Cozy Up with a New Rug

So last May we moved into this nice big house. It has so much more space than the townhouse we were living in before without the crazy neighbors. It's such a relief and it feels so nice to live in a place with as much space as we have.. I think it's around 3400 square feet or something. I've talked a little bit before about or decorating style, or lack thereof, and this house really wasn't proving to be much different. The problem was that we just don't have enough stuff to truly fill this house and give it the cozy feeling that I look for.

During the summer we moved our two recovered yard sale find couches to the basement along with our entertainment set up so that we could stay cool and still take advantage of the living space. That left our entire upstairs living room area empty and I'll be honest and say that it was primarily used as a soccer field and train station. Natalia has a little Leap Frog train that you ride on and she would use that space to ride around in there forever. We would also play little games of soccer with her using a smaller beach ball. Granted, we probably shouldn't have been allowing her to think it's okay to kick a ball around in the house, but it wasn't really hurting anything, except the ball which is now totally out of commission.

I told Jake that with the holidays coming up all I really wanted was to be able to sit around upstairs with either a hot cup or tea or cocoa, enjoy the fire and bask in the Christmas tree. Being the good sport that he is, he lugged the larger of the two super heavy couches up the stairs and even helped me recover it with some fabric that coordinated a little better. I then set up the Christmas tree and at Natalia's insistence, we hung strands of lights to frame the large window and fireplace. 

Even though it was nice to have something in the living room, it still felt open, empty and cold since there are just sprawling wood floors in the entire main level. Then I got an amazing chance to work with Rugs USA. 

I love the feel of the dim lights and the much needed, added warmth that I think the rug provides. Not only does it physically keep me from feeling as cold since my bare feet have something other than solid wood flooring to step on, but it just makes things feel nicer. Plus, the rug itself is 7' x 9' so it just plain helps to fill the room which adds to the feeling of being cozy without having to fill the room with clutter that gets in the way. Once I put my toddler to bed at night, I camp out up here with my hot drink of choice, laptop, blog notebook and sometimes a snack and soak it all in. I'm actually a little bit embarrassed to say I just snapped these photos the other night so yes, we still have our Christmas tree up.. =/ I promise, I'll get it down sometime this week, but I won't make any guarantees about the other lights. ;)

I also really like the "fluffy" feeling of the rug. It's got a high pile which means that the 100% hand woven wool fibers are longer than other rugs you usually come across. Natalia loves it because she's still a bit unstable if she gets running or jumping around too much so it's a little softer landing than the naked wood floor.

There's only one down side to getting a rug made with natural fibers --shedding. Since Natalia is still clinging to her binky, it is a bit annoying to have to clean it every time it gets dropped on the rug. Rugs USA recommends vacuuming often since natural rugs are known to shed some fibers for up to three months. If you have a toddler like we do though you're probably already vacuuming your house like crazy to clean up their messes so it's not a lot of added work to vacuum your rug too. I don't usually lug my Dyson upstairs so you can easily do what I do and shake it out and use a good broom to "sweep" the rug. It removes the stray fibers and still gets any debris out of the rug.

For a deep clean they suggest :"immersing the rug face down in gentle detergent solution and knead rug to remove dirt. Then rinse the rug until all traces of detergent have been removed and line dry. Detailed cleaning instructions are included in every purchase of our Flokati rugs. "

I wanted to add that this is the stock photo for the Rugs USA Standard Shag Greek Flokati Teal Rug. This is a more realistic portrayal of the color, not the duller blue in my dim photos. I just wanted to show the lights and ambiance. ;)

One thing I would definitely recommend is buying a pad for it if you're planning to put it on a wood floor. There isn't a backing on the rug and it can slide around a bit on the floor if you're not careful. I'm considering trying a trick I saw somewhere about adding lines of caulking to the back for a non slip effect. I think that may end up being cheaper than a pad and still allow for easy cleaning. I'll have to look more into it but for now, we're just fine without.

Get your own luxurious Flokati rug from Rugs USA and you can even use code NY2013 for 65% off!

As you can see, it also looks great as a photography prop. ;)

Pin It