We Finally Have a Living Room Rug

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Three cheers for projects and tasks that take way too long to accomplish but still turn out well… our rug!

Remember all the way back to when we first started talking about adding hardwood floors to our living room and I excitedly bought a used rug off Craigslist in hopes it would work in our living room? It was in March of last year. Seriously. Feels like forever ago.

Anyway, when we finally got the hardwood floors installed in October of last year, we didn’t end up liking the rug in the living room. It wasn’t really the right size. It was too busy with the chevron pattern, the blue didn’t match the curtains (too bright) and it wasn’t soft since it was an indoor/outdoor rug. Boo.

So, we rolled it up and it sat in the living room until it found a home as a temporary cover for the carpet stains in our guest room makeover. Which means, the living room has been without a rug all this time, which is okay, but not great because the ottomans slide all around (we put felt on the bottom on them). Plus, with the baby, I think we may be sitting on the floor more often in the coming months and years.

So, the rug search got a little more wind in its sails, and I fell down the rabbit hole of online rug shopping only to come up for air disappointed and more confused. Picking out a rug online is hard because you can’t see the true colors or feel the textures through the screen. Not to mention, all the good rugs cost a small fortune.

In the end, I found this little gem from Home Depot. I was sold when I saw the price and that we could ship it to the store for free. I figured it was a pretty small investment to make and we could easily return it if it was awful.

We also ended up buying this All-Surface Thin Profile 5 ft. x 8 ft. Fiber and Rubber Backed Non-Slip Rug Pad to add some cushioning and extra stability.

Between both purchases, our total was less than $80 for a 5×7 rug, way way WAY cheaper than anything else we had seen that we liked. I waited anxiously to see what it would look and feel like once it arrived and am pleasantly surprised to report that we like it!

I will admit I was skeptical when I saw how small they both looked all rolled up.

But after Wyatt worked on getting it all in place on the floor, it was better, even though the underlayment was too big and rolled up on one end.

He used a straightedge and a razor blade to carefully trim it….

…being sure to not cut the floor. I wasn’t in there while he did this, but I think he used some scrap wood to cut on. Smart man, that husband of mine.

A few notes:

Yes, we know it’s small and most decorators will tell you to go bigger with rugs to anchor the furniture. But I did some research on this and found some evidence that small seating arrangements with the couch against the wall actually do fine with a floating rug. Of course, I didn’t NEED some fancy decorator to tell me my rug was okay, but it did add some ammo to the “I think the rug actually looks okay” argument I had going on in my head when I saw how small it looked.
It’s a little busy with the curtains since they are both patterned but the tone-on-tone look of the rug keeps it pretty subtle and it doesn’t compete too much I don’t think.
It’s not all that plush. But it’s softer than the hardwood and even offers some sound insulation so we’re calling it a win.
It’s not great quality. What would you expect for that price, right?

All those considerations aside, we think it will work just fine as a temporary solution until we found a rug we both like better in the future. It takes the pressure off of finding one now since we’re no longer without, and we can take our time to find one that’s perfect…and in our budget. (Yea, right, right?) In the meantime, I actually like this solution a lot more than I expected to. I think the size fits our space well.

And it matched the curtains about as good as I could have ever hoped, considering I bought a rug that looked dark turquoise and was called “seafoam.” Seriously, we got super lucky there.

So there’s the story of how I shopped for a living room rug for over 16 months and finally just bought one and brought it home and it was way better than I ever imagined it would be. Crazy right?

As a recap, HERE’S THE LINK TO THE RUG.

And a LINK TO THE UNDERLAYMENT.

It worked really well for us to buy them online and get them shipped to the store (for free!) so I’d suggest that if you live near a Home Depot.

What are your rug thoughts? Wyatt was originally not a fan because we just spent the money to put down hardwood, but he has since come around after using this one for a little while. Do you have any secret rug sources for cheap, awesome rugs? Share!