Jute Bouclé Rug

Remember the horrific old rug in the living room?  No?  Probably because I’ve tried to crop it out of every picture I take in that room.  Here’s a gross little reminder:

We got this thing in the summer of 2006 when we first got our apartment in Bay Ridge.  It was $100 from some creepy persian rug store on 5th Ave and 87th Street. It most likely fell of the back of a truck in Jersey somewhere.  Is it possible to be both gaudy and drab at the same time?  Because somehow this rug achieved that.

But it’s gone now!  Banished to basement limbo, before it gets a $3 price tag in a future yard sale.

I’m in love with the new rug.  It’s the Jute Bouclé Rug from West Elm.  The size is 5’x8′ and the color is Ivory.

I wanted some kind of natural fiber rug, mostly for the sake of hiding dirt and pet hair.  The one we got for the dining room has been great for that.  But I was concerned that a natural fiber rug would be too scratchy on bare feet around our comfy new couch.  The dining room rug was borderline painful on bare feet when it was new.

I also wanted a very light color for the living room to balance the dark gray sofa.  The dark browns and straw colors were not doing it for me.  So the range of tones available for this West Elm rug was what sold me.

I was hemming and hawing over the decision until I saw that all rugs went on a 20% off sale about two weeks ago.  So the 20% discount basically eliminated the cost of shipping and sales tax, taking the total bill to $179.17.  Not too bad, methinks.

The best part is that it’s actually pretty soft.  It’s perfectly nice on bare feet.  You can even kneel on it comfortably.  I wouldn’t lay on it though, like you might with wall to wall carpeting, it’s not that soft.

The weave is chunky and densely textured, but since the fibers themselves are so soft it works out for a nice effect.

The color is pretty perfect too, in that it almost exactly matches the triangles in the FLOR carpet tile runner.  So it ties together that kooky thing with the rest of the room.

I think both rugs also add more texture to the room, and help warm it up.  I like the clean lines of the sofa, mirror, and tables, but the soft rug texture makes it more balanced somehow.

Next up, a new coffee table.  And I’ve got a plan in the works.  Stay tuned!