putting the rug in rugby

It all started with these curtains. We took down the old, dusty vertical blinds and put up these silk curtains we got pretty darned cheap from Amazon. It lends some color in the beige and brown world of our kitchen as well as that whole privacy thing. They're nice, but also cheap enough that if our eventual kitchen makeover doesn't work with the curtains, they can go in another room, like the guest room or eventual nursery.

Yet this also now has us choosing rugs for under the kitchen table and we're, of course, trying to coordinate with the curtains while also grasping for a vision. Obviously, we're amateurs. The hope was we'd find a piece, be it a rug or curtain, that could start to be our guide. Kind of like when you're hiking or running away from orcs, you choose a spot on the horizon to aim for.

Sometimes it does feel like the extended version of Lord of the Rings trilogy. The first saga involved our kitchen work area rug. It was not a happy time, but we did settle on winner winner chicken dinner.

We actually bought this rug at Lowe's, two in this size for $25 each, and then a runner for $50, just to try stuff out. It feels like an expensive rug without being one ... and it can go in the washer. Exactly something you need in the kitchen. You'd think this is perfect ... but no. It did not come in the 3x5 size that worked best in the area. We tried all sorts of configurations with the two rugs and even thought about stitching the 2x4s together, but eventually settled on having one rug by the sink and the other by the garage door.

But it was too long for the garage door area, because the door kicks it up if it's directly in front of it, and the rug is too long for the hall entry next to the garage door, so it curls up the cabinet. We wound up going down the hall with it, so you have to long step from the garage to the rug. Oh well. We're going with it. The runner was too long for any place we thought about putting it, so it went back to Lowe's.

Then we got the curtains (up at the top) from Amazon. So, our current rug doesn't work. At all. It's too small for the table itself, and of course now we have the lovely clash of decor. We're going to raise the curtains this weekend, since it's sitting wonky in the old brackets and we don't want these curtains brushing the floor.

The choice of going blue in the kitchen comes down to our rug choice, blue seemed to work in the space and with some future plans, and we also have a sky blue microsuede couch in the living room. But we don't want the whole house to turn blue, so I think we'll be seeing if we can turn the kitchen into a transitional space. Easy, right?

Ha!

After recuperating from the kitchen rug saga, I moved onto part two. Home Depot was having a rug sale, so I ordered a couple online, since there's a very limited selection in stores. The first arrived Thursday.

Sorry for the wonky camera action. Our chandelier is not centered on the sliding doors, so it's always fun moving stuff into place, and apparently what looks good on the little camera screen doesn't so much on a bigger screen. This rug looked better online, and I actually thought I was ordering the gray version of one we'd seen in the store. We liked the rug but in RL, it seemed a bit too dark for the space, aside from completely clashing with the curtains.

We don't want to be matchy-matchy, but we could tell this wasn't going to work. The next rug arrived today, so I immediately rolled it out (don't mind the lumps), hoping we had a winner.

Online, I figured this was neutral enough but had the same geometric shape as on the curtains to really tie things together. It actually looks better in the picture than real life, and I do like the rug, but it was in that realm of Almost. Not quite.

I also wish it felt better in person. It's an indoor/outdoor rug, which makes total sense for being under a table. Mike also said it felt darker under the table, which you also can't tell in the picture. He doesn't love it, and I feel like I'm forcing it to work, so I guess it's going back, too. And we're back to square one. Third time's a charm?

But I think we need to seriously ask ourselves ... are we trying to fit a rug (a bigger price tag) to some bargain curtains? We did say when we decided to keep these that we are happy with them long or short term and we can take them down for the right rug.

I just asked Mike this question, and he jumped back to the darker blue Thursday rug. So now we'll pull it back out and see how we feel. It came to $60 and felt nicer than the gray geometric one. Hmm.