Vintage Moroccan Rag Rug

Speaking of new rug purchases, I've started doing work again on the girls' room lately. About a month or so ago I ran in to West Elm to pick up some things in the Market section (so good) and I saw two or three of these vintage Moroccan rag rugs from across the store.  Moroccan rugs of all varieties are always so expensive so I was thrilled to see these marked way, way down.

I love the texture to these rugs. You can often find them on eBay, but I loved that these had been completely cleaned. Not a speck of dust or a trace of musty odor on these.

I was really taken with this one with the smaller pattern, but the size was too long for my girls room.

So I ended up getting the wider, shorter rug with the bigger pattern, which turns out is perfect for impromptu games of hopscotch.

I layered it on top of the Madeline Weinrib dhurrie I picked up two years ago (that probably is due for a professional cleaning - I spy a crayon mark here!), and I kind of like how the shapes in the two rugs play off each other. 

The off-white color is actually a metallic silver. Love it :)

I feel like this type of rug was just meant to be in a kids room, don't you think? It's soft and casual and charming. Also, when we forget to put Linus in his crate at night, he chooses to sleep here on the rug in front of the girls' bunk beds. What a guy! Protects babies and enjoys a good Moroccan rug.

New Living Room Rug

I was sad to see it go, but we decided to replace the jute rug this month. I loved that rug, and still think jute is a great option for some people, but those people are not pet owners. :/ Linus had two throw up accidents on the rug and I scrubbed and scrubbed and vacuumed for hours both times and there was a bit of unfortunate discoloring. Big bummer.

Also, the rug had dried up a bit during the winter especially the part that sat over the floor grate, and it was starting to shed a little bit. It wasn't a huge deal on its own and actually I think I was supposed to be misting the rug with water once or twice a month to prevent the over-drying, and I never did. But between the shedding and the discolored spots (which you can sort of see in these photos), I felt like it was time to start looking for something else.

So here was my thought process.

1) While I loved the pop of red from the persian I had layered on the jute, I knew I wanted something more neutral. I'm going to bring in a bright orangey red or a hot pink on new pillows I think (I loved that combo with the green velvet sofa).

2) This rug needed to be a wool or wool-like pile for clean up purposes. For stain-hiding, I am a big fan of persian style rugs, so I was hoping to find something neutral but with a bit of an irregular pattern.

3) In apartments especially, where 90% of the action happens in the one living room, it's pretty inevitable that spills and stains are going to happen with kids and pets in the house. During my search I actually found a completely gorgeous antique silk Oushak in beautiful light colors from one of my dealers for about $3500. Pricey, but it was seriously worth every penny. I thought long and hard about investing in that rug. It was stunning, but what happens when someone sneaks juice over into the living room or when Linus has an accident? It would be hard to not freak out, and that's just not how I want to feel about the stuff in my house. So I passed on the Oushak and I kept looking.

I had my eye on this rug called the Beaumont Adileh in Natural from Rugs USA for a couple weeks. I was sold out in the 10x13 size that I wanted, but they have this feature where you can give them your email and they'll contact you if/when more comes in stock.

The reviews were good and they were having one of their famous 50% off plus free shipping sales, so when I got the email that the large size was back in stock, I moved fast. And I'm so glad I did! I love it. (Just checked - the latest sale is 60% off!)

I love the range of colors in the rug: cream, gray, taupe, black, brown, even a hint of apricot. It's totally one of those rugs that changes colors in the light.

And I think it actually looks kind of worn and old. Or at least, it doesn't scream out cheapy fake rug when you walk into the room. My only complaint is the binding on the edge, but for this price, you win some, you lose some.

Man, I love the black in that border!

The rug is 100% Viscose, which surprised me with its softness, even though the rug is pretty thin. And it's hard to tell in the photos, but the viscose gives the rug a really silky look. It honestly looks so much like the sheen of the Oushak that I loved, I just couldn't believe it when I rolled the rug out. And just like silk, it totally changes color when you rub your hand against the pile.

Oh, hello, soft and pretty rug...

So while I miss the texture of the jute a bit, I'm totally in love with the new rug. It is bright and airy and it cleans up like a dream. I'm a very happy customer and now I'm thinking of getting this one for my office... :)

How to Bind Two Natural Fiber Rugs

I'm working on a really fun rug DIY right now that I'm excited to share with you next week. It's a rug that will be layered on top of my two braided jute rugs from the ABC clearance basement, originally made by FibreWorks. I thought today I'd report back to you on how those rugs are holding up (since we've been using them for about two months now in our main living space).

Long-time readers will remember when I had a BIG problem with a jute rug way back in the day. This rug I've been a lot happier with. I know now to only use a dry rag or this powder to clean up messes (though I've only had to use the powder once). For good or for bad, this rug hides a multitude of stains and crumbs. I give it two thumbs way up.

If I had to give any teeny tiny complaints, it would be that the rug sheds just a little bit. But pretty much every rug does in the beginning. It's really not bad, and if anything, just encourages me to vacuum up all the hidden dirt I'm not seeing! :)

Since the living room is long, I was able to buy two 8x11's and save a ton of money over going with a custom size. I used upholstery thread to bind to two rugs together.

I started with the part of the rug that goes under the sofa, and after getting the hang of it, I found it was best to stitch mostly in the middle and the underside of the rugs' edges, so the thread wouldn't be visible, and then I pulled very tight on the thread every foot or so. It's almost impossible to tell where the seam is in person! The weave makes it so the two edges fit together like puzzle pieces.

If you need an odd-sized, large natural fiber, and don't want to break the bank, try binding together the IKEA Tarnby (or Pottery Barn's Jute). Also, I think the ABC clearance basement still has some of the FibreWorks jutes left? They have sales often, so wait until they are 30-50% off.

Weekend Give Away: $500 to eSaleRugs!

    
It's the weekend! Let's start it out right, with a fabulous give away from my friends at eSaleRugs! I must be one of their best customers (here, here and here), because they are offering up a very generous $500 gift certificate to give away! Also, the site is having a killer sale to celebrate the holiday weekend (50% off and a free rug pad, with an extra 10% off if you buy two or more rugs!), so there are deals-aplenty.

Now, the good and also tricky thing about the eSaleRugs site is they have a huge amount of inventory. I gave myself a little challenge to see how many rugs I could find in 30 minutes. I stopped pretty soon after finding about 50 rugs, because I figured that was just getting unmanageable! :) The point is, there are lots and lots of great rugs on eSaleRugs if you're willing to dedicate just a little time to the hunt. I've found the fastest way to sort through the site is to right-click on any rug that looks potentially interesting and choose "Open Link in New Tab" then it's easy to fly through the inventory and then compare the ones you like best all at once.

Probably my favorite thing about the eSaleRugs site is they include a ton of photos of each rug - from all different angles. You really have a sense of what your rug looks like in reality. (I hope other e-commerce sites start doing this! So helpful!)

These are just a sample of the dozens I love on the site right now. Persian rugs are my favorite, so all of these are from that category, though there are some great options in the Oriental and Modern categories, too. (OH MAN. I just realized they sell Moroccan rugs under the Handmade category! This could be dangerous!)

Here are some of the rugs I've shown here:

1  /  2  /  3  /  4  /  5  /  6  /  7  /  8  /  9  /  10  /  11  /  12  /  13  /  14  /  15  /  16  /  17  /   18  /  19  /  20

To qualify to enter this give away, please shop around the eSaleRugs site and share the link to the rug(s) you would purchase with your $500. Don't forget most rugs are an additional 50% off the listed price and there's always free shipping!

Contest ends Tuesday night at midnight. Good luck!

Thank you all for entering! The winner has been chosen and emailed. Please check your inbox! :)

The Garden Level Entry

Before we lived here, I didn't realize just how much we would end up using the garden level entry. I thought we would just leave from the main front door all the time. But down on the garden level, there's more a little more space and a full-size coat closet. Which means plenty of room for backpacks, scooters, helmets, ballet and soccer gear - all the stuff that accumulates around here easily. We're finding it's actually nice that we can have a more casual entrance for the family and a more formal entry for guests.

Now that I'm revisiting old photos from before we moved in, I can see why I assumed we would never use this entrance. It was literally blocked off from junk the bachelors kept in the hall. And somehow they had broken the closet doors and just sort of propped them up at an angle. :)

So now that this entrace has become basically our mudroom, I bumped it up on the decorating priority list. Just like with my office, I mostly wanted to use things that I had around the house already. And because it's a more casual space that guests won't often see, I thought it would be fun to just go a little crazy here - full on, uninhibited decorating. I'm not done yet, but we're making some headway, I think.

The wallpaper was purchased at a B&F sample sale a couple years ago (we used the larger scale pattern in my mom's kitchen) for just a few dollars a roll.

The blue enamel paint on the door was left over from the interior of Joanna's bedroom armoire. I'm so crazy about the color!

I recycled the hooks from the loft entry. After living a month or two without these, I realized how much the hooks help us keep clutter off the floors. As soon as we walk in, everything gets put up and away. No more searching for backpacks first thing in the morning!

I picked up the antique burlwood mirror at the flea market last year. It's a favorite of mine. It's sort of weird I guess to hang a mirror on the back side of a door, but I kinda like it. I hung it on the door using a screw, and then added picture hanging strips to the corners to give the frame extra stability when the door slams, etc. It's fun to have a little place to check your hair before you run out the door. I want to hang an art series on the left-hand wall, so this was a way to get a mirror without losing wall space.

There was this really bad, commercial grade red carpet in most of the garden level rooms. We pulled it all out right away (it was super gross). The floors underneath need a little love, but they're not that beat up.

I was so, so glad my new persian rug fit the hall space. I love the way the coral in the rug works with the green of the wallpaper.  It was 50% off(!) at eSaleRugs. They are having sales all the time so I make it a habit to pop over to the site every other week or two to see what's new, so I have a lot of rugs from them now. :) (remember my old kitchen runner?).

The benefit to the use-what-you-have decorating approach is it's really instant gratification. I love how fast I was able to throw this all together. After just a few hours of work, it feels like a somewhat-finished space. And I'll take finished-and-good-now over perfect-maybe-someday, any day of the week!