Rug Reveal

As promised, I'm posting some photos of the new rug in our living room, which, for those of you who know my house and remember what the previous two rugs have looked like, may seem startling and a bit nuts at first. But it has all of the colors I wanted to bring into the room -- creams which tie into the light linen-covered chairs, aqua which matches the new fabric on the slipper chairs, and red and blue, which I pulled in with the small pillows I found here. I have to be honest and say that when I first put the new rug down two nights ago, I was ever so slightly frightened; it was just such a big change -- all those colors and stripes in our primarily-neutral room. But that was the idea, and the purpose behind getting something colorful, after all, and I think that when I get a few more things updated, and spend a little more time getting used to all those colors, it's going to feel perfect.

You'll see in these photos some of the changes that have taken place in our living room within the past couple of months: we recovered the slipper chairs in a Moorish lattice-patterned aqua fabric and bought a new (really comfortable) couch at the end of last year. This month it was the rug, and in the months to come, I'm going to be replacing some of the old art in on the walls with new prints, projects, and paintings; my goal there is that everything will be handmade -- if not by me, then by friends, family, or indie artists I've found on Etsy. Let me know what you think, and if you have any ideas and suggestions for me, if you please.

The best part is, that I got such a good deal on this rug! It's 100% wool (probably not of the best quality, admittedly, but then again, I'm not wearing it), and was priced at $40; but when we got up to the register, an extra $10 was taken off of that! I could not believe that I got such a fantastic deal on a 4x6 wool rug. And if that weren't enough, listen to how we came upon it: we were strolling leisurely through the new items Home section at one of our favorite places, and I kept picking up things (placemats, napkins, etc.) with this same stripe pattern, and thinking, I love that! Those colors are beautiful!, and then Nathan says, "Hey, how about this rug?" And I look up, and see it standing there, as if it were just waiting for me, with little puppy dog eyes, to take it home and love it forever. He adds, "I'm okay with it if you like it," which, if you look closely, you will see constitutes something of a compromise on his part: those wide stripes next to the red are dark pink. I say, somewhat incredulously, "Really?" And that's what you call serendipity.