Many cups of tea, and other rugs

One of the first exhibitions I bumped into at the Knit & Stitch show in Harrogate was that of the Ebor Ruggers, a group of passionate people who enjoy keeping the traditional craft of rug making alive, but doing so while being sustainable. They make so much more than rugs though, think baskets, wallhangings, bags and cushions - and many were on display at the show.

I’m sharing those which caught my eye, including the one below that really wasn’t happy about being on the wall and kept escaping to the floor, and each time show attendees rushing to help the ruggers to get it back in place.

The rug tells the story of a daughter leaving home, potentially for university, leaving with hopes, dreams and the best wishes for her family, though the poignant part is the ‘come home’ plea, which is no doubt that of the rug maker to her daughter, and I’m sure is come home occasionally and don’t bring your washing!

I loved the simplicity of the rag rugged heart, which fully deserved its place at the show, but the storytelling piece below is the one that really made me smile, as it reminded me of MOH and his many, many great cups of tea!

The text in the rug is ‘a better man there could not be to make me many cups of tea’ and it took me right back to the early days of lockdown as we started working at our dining table in the kitchen and so he was making many more cups of tea, which I was happy to receive - and I’m still very happy that he makes me many cups of tea.

One day in lockdown though he asked me if I had a butler at work to make my tea, as while I’m always happy to receive and drink tea, I rarely made a cup for us myself. Oops - though in my defence, the tea was coming thick and fast so I had no need to make my own, and I don’t think I drank so much tea as back then - even when we moved our desks into a spare room each and there was further to bring it the tea kept coming, and so it does today too, which I’m very glad about.

I think I need to get him this rug on a t-shirt at the very least, or perhaps a mug - yes that would be more appropriate wouldn’t it?!

But anyway, back to the show - what amazed me about the rugs on display was the wide variety of approaches. I’m not sure why it did, but it did - and these three pieces (above and below) sum that up - and until then I didn’t realise that perhaps rag rugged bunting was what I needed, but maybe I do.

There’s some clever people out there excelling in their crafts, and I’m thankful for the glimpse they gave us into the ruggers world.

A new, bigger rug - eventually

Just after Christmas MOH answered the door for a delivery and returned to announce he’d bought the house a present. Those words alone were enough to fill me with fear, but hoping I was wrong I braved it. My fears heightened when I saw it was a rug - MOH and I have quite different taste, and he proudly admitted that he’d copied the decor in his flat (which I liked) from one of the paint catalogues - fair dos and all that. Usually I opt for more modern styles than he does, but that’s not always the case. But seeing the package, the fear was real.

He was keen for opening it and showing me, but I’m wise to this now and instead he showed me a picture from his email confirmation. He knew from the look on my face, which clearly I didn’t hide very well, that I wasn’t keen. In fact I was so not keen that it didn’t make it out of the packaging, and spent all its time with us propped up next to the front door. He tried the ‘I don’t know how to send it back’ trick, but as he’d shared the confirmation email with me, I could help there and printed off the return label for him. He’s ever the optimist and left it to the last possible day before making arrangements for its return, and still it never made it out of the packaging, or out of our very small porch. I’m not sharing where its from, or the style/design because I’m still scarred.

NOT THIS RUG

I know his intentions were good, and his reasoning was pretty solid too - but even so, not that one, not ever.

Having broached the subject of a replacement rug in quite a unique way, we started conversations about replacing the one that was already there. It was cream-based and past its best, by a long way, I knew that and even a shampoo didn’t really help it. It was time to replace it - we were agreed - but I still really wasn’t keen on his tactics, or the actual rug. But anyway, there wasn’t going to be a new rug in the house until the offending one left, never to return.

And it went. And stayed went.

I’d been browsing websites looking at many, many rugs. He wanted a rug that didn’t show the dirt, I wanted one that wasn’t too dark and would lift the space. We looked, and became experts on the many, many rug sizes; measuring the floor to see where it might go - and finally we settled on this distressed Kamran Cayenne Red Rug from Ruggable. So while it’s lighter than MOH wanted, and the most traditional style I’ve ever chosen - the fact that it is washable is in its favour.

It’s a two part system - the top that you can see, which is light and flexible and a sturdier ‘under rug’ pad - which really acts like a large piece of velcro. There’s a knack to pairing them, and the video makes it look simple - it took me longer than I thought it would, and while I’m particularly fussy it took me a couple of attempts to get it matched with the overhang even - or at least with the pad not showing.

