Decorating With Area Rugs in My Living Room

One good thing that came about while being sick last week was that I spent most of the week snuggled under a warm throw on one of the comfy recliners in my living room. In this state, I daily had my sights on the living room into the dining area.

Not to be totally unproductive, I visually played around with a few ideas each day on how I could update the room decor for spring and the warmer weather months ahead.

Of all the rooms in my house, the living room is the room that I have changed the decor multiple times over the years in both major and minor ways. I like everything I have done to the room.

The only reason I have made so many changes is that I have too many ideas I want to try. The living room is the place where I do just that – try out and experiment with ideas.

All through the dozens of changes to the room, the seagrass area rug has always stayed. It is such a durable “go with anything rug” that we brought with us from our previous home.

The only change I had made to this rug is when I did a color tweak after I started using more blue in the room. The rug border used to be green, so I painted the area rug border beige.

If you remember back in the fall I added a patterned area rug over the existing seagrass area rug in my living room to cozy up the space for the cold months of the year.

After the holidays, I added blue accents and a new X side table. I liked this look very much.

Back in 2019 after we had the hardwood floors refinished was the only time I removed the area rug. Since it was summer and the floors looked perfect, I liked the simplicity and enjoyed the floor for a while without the area rug.

Fast forward to this past week. I wanted to lighten things up again since spring is here and summer soon behind. When I was finally feeling better, the first thing I did was to roll up and store the dark area rug until next fall.

After some online shopping I found this very affordable Tommy Bahama Marlin Transitional Indoor/Outdoor Rug to layer over the seagrass for a Modern Coastal look.

Normally when I am looking for a color change in a room, I do it with paint – but a gallon of paint these days is so darn expensive! I am finding area rugs can be a less expensive option depending on what the rug is made of and the size.

My new blue rug (7′-10″ x 10′- 2″)is slightly smaller than the seagrass (9′ x 12′)so layering was easy.

I unrolled it and centered it right over the seagrass. As you can see the rug hasn’t flattened completely yet, but this photo was taken right after I unrolled it. It has flattened since.

The new rug is just what I was envisioning – a little coastal, a little modern.

I have been leaning to using blues in the room and really like the mix patterns of the large pillows I covered the no-sew way with the blue texture print fabric. They give the sofa a modern coastal vibe.

New Kitchen Mat

While I was changing the area rug in the living room, I also wanted to replace the green GelPro mat I had in front of the kitchen sink with a blue one.

I have been using anti-fatigue mats instead of a small decorative throw rug to stand on when I am in front of my kitchen sink for years. They are the best and worth every penny! I have had a few different brands.

I like my GelPro ones the best. I have a green one for the fall/winter and bright blue check for the summer. Since I rotate them seasonally, they last for years.

Now I have this Lucky Brand Anti-Fatigue Wellness Mat that I found at HomeGoods, (also sold on Amazon). It is thinner than the GelPro brand, but for $15.00 it was worth a try.

Anti-fatigue mats make standing less tiring, promote better posture, circulation and muscle conditioning, plus they are skid resistant and so very easy to clean.

Seeing new color around the house for spring is making me feel cheery and ready for the warmer weather.

Over the last few years I have embraced the slow living method to life and that includes decorating. I love to decorate and make things look pretty and updated, but I do it now at a much slower pace. I still have a few more spring tweaks for both the kitchen and living room that I will share with you in my next few posts.

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