For the past 2 years, we have had one single ikea rug in our living room, which has mostly served as the ottoman's mini carpet. And after getting wall to wall in the bedroom, we thought it was time to get ourselves a little more square footage in the living room, which is also the office and our dinning room. I actually went through three different ideas about how to cover this space.
Idea #1 - Carpet tiles everywhere! With the main living space as the main priority, we would need at least 9 x 13. And though I'd hoped to do something interesting and fun like the image below, at $672, no way. And even with using the outlet, at $6.99 and needing at least 42 tiles, $294. So Idea #1 was out!
Idea #2 - Let's just get a second, identical rug from ikea. It would cost $30, and be fine. But after much searching at 2 different ikea stores, and looking on the web, we couldn't find an identical one. Turns out they aren't offering them any more. So no dice on Idea #2. But while we were at ikea we found these. And realized that putting two side by side would only cost us $80, and would cover almost all the space we needed.
Plus, because of their high pile, you wouldn't even see the seam! But deciding on colour was probably the most difficult part of this decision, because my husband fell deeply in love with the pink ones. I felt like the cream ones would get to dirty with the spaniel. SO we decided to compromise and get the green ones. Just joking. We both thought the green was the best option.
But you know me, this couldn't be a post about carpet without a little carpet tile creeping in! So of course Idea #3 was adding a CARPET TILE BOARDER! And after seeing images like these during my bedroom carpet search, I was inspired to push our plain rugs to the next level.
First, I had to figure out how many carpet tiles I would need to make a boarder. I decided to go with a half tile boarder as it seemed the most cost effective and would require the least amount of cutting (compared with a quarter or third of a tile). And check out the total price of the rug below, $1,163.84!
I discovered I would need at least 14, and decided to order 16 for safety. And since I was going with outlet tiles, it only came to $105. I also ordered some additional flor dots. Once everything arrived, I began cutting the tiles in half and laying them around the edge of the carpet. But then it came to the section where the half a tile boarder on one side lead to a strange edge, which meant having a full tile boarder in that space. Because who wants one leg of the couch to not be on the carpet! So I decided to go with the full tile, and cut the half tile to fit.
But then came the moment of connecting the half tile boarder to my new full tile. And this was the last tile I needed to place! So close to the finish!
So I had a choice, put a half tile piece in there or a full tile piece. I decided to check out what both of the options would look like. Here's a peak!
Well, you better believe I went with the full tile piece. Because it looks a bazillion times better.
Once everything was in place, I went around and stuck them together, I also stuck them to the two rugs. We also decided to get a couple anti-slip mats for under the rugs for added stability. And VOILA! Our living room has a completed rug for under $200.
And as you might notice, I've attempted to repurpose our old rug for under our desk. It's still a work in progress, but it's coming along. Also, you might notice that from the original image to the updated one, we also changed the couch covers. Because let's face it, it was time and finally ikea had some that we liked for a great price ($30 each). But how we ended up with two different coloured ones from the original image, is a whole other post about dyeing fabric (totally a throwback thursday post!). Now just for some new pillows and maybe even some new legs for the couches.
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