Fancy-schmancy Wall-to-wall Carpeting

My living room carpeting is toast.  History.  Garbage.

When we bought our house, it had white carpet everywhere.  We looked at each other, looked at our two small (3 years and 18 mos) children, looked at our two elderly Labradors and laughed.  We decided to leave the carpet in until we could stand it no farther.  Let the kids and the dogs ruin a carpet we don’t want anyway, we thought to ourselves, smug with the knowledge that we were very clever.

That was 2001.

For the first couple of years, we just put up with the mess.  But, finally, we broke down and got it cleaned.  We couldn’t live with the mess and couldn’t afford new carpeting.  The dot.com bust had a delayed reaction on our family finances and we were in serious recovery mode.  So, our annual carpet cleaning was a wonderful event.

Finally, however, last year, the carpet didn’t look much better after it was cleaned.  Nothing I can do about it, our friendly neighborhood carpet cleaner said.  This carpet is toast.  History.  Garbage.

Okay, he didn’t really say that.  But that’s what he meant.

So, this year, come hell or high water, we are replacing our carpet.  The dining room and most of the hallway are already replaced with the stunning bamboo flooring that you’ve seen grace these pages.  We love it and it loves us.  But our sunken living room, well, that needs carpet.  So . . . we picked out carpet.

Since Greg is “in the biz,” we went to a vendor he’s used for some of his clients (Greg is an architect, y’all, I know I’ve shared that . . . haven’t I?).  We took home samples and began the long process of picking out carpet.  This involved neighborhood children, my mother-in-law being told to pick  correctly or she’d get no food on Thanksgiving, and friend who dropped in to say hi.  Everyone had to have an opinion and pretty much, everyone chose correctly.  Meaning, of course, that they agreed with me.

This is what they picked:  Mohawk’s Wundaweve Highrise Retreat in Faux Fur.  It only seems appropriate, don’t you think?  After all, we live a highrise lifestyle here in Boulder Creek.  What with our cocktail parties and the doorman and all.

It’s pretty hard to tell from that swatch.  The carpet has a bold mid-century modern pattern.  (Designers these days are saying mid-century modern these days because it sounds infinitely better than 1950’s retro.) I fell in love with it at the store.  It’s really cool and you can’t get a good look at it from that swatch — the swatch is just to see the lovely “faux fur” color.  Dark but not too dark.  Below, you can see it in a room:

Nope, that’s not my living room.  Nor my bedroom.  If the carpet were in my bedroom, you would’t see the pattern as my bedroom is teeny-tiny and has a california king-sized bed in it.  All you see is bed.  Besides, I think the bamboo patterned comforter on that bed is really horrible with the bold mid-century modern pattern of the carpet.  Anyway, you can see the effect.

Greg has been calling his carpet guy for a week now with no response.  It’s a little scary.  We are entertaining on 12/23 and the old carpet must go.  I’d rather entertain on plywood than the old carpet that is in place.  It’s foul.  So, while my tree is up, my living room is undecorated because between now and the 23rd, I am planning to move all the furniture out of my living room into my ginormous entry way (aka The Lobby) and back again.  So, putting a layer of CHRISTMAS on top of all the furniture before moving it.  That makes no sense.  Hopefully, we are going to report carpet installation next week sometime.

But just to keep it real, we figure it’ll be installed on the 22nd.  We’ve already arranged for the kids to stay the night with Grandma so Greg and I can move furniture and decorate . . . with all the accompanying swearing and tears and not traumatize the kids!  🙂

Oh, Ruby had strong opinions about the carpet and definitely helped in the selection process.

To see what she decided on, check in tomorrow for Ruby Tuesday!

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