Persian style rugs at Ikea. Yes. Ikea.

My Mom has been searching for two carpets for her master bedroom for over a year. If anyone has tried to find the perfect rug for a home - you'll appreciate the frustration in trying to find one.  It took me three years to decide on one for our living room and even then, I ended up going custom.  Mom wasn't looking for broadloom, but instead a persian - It ties in with the rest of her decor and would give a beautiful warmth that the room was needing.

We went to Elte back in April, and although there were many gorgeous rugs- the prices were sad to say, way out of budget. Mom had already decorated her entire home, and is at a point where the bedroom she doesn't want to spend a great deal on it - but at the same time, the rug had to fit with the rest of the house and style. Rugs - especially persian rugs, are just right off the bat expensive. But I kid you not when some rugs are over ten thousand dollars. We found some online or at consignment stores but the trouble is we're pretty particular with colour - rugs can change depending on a room, lighting, and whether you're looking at it straight on, or lying down. I founds a few awesome ones on sites like Etsy* like the ones below - but it was pretty hard for Mom to commit if she couldn't return one...

For this room we stayed away from rugs that were final sale or online finds. Which kind of cuts out a lot of rugs. But I thought I'd point out the ones above because the prices are ridiculously good. I've debated purchasing a few ones that I've seen on Etsy, but we don't really have that disposable income to take chances with. (And I'm so picky with colour)

Fast forward to last week, and Kay posted a picture of a beautiful rug that looked like a Persian rug on Instagram and when I asked where she had gotten it she said Ikea. (That was the last place I expected her to say) Mom and I scooted over to Ikea to look at their rugs and found one that was pretty gorgeous. Priced at $1,000 it's not inexpensive (especially for Ikea!) but it's one of a kind, and - reasonable for the size. If you've ever searched for Persian rugs you'll know that the price actually was pretty fair. So, we wrapped it up and brought it home and Mom seemed happy enough with it. (You can see some of the Ikea pricing on their rugs on this page)

The trouble was, Mom needed a second rug to coordinate with the one from Ikea. In her bedroom you take a few steps down to a dressing room that is off her bathroom. (She is a lucky lady). So we needed two rugs that would work together as both are visible at the same time. They didn't need to match but they did need to work together. So the hunt was officially on for a second. A few days after the Ikea purchase, Mom randomly went to a little carpet store at Yonge and Lawrence and found not one, but two carpets that were contenders that could have worked with the Ikea one. However, once we got the two carpets into the bedroom, it was obvious that they were way nicer in her room than the Ikea. So my brother and I rolled up the Ikea one and put it back in the car and these two are now hers.... Sooooo jealous.

The two winning carpets from Eclectic Home (Toronto shop)

As you can see the two rugs she went for are totally different but work together. They look like they have been there all along and add a gorgeous warmth to the room. I'm a firm believer that sometimes you do have to splurge on the right pieces - I would say that about our kitchen countertop (I have yet to regret paying more for quartz after seeing red wine spills and strawberries left out - and yet no staining!) and also for us, having gone custom. Mom did the same thing - she waited and had a set budget on what she would spend. Anyhow, I thought because of the varying sources of rugs, others may enjoy this shopping experience and the few tips on where to find rugs.

No. 1 Custom Rug - See our carpet that we had made in this post
No. 2 Ikea - Check out their rug department for the oriental rugs
No. 3 Etsy - If you can stomach not being able to return something, the prices on some rugs pretty awesome
No. 4. Eclectic Home, 3275 Yonge St., 416-322-0080. Mom dealt with Mostafa Tehrani and he was very helpful!

*Affiliate Link 

I thought I'd give some tips from my experience ordering a custom rug. The whole process really is quite simple, but I did a lot of research and a lot of careful consideration prior to ordering.

Before anything I calculated the distance from the wall that the carpet would be by googling "How far should an area carpet be from the wall". This led me to a lot of pages including Apartment Therapys helpful post on the proper distance for spacing things. Most rules said that 12" - 18" was the proper spacing from wall to carpet. But when I measured that out, it felt that the carpet was going to look like a postage stamp. So I decided to leave 9" between wall and where the carpet would start.

More photos and some tips after the jump, if ordering a custom rug is something you're considering.
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I made some major progress on decorating the living room. Although I still have a ways to go before I can do a full "Before & After" -- I feel like this room has found its groove. Between adding a new area carpet, hanging some art, and a new blank canvas (that is going to be painted to replace my old painting) things are finally finding homes, and the room is feeling warm and cozy.

The biggest investment in the update was the rug. A decision, and a search that has taken 3+ years.  Why did it take me so long to decide on a rug? Our room is an awkward size and standard rug sizes meant I was either getting one that was too small, or too large. After measuring the perfect size it turned out we needed essentially a 9ft x 9.5ft carpet and after 3+ years came to the conclusion we just needed to go custom. Custom always terrifies me because it can't be returned. (and is generally more expensive)

Because I'm a creature of habit,  I picked the exact same stripe wool carpet that is on our stairs. It's perfect. It's not inexpensive but it can come with us should we move, and it can be cut and bound to a new size in another house - which means it has a longer life span. I also picked it because of the durability. Within 24 hours of having it, Mak (the Cat) barfed on it. Because it is wool it cleaned up easily (but it also helped that I had this).  The stripes mean that it has some style, but is classic and doesn't compete against everything else in the room.

The artwork is a mix, which I will go into another day - but I just wanted to post the updates.

xo Linds

Ps., The gallery wall hanging took me 4 hours. I'm not kidding you. It was the most stressful experience of decorating to date.
Pps., Yes - the blank canvas is resting on water glasses. I did this to envision placement of art. Don't judge.

If you've been a long time reader you'll know that I've been incredibly indecisive about a living room rug. I've been writing about my search for the perfect carpet for the room like as in this post, this post and this post. In June it was my birthday and I was gifted a little bit of money. I decided  that instead of spending it on little things here and there - I was going to to put it towards finally purchasing a carpet. I need to clean up the living room a little more before shooting the "reveal" photos of what we went with. It only took 3.5 years of searching.... ;)