She Needs Multiple Area Rugs That Coordinate!

Dear Laurel,

I’m a little hesitant to write you because what you’re about to see will probably confuse you. But, let me preface this:

Okay, I’m going to show it to you, and please, no judging.

 

Laurel, I know. I know. Holy Parthenon is right!

 

We affectionately call it Tara, lol.

 

But, please be rest assured no slave-owning plantation owner ever lived here. The home is in Ohio and was built in 1984 in the Greek Revival Style. Yes, Greek Revival on steroids. If only those heavy Corinthian capitals were of the Doric order, and there were less of them. But, they’re not, and changing them would be prohibitively expensive.

Did we buy this place? No, Laurel. We inherited it. However, the maintenance alone, plus taxes, is akin to any mortgage we could afford.

 

Sadly, my husband’s parents have both passed on, and my his siblings live in New York and California.

 

My husband’s mom was obsessed with Gone With The Wind. Ya think? So, when they were in their mid-40s, they built this place.

Incidentally, my husband, Rhett, is one of four children. Melanie, Ashley, Scarlett, and Rhett. Yes, Laurel, I know. It’s hilarious. Rhett was a baby when they built this place. So, this is where he was raised. You truly can’t make this up! However, the last name is not “O’Hara.” It’s Broadloom.

 

Please make no mistake, I’m grateful for this gift and will enjoy it for as long as possible.

 

In the meantime, please check out the floor plan.

 

It’s a four-square plan with a center atrium AND a staircase. Please also know that the interior is lovely, with gorgeous floor-to-ceiling windows and architectural detailing.

 

However, we’re starting from scratch, except I have no idea where to begin decorating this place.

 

In addition, I don’t know how to put together multiple area rugs that coordinate. They can all be seen from each other, except for the family room. How did my in-laws do it? That’s an excellent question, Laurel.

Well, they had the same Karastan rug in every room and the coordinating stair runner. Yes, it was kind of boring.

 

The stair runner is still there.

 

We had an estate sale to get rid of everything else we didn’t want, which was about 90% of what they had. Believe me; you would’ve agreed with our decision to divest of the 20th-century versions of “traditional” furnishings.

 

The stair runner would be okay, I guess, but it’s at least 35 years old and starting to fall apart.

 

I’m hoping you can do a blog post about this. I know that other people have a similar floor plan. And many with entirely open floor plans require multiple area rugs that coordinate.

By the way, I loved your Furlow Gatewood post. Is it my imagination, or did you add more items to the widgets? They are beautiful, Laurel.

Thank you,

Ceci Broadloom

 

***

 

Okay, Ceci’s issue is not uncommon. However, she got one thing wrong. You can make this sh*t up. Or, at least, I can. And yes, I congratulated myself on my widgets. :] By the way, I did add to them if you’d like to see more in the Furlow Gatewood tribute or missed the post.

Getting back to virtual “real life.” ;] I have to say that finding multiple rugs that coordinate is one of my favorite problems.

But, Ceci hit on one solution for coordinating area rugs when she said she loved Furlow Gatewood’s work. Okay, then, by looking at the two blog posts, one can see what he did and decorated in the manner of.

 

First of all, Furlow does not put rugs down in every space.

 

He has some sort of natural fiber, neutral rug in the two front parlors of most, if not all, of his homes.

That’s all. Repeating a plain natural fiber rug isn’t boring. It provides continuity between two adjacent rooms. These rugs act as a backdrop. They are there utilitarian, not decorative. Furlow’s star of the show is the dramatic architecture.

The supporting players are the gorgeous antique furnishings and collections. If we repeated a big patterned rug in each room, it would compete too much with the rest of the stars. You could do a smaller Oriental rug over the sisal.

In the dining rooms, he does not use a rug. Instead, he does an interesting floor.

 

For the staircase runner, he does nothing.

 

Can you do that, Laurel? Isn’t it dangerous?

 

Everything is dangerous. We lived in a three-story home, counting the basement level where the garage was. There wasn’t carpeting on any of the steps. Nobody, including Peaches, ever hurt themselves on these stairs.

