ordering a custom rug

I thought I'd give some tips from my experience ordering a custom rug. The whole process really is quite simple, but I did a lot of research and a lot of careful consideration prior to ordering.

Before anything I calculated the distance from the wall that the carpet would be by googling "How far should an area carpet be from the wall". This led me to a lot of pages including Apartment Therapys helpful post on the proper distance for spacing things. Most rules said that 12" - 18" was the proper spacing from wall to carpet. But when I measured that out, it felt that the carpet was going to look like a postage stamp. So I decided to leave 9" between wall and where the carpet would start.

More photos and some tips after the jump, if ordering a custom rug is something you're considering.
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living room updates

I made some major progress on decorating the living room. Although I still have a ways to go before I can do a full "Before & After" -- I feel like this room has found its groove. Between adding a new area carpet, hanging some art, and a new blank canvas (that is going to be painted to replace my old painting) things are finally finding homes, and the room is feeling warm and cozy.

The biggest investment in the update was the rug. A decision, and a search that has taken 3+ years.  Why did it take me so long to decide on a rug? Our room is an awkward size and standard rug sizes meant I was either getting one that was too small, or too large. After measuring the perfect size it turned out we needed essentially a 9ft x 9.5ft carpet and after 3+ years came to the conclusion we just needed to go custom. Custom always terrifies me because it can't be returned. (and is generally more expensive)

Because I'm a creature of habit,  I picked the exact same stripe wool carpet that is on our stairs. It's perfect. It's not inexpensive but it can come with us should we move, and it can be cut and bound to a new size in another house - which means it has a longer life span. I also picked it because of the durability. Within 24 hours of having it, Mak (the Cat) barfed on it. Because it is wool it cleaned up easily (but it also helped that I had this).  The stripes mean that it has some style, but is classic and doesn't compete against everything else in the room.

The artwork is a mix, which I will go into another day - but I just wanted to post the updates.

xo Linds

Ps., The gallery wall hanging took me 4 hours. I'm not kidding you. It was the most stressful experience of decorating to date.
Pps., Yes - the blank canvas is resting on water glasses. I did this to envision placement of art. Don't judge.

new living room carpet

If you've been a long time reader you'll know that I've been incredibly indecisive about a living room rug. I've been writing about my search for the perfect carpet for the room like as in this post, this post and this post. In June it was my birthday and I was gifted a little bit of money. I decided  that instead of spending it on little things here and there - I was going to to put it towards finally purchasing a carpet. I need to clean up the living room a little more before shooting the "reveal" photos of what we went with. It only took 3.5 years of searching.... ;)

New Stair Runner, Preppy Stripe

Yesterday was the day. We had our stair runner installed. Even though I loved the sample, I still worried about a whole staircase in it.


I shouldn't have worried, I'm in love. We went with a pretty awesome stripe wool rug that we found at our go to carpet store, Alexanians. As I mentioned in my last post, I spotted the Cortenaer rug in Jubilee, (34) that just spoke to me. Stripes are traditional, but the grey on grey was preppy and just our style.





On the 2nd floor, we had the same rug bound to be an area rug.



Look at how great they did the turn on the staircaise. (You can also spot our Dash & Albert rug at the bottom and our new front hall table from HomeSense)



The runner was a gift from my Mom and Dad for us, and Oscar. (It was their gift to Oscar from when he was born) Everyone was worried about tripping and falling. So there you go! A nice, preppy, not too stuffy stair runner. :)
Runner from Alexanians, Runner Style Cortenaer Wool Rug in Jubilee (Colour #34)

Runner for our Main Staircase

We're in need of a runner for our main staircase.  My problem with Runners was that they either looked too fancy or ornate, or not special enough for our main stairs. We've been hunting for awhile, stopped, and picked up again a few months ago when we went to Alexanian Carpet.

We were really happy with the service at the store, having already bought Oscar's Nursery carpet from them, and we used the remnant of that on our runner to our basement. They let me fill my car with samples to bring home...which I did. Just like paint and fabrics, carpets will look 100% different in your house than they do the showroom. So take them home, and test them out.

While at the store, I spotted a Cortenaer Wool Carpet in a Stripe. LOVE at second sight.

 You see, I had seen this carpet a few years ago at the Interior Design Show at the Exhibition Centre and fell in love with it. I think it is the perfect mix of traditional (stripes are traditional right?) but unexpected and youthful at the same time.  The colour in the photo is slightly off, but it's a great mix of greys.

 Looove it!

Living Room Area Rug

So here is our living room carpet thought process up to date. We are looking for an area rug but have the following things to consider.

Consideration #1 - Who lives here....a baby

We have a baby that is learning to crawl --- carpet has to be somewhat soft (no sisal) Next, we have a baby that is going to spit up, eat food, and spill things. Although I won't let him eat purple Popsicles in here, I also don't want to rope off this room from him. So we have to take into consideration baby messes, which means a carpet with some pattern would be ideal. We tested the front hall carpet from Dash & Albert in here and it was perfect, but it sadly comes not large enough for this room. (Shaking fist at whoever decided to make it 8.5 feet and not 9 over at that company. You ruined everything. Boooo)

 Consideration #2 - Floor Plan

 Here is a floor plan showing you what I'm working with. What we are looking for is an area rug that is ideally between 9.5-10 feet in width, and in length, ideally would be 9 feet long as it would bring the area rug right beneath the couch. Problem is, rugs don't come in those sizes.

So here are my possible options:
(1) Get a rug cut & bound to size of exactly 9x10
(2) Get a pre made rug that is between 9/10feet in width and the lengh can be up to 12 feet. It would just go further behind the couch. We could address this possibly by bringing it to a rug company to cut, and bind. Or, we live with the extra lengh under the couch for a bit.

There you have it. I'm leaning towards Option #2 because Option #1 isn't proving to be as economical as I thought. And I freak out with custom things as I like to see how something will look in a room, before deciding. And after going to Elte and seeing some GORGEOUS rugs my heart is aching for one of them. (See this post and the first photo - aren't they divine?) Seriously, I wish someone in my family was a decorator and would just come in and do this all. It gets kind of stressful sometimes as you don't want to make a (costly) mistake.

Dash & Albert Rug

As I mentioned in our last post we left Elte with a Dash & Albert rug. It unfortunately isn't solving our Living Room issue but it is solving our front hall issue. An indoor/outdoor rug, and not to mention stylish (and, has colour for all of you non-believers) is brightening up our front hall.  I wish it came in the right size for our living room but the largest this comes is 8.5ft and we need is at least 9. That .5 makes a difference between looking like a postage stamp, and looking right. I love, love it. The hunt for a living room carpet continues.