Our kitchen rugs have been with us for years — we picked them up at The Company Store for about $34 (maybe back in 2008). They originally lived in our first house’s kitchen and later in the third bedroom. They’re durable and neutral, but they don’t suit the new kitchen. In person the rugs are a bit undersized and their honey-oak tones clash with the soft avocado walls. So “find a new kitchen rug (or rugs)” has been on our to-do list for a while.
We finally tackled the rug situation during a stop at HomeGoods, where Sherry discovered a stack of 5 x 7′ flat-weave rugs for just $49 each. We saw potential in several and brought them home for what Sherry called our “kitchen rug fashion show.” Warning: the photos that follow show rugs quickly thrown down to test looks — they aren’t perfectly placed or fully smoothed out.
I started by pushing for what I thought was a sure thing: bold black-and-white stripes. In my head it would be perfect, but reality proved otherwise.
Even with a simple pattern, the high-contrast stripes were visually demanding. We thought using only one rug in the fireplace half of the room might tone it down and help define the cozy living area, but that adjustment didn’t save the stripes.
In person the black-and-white rug felt chaotic. That test did confirm one thing: we prefer a single rug in the room, placed in the living/fireplace zone. Having rugs oriented in different directions for the cooking area and the fireplace would look awkward, and a single rug helps the fireplace side feel like a distinct, relaxing space.
Next we tried a subtler gray-on-white striped rug from HomeGoods. I wasn’t ready to give up on stripes just yet.
The gray echoed the backsplash on the other side of the room, which we liked, but the stripes still felt too high-contrast and slightly cheap. That was the final nail in the coffin for large-scale stripes.
Sherry then suggested one of her favorites: an ikat-like diamond pattern in darker tones that included several of our favorite colors. She felt the darker palette would sit well against the floor.
That rug played nicely with the dining room curtains visible from one vantage point — Sherry even draped a dishcloth over a pillow to imagine how everything could tie together. It helped her visualize the color story for that side of the room.
Ultimately we decided against it. The pattern felt too busy at that scale, and the colors read a bit circus-like in person even though photos made it look better. Sherry was disappointed because she had also found a matching runner for the laundry room, which connects to the kitchen.
After returning the HomeGoods haul, we began raiding our stash of stored rugs — ones currently unused or waiting for a yard sale. We tried a Pottery Barn rug that had lived in our office.
It was too light. The off-white looked dingy next to the kitchen’s white counters and cabinets, so it went back into storage.
We also tried our old Pottery Barn “Clara” rug from the den.
It’s a great rug, but the honey-wheat tones clashed with the soft avocado walls, much like the original jute rugs from The Company Store. (For clarity: the walls are a very light, subtle avocado shade; they may render differently on some screens.) So the Clara rug was out.
We kept trying. Next up was our favorite yellow Moorish Pottery Barn rug from the guest room.
We liked this one more. The pattern felt sophisticated without being attention-grabbing, which was a welcome change from the larger, louder rugs.
But the yellow leaned a bit too orange against the walls, which have green undertones. Even though we love yellow accents in the room, this shade didn’t harmonize. From everything we tested, a light gray rug seemed the most natural choice: it wouldn’t clash with the walls and would tie in with the tile backsplash on the other side of the room.
The yellow rug is still in the kitchen temporarily, but we agreed it’s not permanent. The trial-and-error process helped us refine what we want: a light, subtle, smaller-scale pattern — likely in gray to echo the backsplash and extend that palette into the fireplace side of the room. Using that criteria we ordered a rug that looks promising. It’s on the way, and once it arrives we’ll share photos and let you know whether it was the right choice.
How was your weekend? Any rug shopping or family time? We had a busy one — four kids under three may sound chaotic, but it was great having everyone together.