Pulling the rug out

Image from Apartment Therapy

The house of KATcapers has a dubious record of rug purchases.  Truth be known, I've always felt that rug purchasing is my particular 'Achilles Heel' when it comes to decorating.

Not that we have an abundance of the things, they've usually been limited to one at a time parked underneath the coffee table in the lounge.  As an anchor to the lounge room, they are a lovely addition.

Our first rug was from the Natural Floorcovering Centre and was a lovely Belgian Sisal.  It sat in our apartment and witnessed our early years as parents of a young baby.  We learnt the hard way that Sisal and babies aren't a great match!  Those pesky fibres seemed to harbour every stray bit of vomit, rusk and yes I will admit the occasional flack from an ill-fitting nappy (yuck!). 



I became a master at the CSI-like extrication of 'bits' from the darned rug and although I loved the natural qualities that Sisal is blessed with I sometimes found it less than user-friendly.

As I can be a bit intransigent when it comes to "change", when Rug #1 finally showed a bit too much 'wear' I simply replaced it with an equally lovely Sisal rug with a different trim (variety is the spice of life after all). 

By this stage, Oldest KAT was rocketing around and Middle KAT was toddling after her.  Rug #2 was meted out the same level of tough love - food and a range of bodily fluids:)

When we moved to our little bungalow we ditched Rug#2 and our lounge room has been naked ever since.

Cue 2012 and our recent reno's and I had been itching to get me another rug.  Youngest KAT is now 5 and although we have a puppy, I decided to throw caution to the wind and introduce Rug#3.

This time I wanted to eschew Sisal in favour of Wool but unfortunately Saint Mike was the intransigent one this time having had sticker shock at the various rugs I was eyeing off.

I scoured Freedom and every other chain decorating store and just couldn't find anything I liked.  I was attracted to rugs from Loom and Koskela and heaven forbid Designer Rugs and I knew that was not on as far as the accountant was concerned.

Dejected I had started to consider the cheap and cheerful Sisal again.  Three times lucky perhaps?

On a "stuff" buying trip to Ikea however I made an impulse purchase that I have now had a month to regret.

I found a colourful striped rug and without checking the measurements or considering if it would push the friendship with SM in my embrace of vibrant colours, I purchased it.

Fast forward six weeks and I can honestly say that I have hated the damn thing for pretty much every single second since it was put down on the floor and the coffee table was wrestled on top of it.

As you can see, describing it as 'vibrant' is probably an understatement.  It's a veritable rainbow of colour.

It's officially a decorating disaster.  It's also been the elephant in the room.  No one, not SM, not the KATs, not MY FRIENDS (you know who you are) have said anything about it.....ie how WRONG it looks!!!!!

It sheds fluff like a fairy floss machine on overdrive. 

It shows EVERY. SPECK. OF. DIRT.

It's too big for the space and therefore makes our tiny lounge room look even smaller in comparison.

See!  See that dirt...and that fluff...and how it butts up against the entertainment unit (ignore the fact that the coffee table is a monstrosity - that's another story).

Today I'm officially OVER.IT.

Today when Saint Mike gets home from work the rug will be gone.  Youngest KAT will have to live her life a bit longer without the experience of a rug underfoot in the lounge.

Until I can justify the more expensive rug I'd rather go rugless!!!!!

I'm owning my decorating disaster and am just glad that it was the Ikea rug that didn't work out...because as with all Ikea "stuff" it was cheap even if it's not cheerful (in its current location that is).