull the trigger.

Yesterday, I was alerted by the blog Kiki's list that One Kings Lane was featuring Stark rugs.  I headed on over to take a look for a client.  (No really, I swear.)

I spotted a striped wool flat weave with the green of my curtains and the blue of my chairs and the brown from around the house and the red (or orange) I was hoping to add.  Just, alas, no yellow.  It was available in several sizes, and the posted price range went up to around $1550.  I clicked through, even though that was way more than I was planning to spend.

But no.  The 9x12price popped up: $149.  Where's the other zero?  I thought.  I put it in my cart, convinced the error would be corrected.  Nope.

And so, in a month (why a MONTH?)  I will have a 9x12 Stark flatweave wool dhurrie for the bargain price of approximately 95% off retail.

With colors that, now that the thrill has worn off, I have to admit will probably not...quite...work.  But who knows?  Also...returns accepted within 14 days.

Do you make impulse purchases when the numbers are "too good to pass up?"

Special Order rugs

Well, West Elm has done it again.

Have yo noticed that they now offer special order rugs?
Six rugs that can be ordered in custom colors and extra large sizes.

That Andalusia Dhurrie is an old favorite, and I love the idea of ordering it in pink--very Madeline Weinrib on a budget.  That offset stripe might satisfy dome of my Indian dhurrie dreams, too.

There is a long lead time and no returns--but such is the case any time you have a rug made.

I'm always impressed with the ways this retailer innovates the shopping experience!

New Wool Flatweaves

What do all of these flatwoven wool rugs have in common?

They are from Ikea!

That's right: perhaps inspired by the wild runaway success of their black and white broken stripe dhurrie, the Ikea folks are at it again.  I saw a number of these in person today, and out of context would never have guessed the source.  (Well, maybe not never.)  Most are good sized (around 5x8 or around 8x10), and all are under $300.

I personally love all the classic stripe options.  Surprise, surprise.

Have you stumbled upon any great finds lately?

Decisions, decisions

I made a decision.  A good one.  About my own house.  And if you have been along for the ride, you may be relieved that I will now stop talking about it.

It has to do with the living room rug.  And it goes a little something like this:

Lonny

Architectural Digest

Ken Fulk

Lonny

Matchbook

Miles Redd

I'm not sure if the clarity came from being away for a weekend, or having the kids away and the opportunity to focus on the house, but I am sure of this.  And when I called to tell my mom, she said "YES."

You know leopard is a neutral, right?

Maybe I should read my own blog more often.

But What Rug?

Ah, yes, I love a good saga, don't you?

In short: the beloved orange trellis rug that was living in the living room felt a little "hot" to me.

It moved upstairs to the rugless girls' room with the idea that I would rather invest in something new for our main living space.

I took this jute rug that had been layered in the guest room,

And put it in the living room temporarily (it's too small).

I like the look but not the size.

Then I lost my mind and ordered the wrong striped rug from Overstock.

It was a great rug and actually pretty good for the space, but did not play nice with the adjoining dining room rug.

Now we are all caught up.

With all the browns in the living room, I'd like something cool on the floor.  Ideally it will work with the existing green and orange accents, though the green chair will likely eventually be recovered.

I was planning to do a custom Indian Dhurrie in wool, probably in a blue and ivory where the blue was more like the blue of my dining room chairs.  One of these patterns (colors are fully customizeable):

But then I spotted this.

Too trendy?  Maybe.  (Less so because of the color, but still.)  I brought home a sample and my just-turned-7-year old said "Mom, I LOVE this swatch."  Because it is super soft and plush, much cozier than jute.

But here's the other thing.  This room is an odd shape/layout because of the L-shaped half-wall fireplace/storage.

This means that it is impossible to have a regular rectangular rug cover the whole floor, making the small space seem smaller than it actually is.  Unless I did something custom in sisal or jute, with a notched corner.  Like this.  (See the corner wrapping the fireplace hearth?)

