Argh! The hideous floral carpet of doom!

[hawkeyes_girl]

Hi all,

I am soon moving into my grandma's house. Problem is I don't really have any money for decorating. I have brownish colored furniture and nice off white walls in the living room. I however hate patterns that are strong and in the room is a geometric floral rug that is mostly tan but has red roses and leaves all over it. And not pretty ones either. It's actually a good quality carpet with padding underneath but

1. totally not my style
2. I feel adds to the chaotic feeling in the room
3. is away from the wall a foot on all sides making the room seem smaller. (free floating, not tacked down. hardwood underneath in good shape).

It kinda looks like this but with a tan background:


Suggestions for what to do to make it more livable would be appreciated. Unfortunately, I love zen like things, solids and calm colors, want my living spaces calm. I am truly moving into an old lady house and it's driving me nuts.

Thanks for any help!

[edelC]

I reckon you should just do without the rug, we have just hardwood floors without rugs in our house, much better for allergies. If you wanted something, you could always paint/stencil a floor cloth, not as plushy and warm as carpet, but also not as dusty..and it does block any draughts that come from between the floor boards. this article tells you how

http://www.google.ie/search?q=making+a+floor+cloth&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a  it says to use canvas, but basically any heavy weight cotton could be used. If you were really thrifty you could sew together old denim jeans and paint them....or felt sweaters and patchwork them together, with a backing of heavier cotton..

[Confuzzle]

I second the hardwood. You could always sell the big rug for a little bit of extra to help with redecorating elsewhere.

If you feel that you need to keep the big rug, could you possible either a) bleach out the colors to an acceptable shade, b) redye the whole thing to a better color, or c) "dampen" the color with some sort of coffee or tea stain?

[angeldawning]

I am with you all - hardwood rocks!