Young House Love

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Buying A Groovy Green Shag Rug

Yes, it’s yet another rambling rug post. What can I say- our old hardwood floors give us splinters (remember this episode when I got one in the badonkadonk while painting?). And rugs are definitely great building blocks for a room – so we lean towards introducing them on the early end whenever possible. And after dragging the ol’ 5 x 8′ yellow rug back out from the guest room for Clara to play on until we got a more appropriate sized rug for large & in charge Karl the Sectional, we finally found something that made us excited enough to whip out our credit card. Yup, we ordered this amazingly textured & bright rug for our living room from The O (yes I mean Overstock – I try to support those strange marketing campaigns where brands like Radio Shack try to relabel themselves as The Shack).

Overstock Rug Pic 1

It’s cushy and bold and happy-go-lucky and supersized (just like Big Karl). And it’s family friendly thanks to pure wool materials and the nice soft surface that it’ll create for crawling and sprawling out. The description actually cracks me up. Here’s part of it verbatim: “Trip out on pure, green hand-spun felted New Zealand wool.” Hilarious. We can’t wait to trip out on it. Plus the 5 star reviews about everything from how great the color is to how plush the shag texture is had me at hello (each tuft is apparently as thick as a crayon or a stalk of celery- yes please).

Overstock Rug 5 Stars

At $424.99 it’s not cheap. At all. At least by our standards. But most things that we hunted down in that large of a size (it’s 8 x 11′) in pure super-thick wool (which is always what we prefer in a casual used-all-the-time living room for reasons of softness, quality, and no nasty off-gassing) were usually in the $600-$1200 range. Like this similar shag from West Elm that’s smaller for $700. So something in the low 400’s with $2.95 shipping (can’t beat Overstock shipping) was actually pretty appealing. Especially since we recently sold our slipcovered sofa from our last living room on craigslist for $600. Our grand total for El Rug came to $427.95.

In the end we just didn’t want to spend $300 on a cheaper rug that we felt “meh” about instead of investing a bit more into something we’d – fingers crossed – love and use for a long time (the color seems like the perfect balance of brightness without being too light and stain-show-off-y). Plus we’re still embarrassingly giddy to have snagged an 8 x 10′ jute rug for the bedroom at under $250 so that sort of created a little imaginary rug credit towards this one in our heads. Psst- Weird. The O must have just raised the price. Here’s a link to the rug now on sale for $499.99, but you can see from our screengrab below that it was $424.99 when we ordered it.

Overstock Rug Listing 1

Now for the cleaning plan. Because we’re so not into high maintenance rugs. A friend of mine with three kids and a (giant) dog has a similar shaggy wool rug and she swears it holds up to stains and kiddos like nobody’s business. Crumbs, dirt, and dust supposedly come out with a quick vacuum so that’s definitely doable. And apparently you can subtly trim the long hairy tufts to “lift” a stain if anything catastrophic – like grape juice – happens. And it’s seemingly impossible to detect because I’ve stared at hers in search of the trimmed parts and can’t ever find anything.

As for how we chose the size, we just used green painters tape to tape out the dimensions on the floor of our 25 x 15′ living room to make sure it worked (should’ve snapped a pic of that- boo). And as for the color choice, it just felt like our dark sectional, pewter walls, and gray beams needed a nice bright rug to take the room for Cold Gray City to a Warmer And More Fun City. But we didn’t want something too light that would show off every “oops” moment that’s sure to occur over the next decade plus (thanks to one baby, one dog, and dreams of at least one more wee one of the human kind in a few years).

Now before we get any further I must declare that we’ll probably forever miss our too-small-for-the-sectional Favorite Rug Ever In The History Of The Universe (our old Moorish Tile Rug from Pottery Barn). Gray and yellow is such a sweet combination. We looked for other yellow rugs but they all seemed too thin or too light (or too expensive, therefore too precious for use) and we feared they just wouldn’t hold up to all that impending abuse.

ColorRibbas Horizon Straigh

But Old Yeller isn’t dying or anything. Because I totally couldn’t take that. Seriously. I love that rug like family. It’ll just be found hanging out in the guest room where it’s much more appropriately sized (a 5 x 8′ rug paired with a giant sectional like Karl in a cavernous 25′ long room just isn’t the best solution). Anyway, we can’t wait to meet Señor Shag-o when he arrives. Overstock is famous for fast shipping so we hope to share pics in a jiffy (wow, even typing that made me feel like my mom, who also says things like neato and dungarees).

