'R' for Rugs Living Room

Orleans Rug

I thought I could cross something off my list already, but now I’m not so sure.

The new rug in that last photo happens to be the Orleans Rug from Crate & Barrel. I’m smitten.

Living Room

The problem is that it’s not really big enough for the living room.

Living Room Rug

It would be gorgeous in the 8×10 size, but it wouldn’t be very practical. The entry to our home is tiny and awkward, so you have to come into the living room almost immediately upon entering. The room is only 11’x12′, so the larger rug would cover most of the floor. Obviously, white may not be the best choice for a high-traffic area.

Also, we eat on the sofa. Because we are lazy. The dining room is ten whole feet away. So again, white may not be the best choice.

Brandon thinks that maybe we shouldn’t even have a rug in there. We have rugs in the adjoining rooms, so he thinks the bare wood is a nice visual break. What do you think?

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  • Jasi
    January 4, 2008 at 9:40 am

    I say skip the rug.

  • Mandy
    January 4, 2008 at 9:40 am

    I think the rug looks great..makes the room more cozy. We are sofa eaters too though so I can understand your dilemma. :)

  • sparklerawk
    January 4, 2008 at 10:08 am

    I like the rug, but I think the room could do without it. I think it’s the thickness of it that adds more weight to the room. A thinner, mat-like rug (which I guess wouldn’t be much of a rug at all) would fit better.
    But either way, it’s still a nice rug in a great room!

    Oh, and I love your drapes, by the way! I’m going to attempt to make something similar for the silly horizontal window in my living room.

  • marybeth
    January 4, 2008 at 10:17 am

    I like rugs over hardwood, but such a light color isn’t practical…I’d try to find something different.

  • Andrea
    January 4, 2008 at 10:30 am

    Love the idea of a rug, I really think it helps “anchor” the seating area. We have a light colored rug in a high-traffic area and it doesn’t work so well. I recommend FLOR carpet tiles. You can make a rug of almost whatever size you want and they have a ton of patterns, colors, and styles. And they clean so easily, just pull them up and run the spot under cold water!

  • Ann
    January 4, 2008 at 10:36 am

    I like the rug by itself but think the proportions aren’t quite right in your living room. Bummer.

    Separately, thanks for admitting to sofa-eating … it’s so nice to see gorgeous homes that people actually LIVE in!

  • Aimee
    January 4, 2008 at 11:10 am

    A rug looks nice in the space, but I can totally see the problem with the size and color. Maybe something a little richer?

    However, I also think the room will look great without a rug… and it will make cleaning the floor much easier too. :)

  • Lori Pickert
    January 4, 2008 at 11:28 am

    i think you do need a rug, but *we* certainly couldn’t get away with a light-colored rug there. ;^)

    we have a flat-weave wool rug in our main living room that has a pattern and rich colors; it hides everything (we eat over it) and wears really well.

  • Jamie Meares
    January 4, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    if you keep it, can you scoot it back so its at least under the front feet of the sofa a bit? the coffee table could still be on it, but it would serve more as a sofa area rug, and maybe wouldn’t look so tiny of an island in the middle of the big room.

  • Mrs. Limestone
    January 4, 2008 at 2:03 pm

    Beautiful room.

    Can you move the rug to a bit more under the couch? That might unify the couch and coffee table.

    An unrelated question – how did you hang your painting from the picture rail?

  • Kara
    January 4, 2008 at 8:27 pm

    Hi there – I really like the style & color of the rug. You make a good point about practicality if placed in a high traffic area. We have a chocolate brown shag in our living room which plays nicely off of the lighter (tan/grey)color of tile. Found the rug at Cost Plus -World Market. Very happy to hear about all the couch eaters out there…

    K-

    PS – Found your site from Jules at Pancakes and French Fries.

  • sprizee
    January 5, 2008 at 8:40 am

    What if you bought another matching rug in the same size that you currently have and then pushed them together after turning them by 90 degrees. That seems like that would be about the right size…although it’s hard to tell…maybe 2 would be bigger than the 8×10. Just a thought. I love the rug you have in there now but yeah, it does seem a bit too small.

  • M&Co
    January 5, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    Love the rug, however I would go for bare wooden floor. The clean , airy look of wood floor is so nice!

  • amanda
    January 5, 2008 at 2:29 pm

    such a beautiful room! i agree with Jaime & Mrs Limestone – perhaps move the rug a bit under the front legs of the couch? I do know what you mean about the colour though, hmmm. but, yay of couch eating (us too)!

  • K T G
    January 5, 2008 at 4:37 pm

    I looked at your entries about the living room, and you were talked out of another white rug in February. I think a white rug would look nice, and I don’t know that the larger size would be “too big.” I think the margin of a 1-1.5′ of hardwood around the room is just right. Again, though, it looks ideal when it’s just for show, but how do you live, will it get ruined, etc. I’m not imagining another color rug in that room, although wine and salsa were mentioned in the February posting, so get a red rug! What I mean is, white will not stay white without treatments, but a walked-on tan rug is still tan, or who would notice if a moss green rug was a little dirtier in color than when you bought it? I would also place the coffee table closer to the sofa. It is drifting away.

  • annechovie
    January 6, 2008 at 5:37 pm

    Hello Nicole!
    This is my first visit to your blog and I really enjoyed it. I’ll be back! Happy New Year!

  • Making it Lovely
    January 6, 2008 at 6:54 pm

    Well, yes. I was indeed talked out of a white rug waaaaay back. I can’t help it though! A white rug looks so good! ;)

    I think the Flor carpet tiles would be a good idea. Maybe we’ll stick with the bare wood for now though.

