Our little angel is starting to be much more mobile. It is so fun and adorable and makes me cry all at the same time. It really makes me realize how quickly he is growing up! Everyone says that to you when your child is first born and it is so annoying. And then, you wake up one morning and you have an 8-month-old child! And you realize that everyone was right. Ugh. I hate it when others are right, and not me. What does this have to do with my house, a lot really.
Our house is 120+ years-old. It is an old Victorian and it is really pretty. The only problem is that, keeping with the Victorian style, the rooms are fairly small. We have 4 main rooms on our first floor that were original to the house (the bathroom and mud room were added many years later). The four rooms are the foyer, the dining room, the living room, and kitchen. And the foyer is almost the same size as the dining room. Kinda strange and a little hard to explain. We realized that our mobile child is really lacking a space to move and roll and practice crawling. We spend a lot of time in our living room. It is where the TV resides, it is right next to the kitchen, it is the hub of the house. So, we looked to this room and tried to decide what changes could be made to give our little tyke the room he so desperately needs. Here is the room now :
The above picture is taken from the dining room, looking into the living room.
The above picture is taken from inside of the living room looking at the right side of the room. On the far right side of this photo is the door to the dining room.
So, as you can see, the only open space is in between the coffee table and the TV. It is about 8 feet. And while that seems like a lot, for our guy, it isn't enough. It was plenty when he was just laying there, or rolling only once from front to back. But, not so much now. So, we had some decisions to make. We had to decide if there was anything that could go. We both figured out quickly, that we could eliminate the coffee table with minimum impact. That would give us an additional 4 feet between the couch and TV. That seems to be pretty good.
Problem solved, right? Not totally. Can you see that the rug in the room does not go all the way to the couch? That doesn't really solve our problem. We don't want the baby to be able to bang his head on the floor if he falls. What's a girl to do? Buy a new rug, of course! I have been searching for a new rug for months now. Since before Christmas. Probably around Thanksgiving. Part of our problem is that we don't have a vehicle to get a rug from any location to the house. Especially a large one. And we needed something that is at least 8 x 10.
I looked on the internets as well. But the shipping charges were outrageous! So, I kept looking and looking and not finding anything I fell in love with. I wanted something large, with either some color or texture, and I wanted a graphic pattern. We a neutral couch with some multi-colored pillows. The pillows I have had for years. We are slowly making changes to the pillows. Here is what we have going on :
We are keeping the 2nd from the left, chevron, and the larger pillow in the back.
Here we are only keeping the chevron pillow. I love the first and last pillows, but they have buttons and that is a no-no with little babies that like to put everything in their mouths.
That is kind of the color pallet we are working with. Not sure if it completely comes through in these terribly edited photos (I am being super lazy). But as you should be able to tell, the rug does not match anything else. Here's a close up on it :
Obviously we won't be sad when this is no longer in this room. It will be relocated to another location sometime. Not sure where, or when. That is a problem for another post.
OK, back to my rug search. I really was getting annoyed at not finding anything. I didn't want to spend $1000 or more on a rug that would end up covered in dog hair, spit up, and most likely cereal, chips, or whatever else the hubs and I are munching on while watching the boob tube. I was hoping to keep it under $500. But, I was having serious doubts that it was possible.
Until... I get daily emails from One Kings Lane, The Foundary, Rue La La, Ideeli, and Gilt. OKL and the Foundary are both exclusively home decor items on sale. But Rue La La, Ideeli and Gilt all have a home portion to their sales. I have been scouring these sites. Then, I found this from the Foundary :
This pic is from my phone... I know, totally ghetto!
This was pretty perfect for us! It is 8 x 10, thick enough to cushion my baby's bum, durable, graphic print, and, drum roll.... TOTAL WITH SHIPPING $327!!! Can you believe it?!?! It is feminine with the flowers, but I think the graphic design really offsets this. Maybe not, but that is what I told the husband to get him on board. And what makes this even better?? It is going to be delivered tomorrow! Woo Hoo! I ordered it last Wednesday and it will be here tomorrow. This totally rocks my socks!
I still plan to make/buy some new pillows. We are thinking that some large floor pillows are needed for sure because we do spend a lot of time on the floor. It would be nice to have something soft on which to set our tooshies! I am still searching for some fabric that I like. We checked out Joann's fabrics on Friday, but I didn't find anything (not $50 / yard) that I wanted to buy. So, off to the internets I go! I will keep you all posted on this. Now that I have a sewing machine, I can make my own. (This thing is not just for making matching mother-son outfits!! - just kidding, honey... sort of).
I will post the pics tomorrow (or when we finally get it on the floor) of the new rug in position. I am so happy I could almost scream! But I won't because the baby is sleeping. Such an angel.
Here are 2 pictures of proof that my child needs more than our small 5 x 7 rug to play on. He crawled over to his bouncy chair next to the dog bed. I need to broaden his horizons for sure.
Gosh, I LOVE this kid! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!
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