Anyway, now that we have our living room rug pinned down (which will tie into our $5 art) we can start thinking about curtains and lamps for the console table that we’re planning to build for behind Karl. Plenty of light & dark gray + bold color + lots of texture + some pattern sounds like a good time to us. Have you guys ordered from The O lately?

 

Comments

  1. Katy says

    The next rug you start hunting for, I will TOTALLY help you guys out in the search for the ‘Find My Rug’ column I post! (that is if you want or need help). I LOVE the yellow/green color and you can’t go wrong with a low pile shag. Remember when you vacuum a shag to put the beater bar on ‘high’ or turn it off all together so it doesn’t yank any dang yarns out. But as your new rug has a pretty think yarns, it shouldn’t go anywhere and keep in it’s “bloom” state, as opposed to the shag yarns laying flat.

    I know, I know… I’m a total rug nerd.

    Reply

  2. Dana says

    I just ordered a rug from The O, it arrived last week and I am soooo disappointed!

    We move into a new house on Friday. I asked my 6 year old son what he wanted to do with his new room. His answer… a camouflage design on one wall, tan on the other 3 walls, white trim and then bright red for his bedding and dressers! After some thought, I decided that might look kind of cool, so that’s what we’re doing. I came across this rug on overstock http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Tweens-Camoflauge-Border-Rug-411-x-7/5040830/product.html that will tie the whole room together perfectly! Well when the rug arrived last week the bright red stripe in the picture is actually an orangey/pink. I’m so disappointed!! I’m debating what to do…I’m contemplating trying to dye the line myself. Ever dyed a rug before?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yeah! We’ve heard the main issue with Overstock rugs are the colors on screen (which can also vary depending on your monitor) so I always try to read reviews that say things like “the color is more of soft lime than a more muted avocado” etc). Such a bummer about the orangey pink stripe though! Maybe you can google rug paint or visit the craft store to see if there’s something you can do? We’ve seen a few people paint/stencil rugs and they came out pretty cool! Good luck.

      xo,
      s

    • KathyG says

      My hubs thinks I’m a little nuts, but I always go straight for the lowest ratings of an online product – I want to know what people are complaining about, not raves about it (although I read them too). I just want to see if what they don’t like is something I’ve thought of, or something that will bother me too. Reviews rock! I should be better at going back to put in my own two cents to help others. To all of you who do the reviews, I say a hearty TY.

  3. Monica says

    Let everyone know if the rug sheds bad. I used to have a similar green shag rug and my other half forced me to get rid of it since we it caused us to vacuum about every 3 days. I would love to be able to have another “shag” like rug!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I promise I will! The reviews seemed awesome (that it was thick and shaggy but didn’t shed like crazy, which was a surprise) but we’ll keep you guys posted!

      xo,
      s

    • Lyndsay @ Mr and Mrs says

      We actually found an 8×10 shag rug for our family room at HomeGoods for $49.00 and it has never shedded one single “shag”..which is what i was most worried about! Definitely depends on the rug :)

  4. Andrea says

    Fun color! Love that you guys are breaking out of the comfort zone – I’m enjoying decorating vicariously through you! And I have a soft spot for shaggy rugs, so I can’t wait to see it in action.

    Reply

  5. georgia says

    Love the colour of the rug, its so warm and screams HELLO! Lol

    Lurrrrve it :o)

    What is a console table I think I’m being a bit silly…. I don’t understand how it fits behind the sofa? I thought it was an end table but now I’m totally lost… Xx

    Reply

  6. Ashley says

    Okay this is on a TOTALLY unrelated note, but I just clicked over to Clara’s weekly photos and week 43 has me totally dying here. How stinkin cute is that? It looks like she is in a Burger type pose. lol

    Reply

  7. Collette Douglas says

    OMG! I literally JUST purchased my very first, very glamorous, very WOOL rug from the O.co YESTERDAY! We just moved into military housing, which is brand new, clean, crisp, and HUGE….and completely empty! We don’t have any carpet nor enough furniture to make things feel homey, so I knew our first critical purchase (I call it a design investment) would be a glorious, thick rug for our kiddos to crash on! I scored a suh-WEET deal on a 7×11 rug (a CANDICE OLSON!) for $400 flat–used a coupon from shopathome.com (my fave–better rebates by far than ebates), and I will even be getting over $20 back…so a fabulous new wool rug for $380! It is still an investment, because I feel like it can make or break any future design plans I may develop for that space…it gets the final “say” in curtain color, sofa color, etc etc etc…
    LOVE your choice! Felted wool is SO fun and soft, not to mention pretty (for you, Sherry, and the bean)! You guys tend to go more “bold” in your color combos than I would, but it always looks great!
    I am off to peruse PB–we are eyeing the Pearce sectional as our next big investment while it’s on sale! Even made an anniversary registry to get the 10% completion discount!!!