  • beckie
    January 8, 2008 at 2:14 pm

    i love the rug! But we have a white rug in our living room and we often eat there and the rug has taken a beating. We have had it for about 8 months and I am already ready to get rid of it.

    Just a thought. especially if you happen to be clumsy eaters like myself who happens to drop a marinara covered meatball on the floor.

  • chrissy
    January 8, 2008 at 6:09 pm

    I think several posters hit it on the nose. The rug can go under the couch a bit to anchor it and the coffee table. Flor is a great resource. We saved a little by leaving a foot uncarpeted all around the perimeter of the room (we also have a bungalow with an almost square room – you enter right into ours. Flor is a lifesaver if you have kids and/or pets. White is scary in such a user-friendly space, but you can always use this on top of a larger, darker rug to delineate areas of the room. You are a decorating goddess and you know it. Use the darned thing as wall art if you have to, but I vote that you don’t go all bare. We have blondie floors, as well, and photos from our pre-rug days look so stark.

  • Julie
    January 9, 2008 at 8:00 am

    Another recommendation for FLOR tiles. Our living area is long and relatively narrow (well, relative to “standard” rug sizes), so FLOR lets us customize the size of the rug to our space. And since the whole point of our move from the ‘burbs to the city was to reduce our footprint, it’s nice to know FLOR is working to pioneer eco-friendly materials (I listened to one of their R&D guys talk for 20 minutes about the components of their adhesive) and if you get tired of the rug you can send it back to them and they’ll recycle the materials to use in future tiles.

  • becky
    January 9, 2008 at 2:43 pm

    I love the rug! I can tell you though, I have the same color in the same place and it gets either coffee, red wine, or diet coke spilled on it every other month. Plus the cat tears it up! Thus, after searching for a lovely one like yours for months and months, I am glad I settled on a $99 one from IKEA. You might want to see all that spills on the IKEA version before spilling on this gorgeous one!

    Congrats on your one year anniversary and the new site!

    becky

  • Mikey
    January 11, 2008 at 8:36 pm

    I love the rug (though I think no rug would be great, especially considering that the other rooms already have them) and am thinking of getting the same one. Mind answering a few questions? I noticed you took a pic of yourself in shoes on the rug… if you wear shoes around the house, how well has the rug been holding up?
    I don’t live near a C&B, so I’m really curious as to the exact color and texture. Is it very very white, or slightly off white?
    And I know you’re not a rug “grand master,” but humor me: do you think this is a rug that would last for a good length of time in a home where the family does not eat in the living room, wear shoes, or even watch tv?
    Thanks Nicole!

  • Kristin
    January 13, 2008 at 10:47 am

    First, I applaud you for buying such a great rug! However, as an interior designer, I would have to agree that the rug is not the right proportion. If you want it to be an “area rug”, the front legs of your furniture should be sitting on the rug, but I see if you do that, it’ll look even more awkward. However, if you want it to be a “room rug” you’ll want to leave at least 12″ around the perimeter.

    I personally like the idea of you using a rug, despite the existence of others in nearby rooms. Rugs help anchor a room and can make them feel oh-so-cozy and inviting! I think a rug with more pattern and a richer color would complement your room nicely – and hide future stains and wear!

  • paola
    January 15, 2008 at 2:21 am

    Rug is great, but totally impractical. We recently bought a cream rug for a high traffic area and it now looks like a dog’s breakfast.

    BUT the coffee table is the business. Where is it from?

  • Making it Lovely
    January 15, 2008 at 2:27 am

    The coffee table is from Thomas O’Brien’s collection for Target (from a few years ago).

    OK, I took the rug out of the living room and brought up an old jute one from the basement. It’s 8x 10, and the size is much better. It’s just not as pretty. ;)

    Mikey, it was holding up just fine though!

  • paola
    January 15, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    Thanks Nicole – it’s just what I’m looking for, but seems it is not to be…

  • deborah
    January 30, 2008 at 9:36 pm

    Place the rug at an angle (corner to corner if you will) so that it under only some of the furnituer.YOu’ll get teh visual break and you wont be trying to ‘fit’ a rug into the room.

  • DD
    August 14, 2008 at 11:01 am

    Hi Nicole, glad to have come across this blog! although this is an older post, I want to let you know this rug is absolutely the right size and direction.

    8×11 you would probably find one leg of the red chair off the edge, and it would dominate the room too much in general. Plus, you have really nice floors, which should absolutely be shown!

    As for the orientation and direction, if you turned the rug 90 degrees, it would block off the room too much.

  • sisal rugs
    May 18, 2009 at 1:41 am

    I think the rug is alright in there. I like it. it doesn’t look awkward to me. girl, your room is great!

  • IF Rugs
    May 18, 2009 at 5:31 am

    It just look fine and it gives a rather unique cozy look for your room.

  • Making it Lovely | Transforming the so-so. » Blog Archive » The Guest Room!
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    […] was from CB2, and the lamp was from Pier 1. The rug was from Crate & Barrel. I originally bought it for the living room, but it was too small. I loved it too much to return it, so I kept it, figuring I could find […]

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    March 15, 2011 at 11:24 pm

    […] most action, and hence is first on our must-have list. I saw this Crate and Barrel Orleans rug on Making it Lovely, and knew instantly I wanted something similar (that one is discontinued […]

  • brooke
    May 23, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    I have a white flokati in my living room, but I waited until my daughter got older to put it down (I bought it looong ago and just put it in it’s intended spot 4 months ago). I love it in the living room, but you don’t have to step on it to walk through the room. You do have to accept that your white rug will get beat up though.