AREA RUGS...

After we moved in we quickly realized we would need an area rug for the C Monster's play room if we wanted to avoid him screeching up the hardwood floor.  I really wish I could now be posting that we only looked at eco-friendly area rugs but well in reality I did not want to spend 1500$ upward on a rug that was going in a playroom.  We also did not want to buy a kid specific area rug, so that if in 2 years our dinning room stops being a playroom and starts being a dinning room, we would not be stuck with a 8x10 kids area rug.

We started by browsing online and found patterns that we liked and work with our space. Narrowed them down to our favourite 4; then we checked them out in-store along with many others. Here are 4 rugs that had made our short list before we started to look at them in person:

Stockholm @$299 from Ikea: I was really disappointed with this one.  It was not our favourite  pattern but the idea of a wool rug at $300 in the right size was exciting.  It is a woven flat rug that mean it has no pile which translates into a very rough surface - not good for playing on.

Gate @850 from Dwell Studio: We never visited a store with this one as this was our back up rug if we did not like the Structube ones, as the price point on this one was a bit more then we wanted to spend. 

Freeport @ $499 from Structube: In person the white is actually light grey; this  caused the rug to look soiled even when it is clean.  However this is a wool rug and I do like my natural fibres. I would like to note that before we saw any of the rugs this was Geoff's favorite.

Juno @499 from Structube: We were a bit concerned with the white and that it would easily stain.  I would like to point out that this was my favourite rug before we saw any of them in person. This one is also wool.

Some of the key points we were looking for were:

• Durability
• Thigh pill count, meaning that the yarn used to make the rug was weaved very tightly and dense
• Natural fibre
• Priced under $1000
• Size: 8' x 10' minimum and 8'-6" x 11' maximum
• Flexible design, wanted an area rug that would work in a playroom or a living room or a dinning room
• C Monster's opinion. This was by no means the deciding factor but we wanted him to feel involved in selecting the rug; it was going in his space after all.

And here is our final choice; so far everyone is happy with it; C Monster particularly enjoys driving his toy cars along the white stripes: