Online Rug Shopping for Dummies

For someone who’s owned three houses, I’m a pretty inexperienced rug buyer. Our only rug at our last house was in our living room. It was a giant antique dark red oriental rug…all worn down flat and threadbare in some places, and I loved it lots. Then our dog Oliver got really old and started peeing on it, so we finally had to get it of it.

I’ve been meaning to buy some rugs for this house ever since we moved into it. But I’ve been utterly paralyzed with indecision. Some rugs are really expensive. And some rugs are really cheap, but that makes one wonder if they are also really crappy. Also there are SO MANY RUGS. Different colors! Different materials! Different patterns! HOW to decide?

Having a baby who is now old enough to sit and play with toys and who is approaching mobility is what finally motivated me to just suck it up and buy a rug already. Babies can’t hang out on your cold, hard terra cotta tile!

Here’s how it went down. Rugs USAΒ was having a big 4th of July sale (Rugs USA is one of those sites that’s always having a big sale, but the biggest ones are to go with holidays, it seems. And they have USA right there in their name, so that’s the biggest sale of all! I just made that part up. I have no idea). They had a bunch of rugs at 75% off, so I started looking around. But every rug I liked seemed to be out of stock.

Frustrated, I went over to Overstock.com and started looking there instead. I found the “Hand hooked Alexa Moroccan Trellis Wool Rug” there, 6′ x 9′, for around $230. The rug looked very familiar, and I’m pretty sure I’ve looked at it and considered buying it half a dozen times over the past year. I’d been hesitant about a wool rug with all the dogs and cats; I’d thought about getting an indoor/outdoor rug instead.

But I was so tired of looking at rugs. So I ordered this one. In gray, which, according to a lot of the reviews, would actually be more gray blue. So I was prepared. The reviews also said that the rug looked great, was surprisingly thick, and shed a lot for a long time. But, then, so do all of our animals.

For some reason, after ordering my rug, I felt compelled to go back to Rugs USA one more time.

And there I discovered that they had the exact same rug I had just ordered. Only 75% off. Β Which made it around $80 cheaper than what I had just paid Overstock for it.

In a panic, I rushed back to Overstock and logged in to my account….and was very relieved to discover that it was not too late to cancel my order. Phew!

The moral of this story is not that you should order from Rugs USA instead of Overstock (I’ve had good luck with ordering stuff from Overstock in the past and am a big fan). It’s that you should comparison shop very carefully. Because you might save $80 if you do.

My rug took foreverΒ to get here. Or, like, 2 1/2 weeks, I think. Overstock, it should be noted, had promised to have it here much more quickly. But waiting an extra couple of weeks was worth $80 to me (Abe did not fall over and get a concussion on the hard tile while we waited, or my perspective would probably be different).

That’s my only complaint about Rugs USA. I love my rug. I was afraid it was going to be too pattern-y next to the octagonal tile, but it is, IMO, not. It is indeed nice and thick and seems like great quality for the price. It is definitely at least as blue as gray (Rugs USA calls it blue gray). It does shed a lot. I vacuum it every day, and that is not at all overkill. But I don’t mind. Because it’s so soft and pretty.

Unfortunately, my baby is now perpetually covered with fuzz.

But that’s better than a head injury, right?

Let’s look at my new rug again (also my baby):

Linking with:
The Inspiration Gallery
The Shabby Nest’s Frugal Friday
Tatertots and Jello’s Weekend Wrap Up Party
Monday Funday


Comments

Online Rug Shopping for Dummies — 13 Comments

  1. No way!! That is one of my FAVORITE rugs of theirs. I just love that pattern. It looks so good with the orange tile and your new walls. I can certainly see why you are hanging out more in this room. Its coming together so beautifully and it’s got Abe in it!! Perfect πŸ™‚

    • I’ve already found some suspicious looking pulled threads on the rug….but I figure if it looks like crap in a few months, it won’t be the most expensive lesson I’ve ever learned at least. We put the scratching post right next to the rug in hopes that they’ll get the idea πŸ™‚

  2. Love the rug! It goes so nicely in your sunroom and with Abe. πŸ™‚ I ordered our living room rug from rugs usa last year. It’s hooked and Nalle started scratching it (pulling out the loops). I think I’ll have to replace it already. πŸ™ I’ve been looking at carpet tiles. At least, I can replace a tile if one gets ruined.

  3. Great post – I am in the market for some rugs for the exact same reason. We just started replacing our nasty carpet with hardwoods and our eight month old definitely needs some padding for all his little tumbles and (so far failed) attempts to crawl. Love the rug you chose. I have been scoping out overstock but will definitely have to give RugsUSA a try as well.

    Can’t wait to check out some of your other posts. And I’d love to have you come visit me at http://www.lovelyetc.com if you get a chance.

    • one of the few downsides of tearing out carpet is losing the soft place for babies to play! Thanks for stopping by, Carrie…I’ll definitely check out your blog πŸ™‚

  4. OK, I admit it. I totally missed the rug in the first shot because I was so focused on the baby! Baby envy…mine are all grown.
    But~ the rug is fabulous. I love a rug to anchor the room, and this one is a great compliment to your flooring.

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