I Saw It. I Loved It. We Bought It.

For quite a while now, I've been wanting a new area rug for our living room. The one we were using was kind of small for the space and didn't add a lot of color or interest to the room. I've window shopped for rugs at a lot of stores over the last few months - saying nay-nay to most of them because area rugs can be really expensive - especially large-sized ones. So, I had decided to be patient, hoping I would eventually come across a rug that would be just the right look and price for our needs.

Well, "eventually" came Friday night. After a leisurely dinner out, Joey and I walked into a local Marshalls/HomeGoods store (about 20 minutes prior to closing) to do a quick look-around to see if any good deals caught our attention. After quickly browsing through the kitchen/dining section - viewing many beautiful dishes and serving pieces - I went over to the section of the store hanging the area rugs. Within minutes - no , seconds - I saw "the one". I took a quick scan through the other options, but came back to "the one" immediately. I called Joey over for his approval and he agreed it was a good fit for what we needed. And the price wasn't half bad either. So, we decided to purchase it.

Now, impulse buying is NOT my thing. I usually ponder the thought of buying the item, check out options at other stores, compare prices, etc... but Friday night was different. It did help that I knew the area rug choices at many other locations (as I mentioned above I had been window shopping for a while), but something in my gut just told me this was it. And if we didn't buy it now, I may not find anything like it, or especially at this price point, ever again. So, I went with my gut.

At 1 minute to closing, we checked out with our new area rug and headed home - to immediately put the rug into place. Why wait until morning? I was too pumped to sleep. And, I captured some pictures for your viewing pleasure. I apologize if the lighting of the pictures is not the greatest - that's what I get for snapping shots at 11pm.

First, here's a quick peek at the old rug (minus the coffee table that Joey had already removed). The size was 5X8 and it was a neutral tan color...


...a little small and blah, right? So, we rolled it up and moved it out.

Once the carpet was removed, it revealed our beautiful hardwood floors underneath (and yes, that's the new rug rolled up on the couch) ...


This might lead you to ask why cover up such pretty floors with an area rug? Well, there are several reasons to use an area rug, most being practical reasons:

1. It helps protect the wood floors. I know I can't forever keep my wood floors from getting some scratches, dings, dents etc. But the rug will help protect some of the main area.
2. I live in Wisconsin. It's freezing from October - March (sometimes longer). The rug warms the space and feels nice under cold feet.
3. Area rugs help define the space by grouping furniture together in a way that makes the space feel cohesive - as opposed to just random furniture sitting all over the place.
4. Area rugs can enhance the rooms color scheme depending on what colors are in the rug.

For all these reasons, I wanted an area rug in the living room.

Before the rug could actually be placed on the floor, I wanted to put down a rug pad - this helps to keep the rug from slipping on the wood floor.



The pad we bought was actually slightly larger than the rug itself. The pad bag says it can be used for 8X10 or 8X11 rugs - our new rug was about 7.5X9.5 (kind of random). So, I new I would have to cut some of it off. But I started by laying the rug pad in the generally right location. And as you can see, Spike was a very curious kitty and watched the process from the sidelines...



Once the pad was in place, I laid the rug down where I wanted it. Here you can see most of the color and pattern of the new rug. And you can see that the pad goes out around the edges...



I wanted to do as little cutting as possible. So, I laid 2 sides of the rug right where they needed to be - with the corner of the rug going just past the corner of the pad.



Then I took scissors to cut the other 2 sides away.




That gave me a perfect fit around all sides of the rug. Even Spike agreed it was perfect. He immediately laid down...



And here is an up-close shot of the rug pattern. It has many colors that work wonderfully with the room. The tans and browns go with all of our woodwork. The sage green perfectly matches our sage green walls. The other colors - light blue, pale yellow, and hint of red - are all colors that I will use as accent colors in the room throughout the different seasons. And the pattern is not too formal either.



The chocolate brown color will also (hopefully) match the up-and-coming addition to our living room (set to arrive in 3-4 weeks). So, I'll share more pics with you then. And the rug location will be slightly adjusted at that time.

How much did all this cost, you ask? I will share...

Area Rug:
Original Price $300.00
Sale Price $150.00

Rug Pad:
Original Price $39.99
Sale Price $29.99

Total = $179.99

But then you get to subtract $95.00 of Katie's Christmas cash...

Grand Total out-of-pocket = $84.99

I think that's a steal of a deal!

And here is a comparable rug I had been eying at Pottery Barn...



...a 5X8 would have cost us $429.00 and upgrading to an 8X10 would have been $649.00 (!).

And I like the colors in our rug better! Take that PB!

So, what do you think? Love the look? We do!