We've Come A Long Way, Baby

 Today's photo challenge was: A Corner of Your Home. So this was exactly the kick in the pants that I needed to put our new rug into action. Our poor, new rug had been propped up in our living room for almost 3 weeks. At first, Alora was terrified of the rolled up rug lurking in the corner (she had her back pressed against the furthest wall and would not walk past it without holding my hand.) But over the past few weeks, she got to know the rug by name. She would wave and say "Hi new rug". And when asked where the old rug is, she would go point her toe on the old rug.  I'm not sure why it took me so long to get it out, because I have been wanting this for ages!

To give you a little history of our living room, it started like this:

Yowza! That rug was our fist big home purchase. We got it for diiiiirt cheap at a going out of business sale. Since then, that rug and I have had a love-hate relationhip. Some days, I'll look at it and say, "Boy, I really like that rug." And other days it will be "Ugh, I'm so sick of that rug. It's so drab!" And it sheds like crazy. There were always little tumble weeds of rug floating around our house. It. Drove. Me. Crazy!

Shortly after we got our rug, we bought our red sofa. (It's really a mix of red, cranberry, russet and a few other tones that combine to make a very nice red.) At fist, I loved it. But after two years of having a red sofa, it started to ware on me.

It was still a great couch and very good condition.   

So we simply got a slipcover to give it a new look. It's a SureFit slipcover from Bed Bath & Beyond made of stretch "suede". I love it. It stays in place (I think I've only had to rearrange it twice in the past 4 months) and dog hair does not stick to it. As soon as we put it on, the room felt so much lighter and I actually heard myself let out a huge sigh of relief. I didn't realize how much that red couch was grating on me! (Cosmo also looks to be a little more mellowed out by the color swap.)

But like I said, we got a new rug. So today, Alora and I rolled up the old rug,

gave it one last goodbye (even though it will likely be going in the office right next door),

and rolled out this beauty. I couldn't be happier! I've been wanting something with a pop of color and with a little more playful feel since this room doubles as a play room, and this rug does it all!

Here it is in real-time, already being used as a building block play ground.

Normally I wouldn't consider buying a rug online because I'm a big texture person, and I like to be able to feel what I'm going to be getting. But I found this through overstock.com and it was on mega-sale. And had free shipping. It was a deal we could not pass up so we went for it. I'm so glad we did!

You might also remember my coffee table refinishing Fail. Since then we've been short a coffee table, so Aora's play table is filling in until I have time/figure out how to refinish our old table.

Alora helped me get the new rug ready. As I was vacuuming away, she ran to grab her "vacuum". Yes, for you savvy readers, it's actually a toy lawnmower. We don't have a yard so she's never seen a lawnmower so we just started calling it her vacuum, or "mini-Dyson" since our big vacuum is "Mr. Dyson." She was terrified of our vacuum (much like the rolled up rug) and we've found that giving it a name helps. Now, she still keeps her distance, but will wave and say "Hi Dyson."

 I've been dreaming of this day and searching for the right updated rug for over a year. And now I am absolutely smitten with our new rug. I couldn't be happier! Well... maybe if it vacuumed itself.

There are still some more tweaks that I want to make to this room, but for now, I love the look. Here are some other ideas I have for this room:

-replace the coat hooks with an armoir to hide away our coats, mittens, etc

-figure out a better shoe storage system

-figure out a better toy storage system

-finish our coffee table

-find a better/taller end table for the area between the couch and recliner

-maybe try out a gallery wall behind the couch (or maybe I'll do that in a different room)

How about you? Any home updates that you're dying to make or in the progress of doing?