And before you make the same comment as MOH, yes it’s distressed and yes it’s meant to look like that. I know that I’m in for this conversation many times over with MOH, but you know it never gets old…

It’s a much bigger rug than we’ve had in this space before, and MOH is pleased he can put his feet on the rug, rather than on the wooden floor. He said walking on it feels ‘crunchy’ and that may settle down I guess. He’s already identified a potential downside of having a larger rug, and that’s it could be easier to spill things on - just as well it’s washable, hey?!

It looks pretty good, I think - and MOH agrees, which is just as well as I’m hoping we’ll get many years use out of this rug - and hopefully our next rug purchase, whenever that might be, will be less traumatic all round.

Love this #71: A new Impressionist rug from My Rug Store

When My Rug Store got in touch I was intrigued. I'd not bought a rug online before, and if I'm honest I wasn't sure how it would work out. But after spending a couple of evenings on their site I knew I'd be choosing a rug to try at home, the only problem was, which one?!

There was - and is - lots of choice. I contemplated a rug for the landing outside our bedroom to replace the one we have there, but it's an odd size and the more I looked, the more I realised I'm quite attached to our charity shop find. So then I wondered about a rug for our main living space.

I've written before about how we have wooden floors throughout downstairs and I really do think that, as lovely as they are, they need a rug. We've had a variety of rugs by the sofas in an attempt to zone the room. It started with the large rug that MOH had in his flat, a beautiful rug but too big for the space. For a while that lived in the conservatory but found its long-term home when we redecorated our spare room last year.

Then there was a beige patterned rug with a ribbon pattern. A nice rug but it looked better in our top spare bedroom so after a while we moved it there. It also made way for the shaggy red rug which has probably lasted the longest in the space, until now.  The shaggy red rug (you can see it playing a supporting role in this post) is currently lodging in our bedroom, but looking for a longer term home.

It's been displaced you see. By a brand new rug. 

The one that every time I looked at the My Rug Store site, I kept coming back to. And so, that had to be the one, right? It was a little larger than our previous rugs (apart from the huge one that's now under the futon), but at 120cm x 70cm it's actually the perfect size and a size I wish we'd tried much sooner. It fills the space between our right angled sofas - and yes, at the moment they don't match, we got rid of the uncomfortable 3-seater sofa at the start of the summer and are using a garden sofa until we get its permanent replacement.

So let's take a look.

You can see why it's called an Impressionist rug now can't you?

And yes, it's cream. That's partly why I ummed and ahhed because, well because you know, cream. In my main living space with push bikes coming through and our muddy gardeners feet too. Thankfully though it's easy to move - and fits right under our grey sofa when we need it too, giving us a clear pathway through.

The pattern reminded me of the modern abstract picture we have on the wall. It's actually nothing like it, as you can see below, but there was just something about this rug. Perhaps it was the colours - there's every colour we have in our house in this rug. And I like that. I hoped it would help tie everything together.

And I think it has, my sister-in-law commented that it lifts the living space and links the seating area with the dining area. And I think she's right. Having the cream based rug in our main living space really links through to our white table. And I think it helps that I have the yellow end of the rug nearest to the yellow chairs, sometimes it really is the small things isn't it?

Part of the attraction to me is how the colours look like brush strokes that have been painted, with fading edges. And close up it works too, the edging bound with the same cream colour provides a great non-fussy border. No tassels or fringing on this rug, and it's all the better for it.

The rug itself is a sisley and is 100% polypropylene and I wasn't sure what this would be like. I needn't have worried though as the rug feels luxurious and not cheap or "plastic" at all. It's the first time I've ordered a rug online, and it's definitely something I'd do again.

Already I'm loving this rug, if this is your style of rug there are a few other designs in the Impressionist rug range, so do pop over and take a look. And to be honest, there's a huge choice on their site, so even if these aren't your thing I bet there's something that is.

We're still in the new phase of having this rug. And especially as it's cream we've been avoiding walking on it with our shoes on and it's either been moved out of the way when our bikes come through, or MOH carries his lightweight bike over it. So you can just imagine my surprise when I saw this Saturday morning!

Hmnnn...

Although later in the day I didn't have a leg to stand on, as I managed to knock a full cup of tea onto the floor. Luckily only some of it splashed onto the rug and I was able to blot those off with no lasting tea-stained effects. Phew. And for me that's the sign of a good rug - and as a clumsy owner, that's a very good thing!

Disclaimer: I received a rug for the purposes of this review. All words and opinions are my own.