Rugs, rugs, rugs. I have spent years trying to replace the 8×10 rug in my living space only to eventually come to a few realizations.

1. Rugs are expensive.

2. I am cheap.

3. The only reason I was able to get the one I had in the first place was because I was in the process of outfitting a commercial space, and after discovering how impossible this one was to clean, it was nixed and ended up in my apartment.

This is not a vanity project. Many things have happened to this rug since the above photo was taken and they’re not any of them good! So there were posts upon posts and charts and maps of the room and pleading and begging and failure. I even considered making my own! Oh such failure. Until…

BAM! She’s mine and I love her. Actually I love 2 of her but more on that in a minute.

So after a trip to Sams Club a few weeks ago, the hubs came back telling me there was a sale on rugs and we could get an 8×10 for about the price of a semi-decent meal. My interest knew no bounds. Alas all of the options were either sold out or hideous. Not to be deterred and not to waste this new found willingness to get rugs I headed on over to Walmart and continued the hunt. The prices were ridiculously low, mostly because they are not natural materials but I have a 100% wool rug at the moment and it has broken 3 vacuum cleaners so I’m not picky. And I’m not kidding about the price of rugs. I have found that the average for outfitting the entire room would be around $500 and to get a rug in a custom size would be around $2000.

I knew I wanted blue because the walls are grey with a hint of blue. The grey is now complimented by the curtains so the blue would be brought out by the rug to balance and add desperately needed warmth. I also knew I wanted something ornate since the majority of my furnishings are simple and lack pattern. The one exception to this is the couch which was a splurge from about 10 years ago. I still love it though so the carpet couldn’t compete but compliment.

Several options were considered and we settled on the one above because we liked it, we were tired of looking, and it’s getting cold. Tile floors are very cold. The room is technically 14×16 excluding bump-outs for the bathroom, heating unit, and bed so we ordered two to lay right next to each other and create one large area rug of 10×16 and completely cover the exposed tiles. To accomplish this seamlessly, look for a rug with a repeating pattern all the way to the edge so that when they are placed side by side there aren’t any gaps in the pattern repetition.

After a beer and pizza fueled night of heavy lifting and despite the low price and bad reviews, I couldn’t be happier. They are exactly what the room needed.