The new family room (rug)

Hey everybody! How are you? How was your weekend? I worked my TAIL off on the garage – decluttering and cleaning it out. It was years past due. I still have a bit more to do and then a big DIY project in there but it’s so so SO much better! My body is feeling it right now though.

But let’s switch gears, shall we? I’m tired of looking at dust and dirt and spiders (!!) and need to focus on soft and pretty. So the last time I shared our family room (I think it was earlier this year), it looked like this:

I got that rug from RugsUSA about a year and a half ago and it was holding up pretty darn well. The color of it is off in that pic, it was really more of a charcoal blue, not a navy blue.

I LOVED the design but it was so intense. It made decorating the rest of the room so hard. Pillows were impossible to find (the ones I had here were never quite right, they were from years back) and the drapes never worked with it. I looked forEVER for a new drapery fabric and nothing worked. These are what you called #firstworldproblems.

The graphic design was just too much for this room. At first I didn’t mind it but over time I just got tired of fighting with it. And earlier this year I was starting to think that we could really have a larger rug in there. This one is nearly 7 by 9 feet, but it almost looked dinky when you walked in the room.

Sooo…I’ve kind of been looking here and there over the six months or so. Nothing intense, just flipping through the rugs at HomeGoods when I went. Well, a few weeks back it was finally there…the one:

I was worried it was too big though – 9 by 12 compared to 7 by 9 is quite a jump. I got it anyway and figured the worst scenario was that we’d need to return it.

We moved everything out of the room (and cleaned under the sofas…what. in the?), laid it down and both my husband and I were drooling (well, more me, but he liked it) – it was SO pretty. And my goodness, so soft!

When we put the furniture back in we were a little shocked at how big it was, but about three minutes in were talking about how much bigger it made the room feel. It was crazytown:

The color works so much better! It’s a bluish gray and the design is an aqua color. It’s not too aqua that you can’t pull in other colors though, which I like.

My corner fireplace (shakes fists in air!!) continues to haunt me because it keeps the rug from working perfectly in the room – it could really move a lot further back if it weren’t for the fireplace placement. Ah well, I’m over it (lying):

Another thing that helps is that I took the little coffee table out earlier this year. I love that thing but this part of the room just wasn’t big enough for it. I tried taking it out one day and it was like we could breath in there – made such a big difference. (It’s living with my sister right now cause I couldn’t bear to totally part with it just yet.)

Funny how putting a much larger rug in there makes the room feel bigger, not smaller. The room isn’t small, but it was originally set up so that the family room part is supposed to only be that area by the fireplace. This is how it used to look:

Here’s how that area looks now:

You can see how fireplace was transformed here.

And the area that used to be more of just a walkway off to the side:

Is now our entertainment area:

This room functions SO MUCH BETTER this way. Before was cozy for sure, but it was cramped. This layout is much more open, which helps.

I actually love that the furniture all sits on the rug now, I think that’s what helps it to feel bigger:

The rug is wool, so at first it was shedding a ton. Not too bad, but when I vacuumed it would fill the container. But over the last six weeks or so doesn’t do it nearly as bad. It’s worth it to me for the softness of it.

Just for giggles let’s look at the how the room looked early this year:

And now….ahhhhhh, so much calmer:

The rug was WAY cheaper at HomeGoods than I would have paid anywhere else, but still a big purchase for us for sure. I’m glad I waited till I found “the one,” and that the budget allowed for it at the time. How often does that happen? Hardly ever.

I think picking out a rug is one of the hardest decor decisions in a room, do you? In my mind it’s as big as the paint color – it’s just such a large item in the room.