    Reply

  8. Renee says

    I bought a 5 x 7, sage wool rug from Overstock last year and I love it, but I noticed on two of the edges my vacuum has pulled the yarn up. Wah! (I think it’s the dogs chewing on the edge, but my boyfriend swears it’s the vacuum.)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh no! I’ve heard that there’s some sort of non-toxic non-staining spray that you can spray on something the dogs nibble on to make it taste bitter and keep them from chewing. Maybe that’ll help? Good luck!

      xo,
      s

  9. Sarah says

    I love Overstock! We are DIY remodeling our kitchen next week and we just received our new backsplash tile from them. 5 huge boxes of tile shipped for $2.95! Can’t beat that. It would have cost more in gas to go pick it up somewhere. It was beautifully shipped and we haven’t seen any cracked tiles. So fingers crossed that they’re all intact!
    Here’s a link to the tile: http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/SomerTile-Lantern-White-Glazed-Porcelain-Floor-and-Wall-Mosaic-Tile-Sheet-Pack-of-10/4798935/product.html.
    We’re going to install it with the pointy side up. I can’t wait!

    Reply

  12. Lindsey says

    I actually got rid of my high-pile rug when my daughter learned to crawl. She would just lay on her stomach and pick out every tiny piece of fuzz she could find to eat. Yuck! But this one looks quite a bit thicker than mine was, so it probably won’t have to problem of hiding things.

    Reply

  13. Lili says

    We JUST bought a brand spankin’ new duvet set from “the O”! I was actually VERY worried about it, since I have never bought bedding without feeling it, and I am big on the texture of it being soft… But all of the reviews for it were amazing, it said it was “sueded” finish, and it was PERFECTO! It is now sitting happily on our new bed!

    Reply

  16. Tina says

    I’ve ordered 3 sinks and 3 faucets from them. And a chair & 2 rings. Everything has been great so far. Their customer service is fantastic & their new o.co was offering free shipping for so long, maybe still are. But even at $2.95-it can’t be beat!

    Reply

  18. Lesley says

    Purchased a Jute Rug from O in January. We love it. It came within the week and shipping was SO CHEAP we couldn’t pass it up!

    Reply

  19. Mary B says

    Talk about thick wool rugs… my daughter and I bought a 5′ x 8′ rug from Crate and Barrel on sale, as is, for $100 for her dorm room. We didn’t realize until we got it in the room that, with the brighter lighting, the rug was VERY dirty from being a floor model. I figured the dry cleaner I work for could clean it. No way. It is cream (or gray ha ha) colored and very textural with waves of super thick pencil sized shaggy things. So… I tried to clean it with dry cleaner… never worked. So she took it anyway and it shed SO MUCH that it’s back here. I was trying it out in my craft room… too dirty. I rolled it back because I just hung some new curtains and lo and behold, my cat LOVES scooching and snagging the underside of it. PRESTO! Finally found a use for the rug! Maybe it’ll save my pleather sectional! Glad I finally found a use for it. Ha ha.

    Reply

  20. Lauren B. says

    Can’t wait to see the rug! Here’s random question…Do you have the yellow rosette pillows from Target in the guest room on the slipper chairs, or on Karl? Or do you have 2 sets and they are in both rooms? Just curious. Great site! Keep up the good work!
    Thanks,
    Lauren B.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Right now they’re back in the living room (they move with the rug, and since we stole that from the guest bedroom until our new area rug arrives, we figured we might as well take the pillows too). Haha. But they’ll end up back on those chairs in the guest room along with the yellow rug as soon as our new guy arrives!

      xo,
      s

  22. gloria says

    I LOVE the O!! Haha I have 4 rugs from there and countless others household items from overstock. Here’s a little bit of my living room rug in one of these pictures: http://alittlepaint.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/i-made-this-custom-shelving/
    Their prices just can’t be beat its an 8×11 thick pile wool for $380! My credit card has a shopping rewards program where I can get anywhere from 5 to 10 points back per dollar from certain stores. At the time I bought this, it was at 10 points so I got 10 percent back on my credit card and it adds up fast at overstock. It paid for my hotel in mexico for our 2nd anniversary!