A couple of times, I tripped going UP the stairs because I’m a klutz. Maybe I got a small bruise; I don’t remember. But, I do remember falling on my parent’s stairs with nylon broadloom. Now THAT is slippery.

 

Look, anyone can fall anytime and for 100 reasons. I loved not having a runner because it was a LOT easier to keep the steps clean.

 

So, one option would be to do the same natural fiber rug in each room with a fabric binding. Or, it could be coordinating natural fiber rugs. Those are terrific when you need multiple area rugs that coordinate.

 

If Ceci wanted a runner on the steps, she could choose a natural fiber that works well and stairs.

We need to move on with other ideas. While this one might appeal to many of you, it might not work for everyone.

 

Let’s say we want some Oriental rugs, but we don’t want them all matchy-matchy.

 

And, we don’t want them to clash, either.

Here’s the thing. It’s not just the rugs you’ll be seeing from each room, but the wall colors and the furniture and windows! Yikes, I know.

I think the best way to approach it is to consider the four rooms as ONE. It’s not that you need to do matching furniture. It’s more the idea that if you needed extra chairs in the living room, you could pull up a couple from the dining room, and they would look like they belong.

 

First, we need to think about colors.

 

This post I shared last week has Furlow Gatewood’s basic paint and color palette.

It is mainly gray, blue, white, brown, beige, black, and burgundy red. Occasionally, there’s some green or teal.

 

 

Furlow’s colors are the perfect companion to the antiques he collected. And, they happen to be the colors in classic Persian rugs.

The thing about these rugs is that the patterns generally coordinate. But, some are more blue, red, or more cream.

Is there anything else?

Mark D. Sikes Southern Living Show House

We could look at Mark D. Sikes and keep everything very neutral.

 

 

OR, just blue and white. Although, there is no “just.” Blue and white need plenty of warmth to make it not look cold.

 

There is one more scheme I’d like to look at, which is taking the exceedingly popular Oushak reproduction rugs and working on a scheme with them. At the same time, they could have saturated colors. And, in fact, some of the “modern Oushaks,” they call them, are quite bright; most Oushaks have softer colors. They could be blues, grays, salmon, or green. Or, a rug like the McGraths did.

 

I think the best way to go about this is to find one rug that you love and then figure out the rest off of that one rug.

 

One thing about neutral natural fiber rugs is that they don’t tie you into a particular color scheme.

So, where to go for your five or six rugs that coordinate?

Okay, it would be great to have one-stop shopping. And, that is possible with some brands such as Wayfair, Pottery Barn, and others.

Another great company for basics is Dash and Albert, as mentioned in the post about stair runners. What I love about them is that they spell out whether a product is suitable for steps. Also, they have a sample program. No guessing!

 

Okay, I’ve taken a classic scheme of warm reds, blues, beiges, & creams in various levels of intensity and variations.

 

Please know I could sit here every day for ten hours from now until the end of the year, coming up with beautiful combinations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you notice something? Most, if not all, of these, are pretty much mix however you like.

Below I made some more widgets for fun.

 

 

 

 

The last two widgets are runners only.

 

 

 

Some of you may not know this; a stair runner can be fabricated out of almost any carpet. Or, it can be created from multiple floor runners.

 

The runner gets pieced together. However, always buy the same rug. For example, don’t get two rugs that are 30″ x 108″ and another runner that’s 30″ x 144″. The reason is the looms might be slightly different.

If there’s a border you don’t want on the ends, you can just cut it off.

This designer left it on when she used this handsome Dash and Albert rug on her staircase.

 

@hilltown_house on Instagram

Kota Indigo wool rug stair runner from Dash and Albert

 

One last thing I want to say is this.

 

If you’re curious about a product, Google it. For instance, is sisal a good fiber to put on stairs?

You may come up with a variety of opinions, but if the majority are negative, then I would probably stay away. OR, do the coffee and peanut butter test. You can substitute red wine for coffee if you like.

 

I hope you enjoyed this post about putting together multiple area rugs that coordinate.

 

Of course, I did not hit every color palette. I could do more, but that’ll have to be some other time.

xo,

 

PS: The Holiday Shop for 2022 is open!

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