Usually I don't love the look of an odd shape and I don't like spending money on something so specific (i.e. something that won't work elsewhere.)  But we plan to be in this house for a long time, and a rug that fits that space would make a small living room feel bigger and would help all the off center elements feel more centered.

So....the look/feel of a bohemian blue rug?  Or the function of a larger custom natural rug?  Perhaps I could go for the best of both worlds and find a natural rug with blue or metallic woven in, like the ones below, but that can be made to my space?

I think this post made up my mind for me.  Curious what you all have to say....

Also, for the record, last week I helped a friend moving in to a new house choose paint colors for every room as well as several furniture decisions, all in one day.  At the end of the day my friend said "I can NOT believe how many decisions you just made."  See?  I can be very decisive.  Just not for myself!

The Universe Has Spoken

And it has whispered thus:

Go on, go ahead and get a rug for your living room, and don't cheap out:  make it the right rug.

Don't you love it when the Universe is on your side?

Do you want me to tell you the whole story?  (It's okay if you don't.  My husband has spent the last 10 years trying--in vain--to train me to skip all the backstory and get to the point.)

Okay.  I'll tell you the short version first.  I bought a rug on overstock one late night in a panic of SELL OUT RISK: HIGH.  I knew it was probably not right but I went ahead and done did it anyway.

See?  Kind of sort of almost great.  But truly the stripes should not be variegated (but more even, like most of these) and the blue is off--too True Blue.  Too coastal.  I lived with it for a couple of days kind of squinting at it to make the color work because the price tag worked.  (I am a professional: do NOT try this at home!)  I even tried to pretend that I needed to boot the dining room rug in favor of this guy.  (Long story here.)

The truth is, I am not very good at saving up and patiently waiting for perfect.  I am much better at finding really good right NOW.  Plus, it's hard, structurally, to save up for a purchase like a 9x12 rug when you run your own deal and your income ebbs and flows accordingly.  My husband, bless him, said to me, as I rolled up the "really great deal" in really great despair: well, you'll just have to find some extra money to get the right rug.

Yes he did.

And the very next day I got a call about a freelance writing gig, and I spent the weekend before the fourth holiday single momming it while my husband was at a bachelor party out of town and writing 5 articles to the tune of almost the price of a new rug.  (Very excited about this new gig and hope to tell you more about it soon.)

(Oh, and that's a picture of "single momming it," in case this is not self-evident.  Yes, I carry my children on my back, crawling on my hands and knees when my husband is away.)

And then last week the phone rang and a major magazine that I subscribe to invited me to come to a paid focus group, for just about the amount I think I need to close the gap on new rug-hood.  And that's what we call "finding extra money" folks.

Now.  It is possible that the universe intended to hand me this money to pay the hospital bill for my 4 year old who was sent to the emergency room by an over excited Target Clinic employee.  Or it is possible that the universe wants me to pay to take down the near-dead tree in our front yard that could have caused major damage during the recent storms that brought down a ton of beautiful old trees.

But, as I make a collage and wait to see what is in the next envelope for my focus group homework while making out with a Coke Zero to keep myself up at night, I am accepting only one earmark for these dollars:  One new rug.

(making out with a Coke Zero.  Is it weird that I'm kind of palming it?  

In all honesty, these are the kinds of pictures my husband chooses to take of me.  Isn't he sweet?)

Thanks, Universe.

Now, what kind of rug shall it be?

Source Alert: Jaipur at Zinc Door

Searching for flatweaves the other day, I was surprised to see that Zinc Door now sells Jaipur rugs.  Jaipur has a wonderful selection of wool flatweaves in variegated stripes and contemporary patterns, and while I've seen them pop up on the flash sale sites now and again, I haven't been aware of a simple, direct retail source until now.

Some favorites:

Prices for wool flatweaves go up to about $1100 for a 9x12.  Not dirt cheap, but very reasonable!  They also make beautiful hand tufted pile rugs, but those cost more.

See the whole collection here.