    And I love the rug you picked out. I bet it would be so awesome in a bedroom too. My feet would be so happy!

    Reply

  23. Nadia says

    I’m totally into gray right now and saw a great duvet cover at West Elm with thick gray stripes for $80, plus $25 per sham. Of course I checked Overstock first “just to see” before taking the plunge on a $100+ purchase and voilà!!! A gray and white striped duvet, with great reviews, in King size for $36.99!!!! Woohoo!! Plus a friend of mine had given me a $25 gift card for Christmas that was seriously burning a hole in my pocket so for about $15 buckaroos, I got the entire King duvet set! Plus I love that the stripes go vertically on the duvet and horizontal on the shama so hopefully it will keep it from being too “matchy-matchy-tacky-tacky!” haha!

    Reply

  24. ginai says

    I love it!!! Green is myyyyyyy colour too! my favorite colour to be exact! your house is looking great! and you know, I LOVE all that ya’ll do!

    I was looking at Clara’s weekly pics, and noticed something…. ……… her latest pic, really looks soo ‘big girl’ in the other pics she just looks baby, but that last one looks big baby girll, I don’t know how to explain myself here.. but at any rate the girl is adorable and I still cant make up my mind who she looks like,… sometimes she is all Sherry… but then other times she is just all John!
    I know yesterday was Sunday and a ‘family’ day.. but I missed your post soo bad and had a slight withdrawal lol
    *hugs* to you and your beautiful family.
    ginai

    Reply

    • Lauren @ chezerbey says

      I think it is the same! Ours is the “gold” color which reads more of an ochre/dark mustard in real life. I did hear several comments and read a few reviews about the shedding, but in the end we got it anyways because the shedding is supposedly short term. We’ve had it for a month or so and while it does shed, it’s not out-of-control (for better or worse, the fiber color is similar to our dog’s fur so it’s hard to tell what’s what). Also, I vacuum it like normal (we have a small Dyson) and it works fine, in fact, it kinda “perks up” the tufts where they’ve been matted down by people walking on them, etc.

  27. Julie C. says

    Hi,

    Just wanted to echo the ‘wool is magic’ comment. We have 2 boys, a dog & a cat and wool carpets are the only thing that stand up to all that abuse! They are easy to clean and I love the fact that they are natural – none of that articifical stuff. Although we do have some Flor rugs as well – another great option when you have kids & pets. The rug looks gorgeous. Can’t wait to see it in action!

    Reply

  28. Kristina M says

    Love it! Do you happen to use any of the sites that give you cash back on your purchases like ebates or any of the others? It’s a great way to get that price down even more!

    Reply

  29. K (Barking Babymama) says

    We have an 8×10 wool rug in our living room that we got when our little man started moving around – we’ve had it a little over a year now and love it! I have trimmed it many times when parts of the design come unraveled, and you can’t tell at all. The best part is watching my 21-month-old son romp around on it and thump his head on the ground and see him not even react because the rug is so plush and easy to play on :) Enjoy yours – I absolutely LOVE it! (My kitchen is that color green and I have that color green accents throughout rest of the house too, such a happy color!)

    Reply

  30. Kathleen says

    Hey there,
    I don’t know if you ever thought of this, but you can go to a carpet store and buy any size remnant for very cheap and then get it bound on the sides, so it’s like a real rug. They usually have a very large selection.

    Reply

  31. karen says

    Okay okay…I’m going to sound like the annoying grandparent now (i’m 32 years old)….have your babies closer together!! It’s harder at first but then you get it all out of the way. Plus you guys make the cutest most expressive offspring.
    My kids are 2 years nine months apart and i wish they were closer in age. Just from one mom to another.

    Really like that rug..it looks like it would be very cozy on the feet!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I actually had a really severe complication with Clara so it’s doctors orders to wait 2 full years before becoming prego again to heal up nice and strong – which means they’ll probably be around 3 years apart since it takes a while to cook one. Haha. But it’s not so bad – that’s the distance between me and my younger brother and John and his younger sister- and we’re pretty happy families. Haha.

      xo,
      s

  33. Allyn says

    Our wedding colors are gray and yellow! It started out as the direction I wanted to take for our new bedding, and and carried into wedding planning as well. LOVE IT!

