Rug Cleaning Adventures

Hi all! I know I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks, but today it's Saturday and I'm home watching Netflix, so thought I would share a recent adventure we had involving rug cleaning. I know, it sounds super exciting. But it actually was a pretty exciting day in our household.

First off, our living room rug has seen better days. I bought it back in 2013 (remember this post?), and Saleen likes to rub and lick on it because of her allergies. In short, it's gotten pretty disgusting for that reason. Yep, having a dog has made us learn "we can't have nice things." I'll spare you the "before cleaning" pictures.

We had gone a while without cleaning the rug, so we decided to rent a Rug Doctor at our local Dollar General. You can rent it for $30, along with buying the solution that goes in it for about $5.

We gave it a good vacuum first. Then Trent filled it with a mix of water and the solution, and I held the edges of the rug in place while he ran the Rug Doctor over it.

While you run it over the rug, it releases the mixture of solution and water, and also has brushes underneath that vibrate while it runs.

We had to continuously refill it with more solution, since it goes through it pretty quickly. And we ran it over the rug row by row, several times to make sure we got the dirt out the best we could.

Once we were done, instead of letting it dry in the living room, we took the rug and the rug pad underneath, outside and hung them on the fence for a little over a day to fully dry out.

We didn't want it to hold onto any water between the rug and the rug pad, since that might leave a little "mustiness" in the air, and no one wants that.. Eww!

I think leaving it out in the sun probably helped bleach the stains a little bit, too. At least we like to think so. So here's the "after":

It's not perfect, but it looks visibly cleaner, for sure! I'd say renting the Rug Doctor was worth it, not to do all the time, but I'd maybe do it once a year or so.

At first I was really hesitant to let Saleen into the living room again, and wiped off every stain she left. Haha. But now I've come to the conclusion that it's inevitable that the rug WILL get dirty again.

So, moral of the story, having a nice rug + a dog with allergies, do not mix! But a good rug cleaning every now and then makes things a little nicer, at least for the time being.

Rug Shopping

While shopping at Target the other night, I couldn't help but notice all of the lovely patterned rugs on display. I have to stroll through the Target decor aisles every time I'm there, petting all of the pretty pillows and rugs, and admiring all of the stylish new furniture each season. I know I'm not the only one, right?

I'm currently obsessed with all the styles of rugs out this fall and have been thinking of getting a new one for the living room lately. It's not exactly the easiest decision though, when you're faced with this many wonderful options.

The rug we have now has served us well and looked pretty stylish for the last couple of years. But these days it's not looking so hot. With a dog who likes to scratch up against it and lick her fur all of the time, on the rug no less, it needs cleaned quite a lot... Not to mention, it's wool and it's not holding up so well. So a new one is looking better and better. Maybe not right away, but sooner or later.

I haven't decided on one I like yet and think I might wait a little longer. But some of the more neutral patterns have been catching my eye. I like that the material looks a little easier to clean than wool, and most are still low pile. The dark gray ones might hide dog hair pretty well, too.

The really patterned ones are pretty awesome, but I'm just worried they might be harder to match. So I'm thinking another neutral one might be the way we'll go when we do get a new one.

When we first moved in and got the living room decorated, I had the plainest rug you could possibly have. A cream-colored rug. No pattern or style at all. I think the one in the picture below is actually the second cream-colored rug we had. I figured it went with everything, and would look nice and bright. No dark, dingy rug or loud pattern. Well, it got dirty easily and was a little on the boring side! 

Spring 2013 rolled around and I was ready for a change. I bought this new rug from Rugs USA. I loved it when I first got it. It brought so much more style and interest to the living room. It was a neutral color still (dark gray), and it was a nice material (wool), so I figured it would last a long time.

Now though, I'm realizing wool probably isn't the greatest material, since it doesn't hold up really well, and isn't super soft, either. It's also been over two years now, and it's gotten faded and hard to keep clean with Saleen around.

So, I have some ideas in mind, and we're also looking at getting a sectional sofa. We actually started looking a year ago, but then took a break to work on wedding stuff and now will probably start looking again. When we do decide to get a new rug though, I think one of these from Tar-jay will look awesome in the living room. We'll see which one I do end up with when the time comes!

New Living Room Rug (Woot!)

Guys...I got an amazing deal on a rug. Don't all scream at once. Ha. Here's the thing. Our living room "rug" that was actually a carpet material that we got for cheap at a home improvement store was looking a little worse for wear. It was super hard to keep clean and just looked dirty and ugly all the time! Thus, I'd been scouring Pinterest, Joss and Main, Rugs USA, etc., etc for what seemed like years trying to find a good deal on a rug I really liked...then finally! I saw a pin on Pinterest that pointed me to This Guy:

Yes, if you can't see it, it says 50% Off! And when I added it to my cart, the savings was awesome, with free shipping:

It was a 100% wool rug with a pretty Moroccan Trellis design in a pretty gray color, originally $338.80 - now $168.80! SO...I bit the bullet and bought it. I had never bought a rug online, and haven't had any experience with Rugs USA before, but this deal was too good to pass up.

When the rug arrived yesterday I was really pleased at how it looked in person! Really good quality, and it ended up looking so much better, thank God! I was a little worried that it would be "too much," especially since we don't really have any gray in there, but luckily I love the result!

Here's the Before with the old rug:

See how it looks a little boring and dingy looking?

Here's the After with the new rug:

I. LOVE. IT. Seriously.

It's so pretty! :) 

You can see the texture in the close up picture below:

 

It's pretty tightly woven and I think it will be really durable and last a long time! Plus it probably won't look as dirty all the time because of the darker color. I might need to invest in a rug pad to go underneath though, just to prevent any slippage and make it a little more comfy on the feet!

Overall..I'm pretty much in love! I'll leave you with another Before and After...