Preface: Check the end of this post for some exciting blogging news!!!
Happy Friday to you! I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Fourth of July – We ended up having a nice, quiet evening at home just the two of us. Pigs in a blanket + baked beans + corn on the cob + viewing of Thor = perfect way to enjoy the holiday. We didn’t really bother trying to track down fireworks this year, but ended up seeing a few colorful bursts right outside our bedroom window over the tree tops – Definitely a happy little cap to the day.
But on to the meat and bones of this post – I’m fairly certain that if I had all the money in the world and could spend it on anything I wanted for the house, it would go towards rugs. A room spread with an area rug, even if it’s just a natural jute, is so much warmer and more inviting then one without. Although, in this fantasy imagination I would be sure to keep size in mind. We have an 8’x11′ shag rug in our living room, but after seeing this post I realized that we probably should have sprung for a size up. We are saving our pennies for that upgrade, although I’ve also considering the idea of layering an inexpensive rug underneath the shag to give the illusion of a bigger one.
Until then, I’ve made a few manageable rug upgrades throughout the house, the first being our new front door mat. This adorable mat is to-the-point with its big “hello” and features two of my favorite things – birds and bikes. Okay, maybe bikes aren’t my FAVORITE thing, but I purchased a little cruiser after the wedding a couple of months ago and it’s definitely one of my most exciting new toys. When I saw this mat, it seemed fitting to place in front of our home.
For details and to get your own, check out the information here.
Another new rug gracing our home underfoot is this little chevron beauty, hailing from Home Goods. You may have caught a glimpse of it in this post from last week when I photographed our new pet portraits.
I adore the happy yellow color and the trendy chevron print grabbed my attention instantly. I have a feeling that chevron, as fabulous as it is now, is going to peter out eventually, which is why I am trying my hardest not to buy into the more permanent idea of a chevron tile backsplash or wall paint treatments. For now, I’m focusing my chevron obsession on things that can easily be folded away (like this new rug) and small-scale paint applications. Don’t worry though – I’m loving the heck out of this rug and have zero intention of folding it up anytime soon.
At only $14.99, I couldn’t very well leave the store without it – It’s been parked in front of our oven for the past couple of weeks and it’s brought just the right amount of warmth to the mint-and-brown-dominated space. Now I wish I had grabbed the matching runner too – How cute would this be in front of a bathroom vanity?
Onto the final rug purchase…Like most DIYers/home mavens, I’ve been in patio upgrade mode for the past month or so now that summer is well underway. I’ve been keeping my eye out for colorful accessories and textiles to add to our tiny little back deck to make it feel more like an outdoor room. I haven’t shared much in the way of my little upgrades because, so far, it’s not really even worth showing.
One thing I’ve been pining after is an outdoor rug. We actually had one out there for several months but, again, it just wasn’t looking “wow” enough to even post about. I knew I wanted to replace it with something bigger and something a little bolder and, after reading this post from Yellow Brick Home about their own patio rug upgrade, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and shamelessly pulled the trigger on the exact same one.
It’s a beautiful blue and white Moroccan-flavor rug, made of a soft woven polypropylene found online at World Market. Amazingly, the final price tag including shipping for this large, 6’x9′ rug was only $37.79 – Sold. It looks like the rug is no longer available on the website, but they have a ton of gorgeous, super affordable options here in their indoor/outdoor rug section.
Alas, after excitedly ripping it from its packaging and unfurling it onto our back deck, I realized that I should have measured twice, clicked once. The rug was too big by only a couple of inches, but it was enough to force us on to Plan B.
My thought after the initial disappointment was that an indoor/outdoor rug made of durable materials would actually be perfect for underneath our dining room table. As you may know, we had an inexpensive fabric IKEA rug under the table, but it was a little bit small for the space and definitely not great for handling dinnertime spills.
Moments later, we had the new patio rug slipped beneath the legs of the kitchen table and stepped back to take a good look at the new set up.
It was bold – Like SUPER bold. But I knew it would take a moment to get used to the major change from soft gray to rich, deep navy. We stepped back a few more paces in all sorts of directions to gauge our feelings and even had my sister, who was visiting for dinner, weigh in with her thoughts. To get the full impact of her opinion, let me just tell you that she has zero interest whatsoever in home things, at least my type of “home things.” She and DIY do NOT mix and she rarely (only when forced) looks at my blog. So when she immediately responded with positive words on the new rug situated inside, I was a little taken aback. I wasn’t so sure about it until she pointed out how fabulous it looked from the front door.
The pattern and color from afar really DID jazz up the view from the front door. In the end, I decided to leave it in place for the weekend before making a final decision.
Fast forward a few days, and I knew what I had to do…
Yup. I went back to old IKEA faithful…
After giving myself some time to acclimate to the new rug being under the kitchen table, I still just couldn’t fall completely in love with the over-the-top boldness. You guys know that I love me some color, but it was just a little too much. The other deciding factor was the feel of the material. While some outdoor rugs have a natural, sort of rope-like feel to the weave, this one felt a little more plastic than I liked – At least for inside. Whenever we walked across it, it sounded like we were walking across a tarp. Not good.
So we rolled it up and put in the basement for the next house. We are planning on moving within the next three years or so, so it won’t be banished for long. I have dreams of it gracing a great big patio or back deck very soon…In the meantime, I actually realized how great it would be for picnics and even beach time. It’s SUPER light for how big it is and has handy little ribbon ties on the end, perfect for rolling up, tying up and tossing in the trunk of a car. I definitely don’t regret buying it, even though it won’t be used quite as often in the immediate future as I had planned.
If you want to see how the World Market rug looks in all its beautiful glory, do yourself a favor and click over to that Yellow Brick Home post I linked to above (and again right here) – Their patio is all spiffy and gorgeous for summer. Hopefully ours will get there eventually!
Have a great weekend!!
P.S. I was SO HONORED to be featured on two of my favorite blogs this week – The first, which I mentioned already but can’t help but say again, was a guest post over on Bullfrogs and Bulldogs where I chatted about our framed catch-all. The second was a hugely exciting reader reno feature over on 7th House on the Left, sharing our studio transformation. So thankful to both Amanda and Ashley for sharing a little DreamGreenDIY love!!!