    Reply

  35. erin pearce says

    i love your rug! and your color scheme is very similar to the one ive been working towards in my living room (very slowly lol) dark flooring, light gray, walls, turquoise, teal, lime green accent colors.

    also, do you guys know about the site oohmoon.com? katie moon (i’m not affiliated with her, just love this site) posts a new childrens illustration everyday, then after midnight you can purchase the illustration and a new free one is posted! i check it EVERYDAY, this is how i will be filling my babys walls! today she is starting a series of numbers!

    Reply

  36. erin pearce says

    oh and we purchased the tabouret counter stools in black from the o (knock off tolix marais stools) and i loooooove them! such an awesome price, they are durable and stylish, and shipped very fast, in great condition!

    Reply

  38. Michele says

    We have a shaggy rug as well and while it does vacuum up nicely, I do occasionally find things hiding in the pile like goldfish crackers and Lego pieces. Actually, more than occasionally : )

    FYI, If you ever have a little boy, they seem to be making Lego pieces smaller and smaller…you’ll be finding them in odd places for the rest of your life. Kind of like Christmas tree needles…

    Reply

  39. Katrina says

    Oh how i love shopping at overstock!! Yes you can’t beat that shipping! lol — The last thing I order from them was a pretty light fixture for our sons nursery!

    Wow – I can’t wait to see this run in your living room, what a fun shade!!

    Reply

  41. Rachael says

    I love those big cushy rugs! Every time I make my way into Crate and Barrel, I make sure to find the biggest one and tromp around for it for a few minutes, or at least until one of the sales people figures me out. :)

    I have often wondered about how to keep them clean also. I’ll be curious for an update on whether getting crumbs up is an easy feat or not!

    Reply

  42. Jason says

    I have a white wool shag – my only thing is you can’t vaccuum per the care instructions(and it’s also obvious) with the beater bar on and so stuff tends to not come out of it all the time – and using the wand to dig around in there is annoying. I want to get something shaggy that can be vaccuumed easily and thoroughly. But, on the other hand it’s a flokati so I can and have taken it to the laundr-o-mat giant commercial washer and it turns out great. I also take it outside with a friend and shake it. It’s from crate and barrel 40 bucks on craigslist, of course I gave them 30! So if you see a used flokati for sale remember you can wash them, otherwise I think I’d be grossed out.

    Any suggestions on (beater bar on) vacuumable shag – or is there no such thing? Then I’ll move the flokati to another room.

    Reply

  43. Liz says

    I love Overstock. I’ve bought a lot of things including furniture from “the O”. I’m currently looking for a rug for our family room. Looking at 9×12-ish size though for a reasonable price, yikes!

    Reply

  44. caligurl says

    great rug!!!! (i hope you used a 10% coupon… they’re always available.. they have a bunch on their facebook page right now!!)

    the little “crayon fingers” remind me of the bedside rugs we have in our bedrom! soft and cushy!!!!

    Reply

  45. carolinaheartstrings says

    That is going to make a great mate for Karl. Luv luv luv the color. I have ordered many things from the big O (Overstock that is) and have never been disappointed. From freshwater pearls to lamps they always come through!!!!

    Reply

  46. Haley says

    Overstock Auctions is fantastic! I just bought a 28 pc stainless steel cookware set for $100, free shipping! Score!

    Congratulations on the new rug! I hope it is all that you want and more!

    Reply

  47. Linda says

    I actually just bought some crib bedding from The O for less than half the cost from other places like Amazon. I also snagged a coupon code and scored free shipping and $10 off. I know you’ve been into coupons lately, so did you try to find one for your purchase of this rug?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I don’t know what I was thinking but I totally spaced. Duh! Oh well, there’s always next time right? I meant to use eBates too and I forgot about that also. Boo!

      xo,
      s

  50. Gaidig says

    Personally, I am really surprised that the rug is handspun, and I think it’s an amazing price, considering that. It’s really unusual to find handspun yarn in commercial products these days. As a spinner, I’m really surprised that you’d find it in a mass-market rug.

    I love wool, too. It’s wicking properties are fabulous. It really doesn’t hold onto smells, unlike many synthetics. The fact that the yarn used in the rug is lightly felted should prevent any unraveling, etc.

    Reply

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