New Rug

I have not shown you pictures of all my rooms yet because the house is a work in progress, but I want to show you how my new rug looks. 

In our last house we had a small oriental rug.  The colors were all wrong, the rug had big moth holes in it, and it was too small for the space.  That rug is now in storage.

My search for rugs started on the internet where I looked at every major rug cite to find a good one.  I imediatly fell in love with this one from West Elm. 

Then I realized that it was a very tight weave and would not be comfertable to lie on.  I imagined my future children playing on the living room rug, and this tough rug was not going to cut it.
So I turned to a rug from Pottery Barn.  I think I was leaning toward a simple off white one with a slightly darker trim. 

Alas, my hubby and I decided that it was too light and would show every stain and dribble of tea or, horrors, red wine.  I was not going to give up drinking red wine in my living room for a rug, and said small future children  probably would not be much happier either (not because of the no red wine rule, but no juice or whatever they drink).

So for the first couple of month living in my new home our living room looked like this:

No rug at all.
In comes my wonderful step-mother, Susan.  She has a kind heart and wanted to get Jeff and I a little gift for the house.  Guess what she got us?  A rug (big suprise right?)  I took a little trip down to the big city (New York City) and went shopping with Susan.  I love shopping with her, we have so much fun!!!

We went to both West Elm and Pottery Barn and saw rugs that were nice, but when we saw this rug at ABC Carpets we fell in love. Susan has a friend who is an interior designer and recomended ABC Carpets, otherwise I would not have known about it at all.

Because I was not looking for an oriental rug, it was still difficult to find a rug even at ABC Carpets, where they had at least two floors of carpets.  However, after looking and talking to the salesman, we found the one. 

I really like this rug.  It is super soft, and comfy to lie on, and I love the color.  I think it coordinates well with the more bold colors in the room.  I wanted something that would tie the room together without competing with the other, I admit, very bold accents and furniture.  Susan and I also liked that it looked different from different angles.  Depending on how the light hits the rug the pattern is more or less visible. 

The pattern is quite defined on the left in this shot.

See how it almost disappears here?

But before I end this post I have to tell you about my crafty step-mom who got a really good deal.  After we had picked out the rug and decided we liked it we were debating the cost of shipping and how it will get back to my house which is two and a half hours away.  I don't remember all the details (I got the rug two month ago) but I can just say we started off with a good deal.  Then Susan found out that the store owner had friends who lived on the same road as her house up here.  Susan proceeded to chat him up, and get the cost cut even more.  I have never seen someone get such a discount.  She was amazing.  We walked out of there saving at least a couple hundred dollars.  If there is a lesson to learn it is that you should never be afraid to ask for a discount, especially if you can chat up the store owner (wink, wink).  Go Susan! 
Now I have a great rug, and we saved some money as well. 

But I'm not done.  After living in the room for a while there are still some things I want to change.  You may have noticed that I added an orange cover to the chair?

I have also done some little things like add a place for the remotes and redesigned the book shelves. 

But now I think the room needs more light.  I'm thinking of adding some white accents.  I love the white vases that are all over the blog-o-sphere and might paint my lamp white too.  Decorating is a fluid exercise.  I keep changing my mind. 

Sorry this photo is so dark, I'll have to get a better shot in the day time.

I don't want the room to be more crowded, but I need to lighten it up.  What do you think?