Pam has been in the mood to share some of her new house goodies — like her Geneva Kitchens banner and her ‘new’ NOS Live Better Electrically Medallion Home doorbell, and she invited me to play Show ‘n Tell, too. What’s new at my house? My colorful, cheery dining room rug. Believe it or not, it took me quite a while to find just the perfect rug for my space — I must have looked at thousands of rugs before deciding on this one — but I had some stiff criteria for my search…
Prior to this new rug, I had a solid orange rug made of carpet tiles (Flor). I liked the look of the solid orange rug, but I had used it under the dining room table for many years — including since my dog Leo was a puppy in our last house — and it was looking quite tired and stained from all the dropped food stains and doggy dirt that had collected on it over the years.
For my new rug, I wanted something that was colorful, primarily warm hues since that coordinates well with the other colors found in my dining room, would hide future food spills and doggy dirt better than a solid color, and was not too high contrast and patterned. I came across loads of extremely bold, graphic, high contrast rug patterns in my search — many of which would have made me feel dizzy standing on them. There were so many greiged out options and muted colors that just wouldn’t have fit well into my Crayola bright interior decor. And then there were still more that were close, but had too much purple, blue or green in them to be to my liking. I also didn’t want to spend a fortune on a rug likely to have food dropped on it. Finding a new rug is hard work!
Finally, I found the Pop Abstract multi-color rug on Overstock.com and decided to give it a try. (Note, I purchased the 7’10″x 10’2″ size, which is no longer available on Overstock, but the same rug in that size — called the Splash Rug Multi-Colored Brushstrokes — is still available on Wayfair.)
I liked how the rug seemed to pull together all of the different colors going on in my dining room and adjoining living room — the aqua from the walls, green from another wall, orange from everywhere, white from the tulip table and chairs, etc. and make everything come together nicely. Even though the size of the rug (7’10″x 10’2″) was a little larger than I needed, I preferred going with a slightly larger rug under the dining table instead of one that felt a bit too small.
The extra added rug space is also now a favorite relaxation and napping spot for our resident pup, Leo, too!
Nigel says
Adore these striped rugs… reminds me of some vintage runners + wall -to- wall popular in my college town. Colours really tie your pallette together well. Some kindly advice: your fixture above the table is way too high! Noticed it before in a previous blog entry, had to say something! There is a “formula” for this, but must admit I sadly do not
recall…. just quite good at eyeballing now in all my years… do any other readers have familiarity w/ the axiom? Love your place, and photos of your 50’s style dresses… Tres Chic!
pam kueber says
I did a story on this! https://retrorenovation.com/2010/06/18/how-high-to-hang-a-chandelier-over-a-dining-room-table/
Note: Mine is hung too high, too!
Ann says
Loved this rug so much – went right to Wayfair and bought it. It looks fabulous in my living room – pulled together everything and gave me the color I so badly needed. Thanks for sharing this.
Tom says
Rug looks GREAT! It’s worth taking your time to find the perfect items.
Judy says
I saw that rug online, but passed it over because it said the primary color was pink. Glad to see that’s not the case, because I have lots of orange too.
Peter says
I have to admit it, Kate, you picked the absolute PERFECT rug for your dining room! It’s actually kind of surreal how well it blends with and complements every other color choice you made in the adjoining rooms. A gift from Heaven above? Did you hear angels singing when you finally stumbled upon this decorating gem? Awesome find! Enjoy it!
Scott says
Its perfect, and looks like it could have been bought at the same time as the table. Love the pup of black and white too (see what I did there?) which accents the rug to perfection too.
Kate says
Wah wah…. I get it…the “pup” of black and white. tee hee hee
Christine says
Big shout out of admiration for the work done on the dining room set, especially the chairs. The chair seats are so beautifully done I wouldn’t have guessed that they were not factory fresh. The whole set looks mint. Whatever restoration you did was so well executed it’s scary.
Oh, and all my flooring is chosen based on the needs of the dogs, too, which as it turns out are really my needs. If it won’t work for the pets, it won’t work for me.
Kate says
Thanks Christine!
I mostly just washed the dirt off and then made all new seat cushions. Took me several weeks to get all of the cushions made, but I’m very pleased with the results!
Dana says
Love your rug choice! It’s a dead ringer (as far as pattern and color mix) for the wall to wall shag my parents installed in our “upstairs” (a multi-purpose room) in about 1970. It took the wear and tear of kids, teens, and dogs, and it hid EVERYTHING for 30+ years!