Rug Love

I have a list.

In fact, I have many lists.......I'm a regular list freak.

I have a list of  house projects that we want to do, but have to save our money for. ( It's scarily long!)
I have a list of things that I'm looking for when I go to flea markets or junking at thrift stores, or go browsing at antique stores and shows.
I have a list of what I want to accomplish during the week.
I have a list of books that I read about which sounded interesting and want to get at the library.
I usually have a grocery list floating around too.
Most of these lists reside in a pocket calender that is in my purse, so I always have them readily available.

One of the things that has been on my "want list" for just about forever is a big Oriental or Persian-style rug for the parlour.

LOVE big rugs.......
LOVE that they are so gorgeous and are like art work.
HATE how expensive a really nice one is.
HATE that I had no wealthy ancestors that convienently left me one in their will.


But, now I have my very own rug to love, at last!!

Oooo-la-la!

We were very lucky to get it for the price we did. It's an authentic, hand-knotted Pakastani rug, made of  100% virgin wool. It has some crazy number of knots per square inch; like 224 knots per square inch, so the weaving is very fine and high quality. I had some money saved that I was going to use to buy something from the "want list"; Erik and I went to an antique show last weekend and considered several other things from the want list (a set of c.1830s black transferware cups and saucers, a silver and crystal double pickle castor, a pair of c.1840s large white Staffordshire dogs among other things). In the end, we didn't buy anything and I said to Erik, "I'd like to maybe look at rugs instead." By chance we walked into the rug gallery of a fine furnishings store, which also happened to be having a sale....and found this beauty!

It was like it was meant to be!! The colors were exactly what I wanted and I loved the pattern, which we were told is a William Morris pattern. Apparently, the master weaver who designed this rug (and a number of others we saw in the gallery) has won many weaving design awards (apparently, there are awards for this kind of thing!). The rugs are made in small villages in Pakistan by hand. It even comes with a certificate of authenticity.

 Luckily, with the sale price, (plus an additional 15% off because the rug guy liked us and we had just missed a "15% off the sale price" sale that had ended two days before, so we got a 60% discount in total) the rug was actually in our price range and we were able to purchase a very beautiful, heirloom quality rug , which we had never dreamed we'd actually be able to own.

I looks so perfect in the room and adds just that perfect Victorian touch! (If you can imagine it without the cat toy in the foreground, of course).

And yes, we talked it over about having such a rug with cats.......fortunately, Olive is de-clawed, although E.B. and Astrid are not. I have several scratching posts throughout the house which they are very good about using because of training, plus I also trim their nails every week.

Also a recent addition to the parlour....a new pillow.

A needlepoint bird with olive-green tassel trim! I love that the new rug has some darker, olive tones in it....this way I can add some olive tones to the decor in here and it will tie in nicely with the rug. I had considered using more olive-y green colors for the curtains but wasn't sure how it would look, but now I think it would look very nice.

(The pillow I bought  at Tuesday Morning).

Thanks for stopping by!