Hi Annie,
Since I sold my wonderful bossy color designed condo in DC and moved into a rental in a far away state I’ve come up with a few design dilemmas. Here is one I’m really struggling with…..a rug question.
I purchased a really affordable white flokati rug for my bedroom. It is super soft and works fairly well in the room – but sometimes a bargain isn’t a bargain, This rug is STILL shedding almost a year later….
My bedroom is mostly neutral – pretty wood floors and big bright windows…I mix it up by changing my bedding around (see photo of gray summer silk bedspread and red pillows lying on top of winter duvet cover).
I’m looking for ideas as to rugs. I want something somewhat versatile that will work with most colors (in case I need/want to change my linens in the future).
Thanks for your thoughts!
Sheila
A: Hi, Sheila! First of all, good for you for switching your bedding with the seasons! So many people TALK about doing that, but few follow through.
That said, your yellow/green “winter” duvet cover doesn’t look great with the current wall color. I know this is a rental, but if the walls are as orangey-tan in real life as they appear in the pictures, I think it would be worth a few hundred bucks to have it painted…
But I digress :) Since you have gorgeous grey and red silk bedding – which also happens to look great with the African piece over your bed – let’s work with that.
One option is to keep the rug neutral but less ah, hairy and shed-dy than the Flokati. Think texture or tone-on-tone. If you like the texture of seagrass under your bare feet – a high-quality seagrass rug should feel bumpy underfoot but not prickly – that would look fantastic. (And you can always put a smaller colorful rug over it – Seagrass is terrific for layering.)
Madeleine Weinrib‘s Light Honeymilk Tibetan rug would work with that bedding to create a serene and sophisticated space. I may have to insist that you paint the walls, though (e.g. a darker, cleaner taupe); otherwise, everything might just look clashy. Not in a good way.
A tiny stripe is another good option, like this one from Timothy Paul Carpets & Textiles. Even though your bedding is shades of grey and the rug shades of tan, they’ll look beautiful together.
Another approach – and this might be more your speed, embracer of color! – would be a dark rug to contrast with the light bedding and walls. The darker rugs also would work with your current wall color.
This Turkoman rug from Rugman.com is the right shade of burgundy, leaning toward plum rather than orange.
A striped rug with color, such as Dash & Albert‘s Brindle Stripe in Spice, would look beautiful. It also would pull in the colors from your artwork – a nice bonus.
Finally, if you liked the mod aspect of the Flokati and would like to cover a lot of floor in your bedroom, don’t rule out having a dark red shag rug bound to whatever size you like. (I’ve found that 10′ x 10′ is a good, versatile size.)
I hope this is helpful, Sheila! Let me know what you decide, and good luck!