Get A Wool Rug For Low-cost, step by step

As we mentioned here, the bedroom is “still looking rough and we are not sure about a lot of things – simply waiting for inspiration to strike – which might involve repainting and rearranging furniture along with refinishing the floors”). We even elaborated a bit in the comments when folks began asking what we meant by that or if we hated the current color by saying: “We enjoy the paint color but something is off about the bedroom and we are not sure we can rule anything out – including the paint color. Everything is a suspect until proven innocent. Haha. Something is limiting us, so we are not opposed to changing that thing once we pin it down (it might be the curtains or the art or something else!) simply to get things to “click” for us. Who knows where we will end up!”

You can relate to that feeling, right? The whole something’s-off-but-I am-not-sure-what-it-is thing? Moving the art together above the bed on Friday was a start, but we in fact have a bunch of changes on the agenda for this week in the hopes of cracking the case and making “that room where we sleep” feel a little more like “that room that we enjoy!” Of course we know that a big ol’ transformation does not happen overnight, but we also have seen firsthand how a few updates and switcheroos can go a long way in remedying that “hmmmm, something’s simply not right” feeling that has likely popped up at least three dozen times in our last five years of DIYing. So we know it well.

We have learned that the only real way to get any closer to something that feels right is simply to play around and see what you like and what you do not. The ol’ trial and error approach. Because if you are sitting there frozen in fear or over-thinking things to the point that you’ve lost all momentum it can get sticky. So without further ado, let us get into the first tweak, which has already taken place. And it is kind of a biggie. It all began when we saw the rug on the bottom of this picture at an outlet liquidation sale…

We were not looking for a bedroom rug, although we were not ruling out the idea of changing anything in that room (because remember, everything in there was guilty until proven innocent- haha). I had in fact said to John “the jute rug in the bedroom could consistently move out to the dining room since we are planning on getting a natural fiber rug in there for under the table and it is certainly big sufficient” – so I guess you could say we were open to anything. So when there was a big tent sale at our go-to lighting outlet (The Decorating Outlet), which also happens to sell rugs (it is where we got the thick wool rug in Clara’s bedroom along with her blue capiz chandelier and the big glass pendants in our kitchen), we had to check it out.

And that is when we saw the patterned blue rug in the picture above this one. And it was all over.

We enjoy all of those colors (gray, navy, teal, white!) and the geometric pattern was totally calling our name. By now you know we are suckers for a geometric rug, right?

They simply do something to us. They make us feel alive. Oh yes, we live dangerously.

But back to reality. Since it was a thick 9 x 12 wool rug, we were nervous that even on sale it would be $700 or more, which is sadly way out of our price range. But when we checked out the tag, we nearly could not believe our eyes. Did that truly say “was $1287.00, now: $250” ?????!!!!!

That is not 40 or 50% off – that is over 80% off! So we asked the guy what was wrong with it to make it so low-cost, since the tag said “soiled” as the reason for the discount. We hoped if it had a stain we might be able to hide that part of the rug under the bed or try to remove it with some crazy scrubbing ritual, but he in fact told us it was ripped. As in, there was a hole right through it. Eeks. But thankfully the placement of the rip was in a corner, and although it looked like this if you picked it up and put your fingers through it…

… it looked like this when it was laid out on the floor. See the big gaping hole?

We did not either! The thick pile of the rug was so dense that the rip was not even visible, let alone obvious. So you know what we did, right? We thanked our lucky stars that it was there. It was the only reason that we were able to get over $1000 off (!!!) and take home a $1287 rug for $250. We shoved that sucker into the passenger seat of the car faster than you can say “will-that-fit-in-an-Altima?” and I rode in the back with Clara, glad-squealing my way home.

To save you some scrolling, here is a before pic of the old rug for ya again (remember we are still missing major furnishings, like something in that nook, art on those bare walls, etc):

Next we pulled out the old rug that we’d enjoy to relocate into the dining room under the table. We laughed at how naked that yellowed old floor looked. Someday we will refinish it, but until then our new rug will be in charge of de-naked-ifying things.

First John did some cute vacuuming to remove any dust/fibers leftover from the tent sale. Look how fast he is. He’s like Edward except he does not sparkle in the sun or bite me for sport.

Next we shimmied it carefully under our bed. It likely took us a good twenty minutes to get it centered – simply inching it back or to the side a little bit at a time.

We enjoy it more than words can say. Although, to quote Tim Gunn, it is a lotta look. Haha. Still missing major furnishings/art of course, but we will get there. So some folks might go for something less patterned or colorful for their bedroom, but we think one of the main “what is wrong with this room” issues for us was that it did not feel glad or lively or “us” at all. And now it does. Oh glad day.

See how this room could nearly be anyone’s bedroom?

And see how the room above it likely could not be most people’s bedroom? Haha. That is the beauty of a room that feels like you. It nearly feels like it could not be anyone else’s. So I am sure there are plenty of folks out there who would pass on this baby, but we chose when we moved into this house that we were going to make a playful, glad-go-lucky little enjoy nest for our family. So we are cool with waking up to a room that “smiles” back at us. Sort of like how we enjoy our chipper living room and guest room (which have those other colorful geometric rugs going on):

I know, I know – things in the bedroom look a lot less polished or wrapped up than those two rooms above. True dat. Look at that naked nook and those bare walls. But things consistently look crazy in the middle. Heck, sometimes things do not truly click into place until the quite last tweak has been made, and I’d say we are at least a dozen tweaks away from the final tweak (the pillows, curtains, and lamps might be the first to get some tweak-age now that there is a new rug in town). But we will get there someday…

Nothing is safe when we have our tweaking hats on. Haha. But thanks to the new rug we are invigorated and excited to play around a little more and see where we end up. So expect a few more changes throughout the week as we try our hand at a few other switcheroos and snap pics for you as we go. Some might fail, others might work- so it is all about playing around in the name of figuring this room out a little more.

And can we talk about how plush this guy feels underfoot? Excuse me for mentioning the original price again, but have you ever walked on a $1287 rug before? We hadn’t either. It is what we imagine the carpets in The Donald’s house might feel like. Especially especially plush. Like double thick. Burger even lounges on the rug now (he used to lounge exclusively in the bed, so it is funny to see him sprawled out on the floor these days). It is pleasant to know that we have the doggie stamp of approval.

What did you folks do this weekend? Any deal hunting, rug rolling out, or especially fast vacuuming? John also ran his buns off at the James River Scramble (it is sort of a rocky trail run/10K) and we enjoyed cheering him on. We also squeezed in a stroll around the art museum (Clara loves VMFA) and dropped in on a new doughnut shop that opened. Good times. What were you folks up to?