A Design Pivot – Another New Living Room Rug

You might remember that I brought in a new living room late last summer. While I’d always dreamed of a vintage Morrocan, with two dogs in the house, my fear of what they’d do to a plush 100% wool pile is what drove me towards the polyester wannabe that gave me the look I was after at a fraction of the price. But, just a few months after I brought in that new rug, I decided to pivot and opted for a rug with a totally different look than what I had originally wanted. And I’m really happy with this new direction for our in-progress living room!

So here’s the deal.

I loved the Morrocan-style black and ivory rug I brought into the space last August. But as you might remember that rug didn’t come in a large enough size for the space, so I had to layer it on top of a larger natural fiber rug. Which was fine. I’ve always loved a layered rug look in a living room.

Unfortunately, because our living room is a walk-through kind of space right in the middle of the house with furniture floating in the center of the room, this layered rug situation wasn’t quite working very well. Our dogs tend to run through this room to get to the front door. And the edges of this rug were being overly worn as they would run back and forth through the room, and I was constantly having to unroll the edges. Rug tape wouldn’t work because the rug was layered on top of a natural fiber rug. And so, more than a few times a day, the rug would end up all bunched up looking like a small whirlwind had come through the space. And it was driving me bananas.

So one afternoon a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving I clicked on an email link and ended up perusing the rug section at Lulu & Georgia, and I fell head over heels in love with this low-pile wool and cotton blend rug ( I think the cotton will make it a little easier to keep clean.) that just so happened to come in the perfect size – no layering needed! And it was on sale! With free shipping!

This rug is totally different from the Morrocan style I thought I wanted in this space, but I really do love it. And actually, I think it’s a much better fit for the room. The colors in this rug pull in the exterior color of our house which is great because you can see the pink siding through the sliding glass doors, and the blue in the rug plays so nicely with the blue kitchen island and pantry.

When this new rug finally arrived (I ordered it before Thanksgiving.), I thought about moving the Moroccan-style rug to a different room in the house because the black and ivory colorway would work pretty much anywhere, but I honestly don’t need a rug anywhere else. So, Facebook Marketplace to the rescue. I listed it on Saturday, and it was sold and picked up on Sunday!

And I share all of this because I think it’s important to note that no matter how much design planning one does, there are some things you just have to live with for a while to see if they’ll work. And sometimes when you discover that they don’t, you have to pivot. Thankfully, we live in a time where second-hand shopping via Facebook Marketplace makes it a little easier to recoup what you’ve invested. Inevitably, what doesn’t work for you will work for someone else.

So if you’re not loving a choice you made, you don’t have to stay married to it, you know? For anyone that needs to hear this, you have permission to pivot. It’s okay to change your mind, to rethink what you thought would work, and to choose something entirely different.