So the post is not really about dancing, but there is a rug involved. And just to clarify things, no rugs were harmed in the making of this post.
I was very happy last week when I came home and saw this in the foyer.
RUG! There may have been squeals and dancing. Just so you know, it did come in two weeks early – that makes squeals okay because it was a surprise, right? Totally.
Ryan’s grandmother was very kind and sent us money as a house warming gift (thank you, Grandma Billie!), so we decided to buy something for the house that required NO work on our part. No work meaning: No paint, no tile, no base board, no flooring, NO LABOR!
I probably shouldn’t say there wasn’t ANY work required. We did have to play an arousing game of furniture shuffle (not to be confused with the cupid shuffle).
The rug is actually BETTER than I was expecting! I ended up narrowing my search down to a Pottery Barn rug (here), a rug from Overstock (here) and carpet tiles from FLOR (here). I knew I wanted a woven jute or sea grass rug for the living room and that it needed to be LARGE. Large rugs + $$$$$. Thankfully I was able to find some within our budget AND the right size. I also checked with a couple local stores in town, but those were DRASTICALLY over our rug budget. This girl does not have $5,000 to spend on a rug.
The Pottery Barn rug ended up being the winner, and I LOVE IT! It was 20% off when I ordered it and shipping was only $25. HURRAY!
The rug is not the only thing new to the living room. Unless you have actually been to my house, you probably haven’t yet noticed the beau-jankness of our bead board in the living room. Here is what I am talking about.
See, that is what you called beau-jank. You can see in the picture above that the bead board is not the same height all the way around. Chair rail used to cover it. When we first bought the house, we took down all the chair rail during demo because it was missing in places, and we didn’t have enough to steal from other places to patch it. Down it went! Let’s flash back for a second….
YIKES! I almost forget it was THAT BAD! My eyes hurt just looking at it, so let’s just move on past that.
Anyways, back to the chair rail. We knew we needed something at least 3″ tall to cover the varying heights of the bead board in the living room. After wondering through the trim and casing section at Lowe’s, we came up with this solution.
We ended up using three pieces of trim, none of which are actually intended for chair rail because using chair rail would be too boring! 🙂
We started by installing a 3 1/4″ tall base board upside down (so the decorative edge is facing the floor). A level reminded us that nothing in our house is level, like the wood planks above the bead board.
Then, we tacked it in place with our nail gun. The second piece we added is called a back band molding.
It has a lip/overhang on it, similar to a window stool, so it creates a very small ledge on top. It also helps hide the gap between the base board and the wall. The back band wasn’t deep enough to cover the entire gap, so we added a third piece.
This piece (cornice corner mould) is shaped similar to quarter round, but with more detail. I am not sure of its original purpose, but it worked perfectly for what we needed here! Now I just need to paint *sigh*.
Having the chair rail up really helps the living room and entry feel much more finished! We will be picking up some really awesome base boards from Cullman in two weeks! I am so excited!! The base board is coming out of a two story Victorian that Southern Accents is going to salvage next week! I am always sad when old houses are torn down, but I am glad there are people who can salvage material for others to reuse.
Just for fun, I put together a sample design board for the living room. It helps me get an idea of what everything looks like together and helps me focus on what I want the space to look and feel like. I like LOTS of different styles and colors, so I can get a little ADD at times, so this helps me focus. Here is what I am (kind of) going for.
I want it to have a casual, traditional, but still a little eclectic look to it with lots of neutrals, blues and greens in fresh and fun patterns. I also love a variety of textures. Maybe some pops of orange and yellow for fun. I am hoping for a farmhouse meets traditional meets rustic/eclectic. My taste tend to lean more towards eclectic and farmhouse, while Ryan prefers more rustic and traditional, so I am hoping to blend them all together to create a comfortable space.
What have you guys been up to this weekend? Any fun purchases lately? Anyone else ever agonize over a rug purchase? Please tell me I am not alone in that 🙂
Brittney
younganddomestic 