Smug As a Bug With a Brand New Rug

I've been casually on the look out for a new rug for DC's bedroom for a while; I've scouted around the t'interweb, I've looked on eBay, and I've looked in various shops (mostly John Lewis, truth by told.) But I've not found one that's been what I would say was a reasonable price (ie about £50-75) and which met with the 'vision' I had in my head - ie a wool rug with a nice thick pile so it feels good when you step on it, in a suitable colour or assortment of colours, and in a suitable style/pattern. I have seen rugs I've liked on the internet, but with rugs I like to have a good old feel of what I'm getting, which makes buying online a bit tricky, unless you are happy to deal with returning a rug or rugs that don't quite come up to scratch (and, personally, I can't really be bothered with the hassle - I'd rather pay a bit more and buy certain things face-to face, so to speak.)

This is the rug that DC has had in his room for about the past year. Prior to that he had a cream one. Practical, not. We've owned this striped rug for quite some time, so it's a hand-me-down piece that was simply being used because DC needed a rug and we happened to already own this. In itself, it's a nice enough rug; it's from the Pier (when they still existed), and it's a lovely, soft chenille fabric in muted shades of red, purple, brown and cream. 

As you can see it doesn't really 'go' in DC's room, which is predominantly accessorised in stereotypical blue. If it weren't for the blue, the rug would probably work quite well, since the colours tie in with the wood tones of the furniture - bed, wardrobe, toy cupboard, etc.

But, alas and alack, I am bringing my boy up along all those stereotypical lines that insist boys have blue bedrooms and girls have pink. Actually, that's not strictly true, it just seems to have turned out that way. And so, rug of muted colours, you are not a fit.

So, what luck then that when I was in Yeovil on Wednesday I decided to pop in to Laura Ashley as they were having a sale. When aren't they, really? And I even decided to slog up the stairs to look at their home department. And, there, all rolled up in a little basket towards the back was a potentially perfect rug for DC's room. A very good squishyness of pile and all the right colours as far as I could see in its rolled-up state (shades of blue, with some red and white/cream for good measure); I checked the photo in the LA catalogue to see if the rug was as good unrolled as it suggested it was rolled and, yes, it looked to be pretty much spot on. And, best of all? The 40% off label that took the rug from £65 to £39. Sold, to the anxious lady getting all clammy with the fear that someone else would snaffle the rug before she got back to the basket to claim it as her own.

Ta dah!

It's not quite as big as I'd like it to be, but then that would probably involve spending many more £s. But at least the colours now suit the room. It feels like the rug pulls the room together more, with the duvet cover, curtains and chair all sharing colours that are in the rug. 

My plan is to paint the wall against which the head of the bed and chest of drawers rest; probably blue, because I'm all about the boy-room. And also to add a shelf or two for DC to keep some of his clutter toys on (perhaps the still-to be painted nic-nac shelf that I found back in August at Shepton Mallet Flea will finally get an airing); I've also been eyeing up the IKEA spice racks that are supposed to make great book shelves, so a trip to Bristol might be in order. Don't tell hubby...