The dining room comes full circle.

Since we started putting down hardwood floors, I have been on the lookout for area rugs for the dining room and the living room. I've been trying to prepare Jeremy, too, by mentioning how expensive rugs are when we talk about the flooring project. But, "expensive" is relative. He'll probably think I mean like $150. That's the low end. As a matter of fact, that would probably be a steal.

I would be interested in wool, and something that can be spot cleaned easily. Also, I'm not big on the traditional-looking rugs. Not too much floral, either. I'm not afraid of a busy pattern, since the rest of the room has clean lines. It has to be mostly brown, off-white, green and a bit of blue. That's a tall order.

Target has some nice ones, actually, at reasonable prices. And with free shipping and 15% off orders over $125, that's not to shabby. This is one of the rugs I'm thinking about. And, at $199 for a 5x7' rug, it's really not a bad deal.

I like the Dwell Studio rugs, too. They look kinda modern to me, but not over the top. That's probably good since I don't want my house to look like a time capsule house from the late sixties, just heavily influenced by mid-centry modern. Here's another one similar to the first that I like.

Then, this morning, I get an email about Layla Grace. I'm not familiar with this company, but at first glance, it looks a little to "girly" for me. But something in the email mentioned Amy Butler rugs. I LOVE Amy Butler fabric--and I don't really care for floral prints. That's saying a lot. It feels a little bit bohemian to me, but depending on how you worked it into a room, it could fit with a lot of styles--romantic, modern, Southern.

As a matter of fact, I matched the paint I picked out for the dining room to some Amy Butler fabric I wanted to buy to make curtains out of. Well, I should have pulled the trigger and bought the fabric when I first saw it on Reprodepot.com. When I went back, it was sold out. I even tried ebay, but there were only small pieces of it available.

I gasped out loud when I saw the pattern again--this time as a rug.

Sadly, when I couldn't get the fabric, I moved on with my plans for the dining room. Instead of pink, there are hints of blues from the plates hanging on either side of the window. So, I won't be buying this rug. But, I think it's meant to be that I buy one of these. Only problem is they are substantially more than the Target rugs--$676 for a 5x7' rug.