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When The Maroon Carpet Goes…

May 1, 2012

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A lot of you have been wondering what in the world we are going to do with that maroon carpet in the studio.  Yikes–us, too! We knew it needed to go and the grave was officially dug when we took no care in covering it when we sprayed the room crisp white.  So, it is gone-zo and we’re all smiles about it.
 
 
We have been narrowing our flooring options down for the studio over the past few days.  Eventually, this room will probably be carpeted like Greta’s if we are blessed with another little one down the road.  But until that happens–and who knows when that will be–wall to wall carpet in my art studio just isn’t my style.  So we scratched wall-to-wall off the list.  Which left a hardwood laminate floor and an area rug (who doesn’t love that combination) as the shining front runner.  In trying to decide what flooring to lay under the area rug, we had a semi-big break yesterday.  Let me take you on the little treasure hunt.  You see, on the side of our house, beyond the overgrown bushes and in the carport…
 

There’s our little shed.

That we hardly ever use and is relatively empty–which is comical, because our garage is packed!

And in that shed, we found 5 boxes of laminate flooring.  The same flooring that is used throughout the first floor of our home–which seemed like a probable solution for the studio.

The only issue is, there is just under 80 sq feet of the flooring and we need about 100 sq feet.  Oh, AND the flooring is discontinued.  Also, we don’t really like the laminate.  Eventually we want to replace the flooring in our house, but we’re not in a position to do that now.  So, after a long discussion about what to do–get flooring we really like and hope it’s still available when we replace the rest of our flooring down the road, or spend a little bit of money to get just one more box of hopefully a good matching laminate–we decided to see if we can find a good match first. Of course we’ll keep you posted on our hunt. What would you do?

In the meantime, we’ll be back tomorrow with photos of our new painted ceiling.  Chris will be picking up the paint after work, so whichever paint color is ahead at 5pm MST will be our winner (cast your vote here if you haven’t already–it’s close!).  And, we will have area rug choices for you tomorrow to vote on–who’s excited?!


P.S.  While you’re in the voting mood, don’t forget to vote for our Exterior Melodrama right here.

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What do you think?

  1. We had horrid carpet like that too! It was the first thing to go when we moved! Things look better already!

  2. That’s Chris’s mindset to a T. We’ll see where we end up!

  3. We’re operating on the same wave lengths, Allison.

  4. It seems like a small enough room that buying new laminate that you really like wouldn’t be hugely expensive? I love being thrifty, but my husband sometimes points out that when you look at something down the road, you want to think “yes I LIKE that” rather than “oh yah I saved $100 there”. Of course we are super thrifty haha so this doesn’t always apply. I think I’m biased because I wouldn’t choose carpet with a little one, just a big soft rug – easier to clean (in my opinion) and more replaceable if liquids come out of them onto it ;)

    Also if you picked a hue of faux-wood-laminate that you really like, even if the exact stuff isn’t still available when you redo the rest of the house, you’d probably be able to match it pretty closely for a subtle layered look.

    But I’m sure you could make this laminate look great too! Maybe look at inspiration photos to help see how you feel about it?

  5. Oooooo!!! I really like that! I would do that throughout the whole house!

  6. Brandon Marcum says:

    Maybe varnished plywood or hardwood laminate ply? It’s quite urban feeling but pretty cool and super cheap. Hardwood ply is more expensive than regular plywood though. http://hindsvikathome.com/?p=1839 I used hardwood laminate ply behind our tv. Think of your shed floor with a super shiny finish. I know your tastes aren’t traditional so you might like it but maybe it’s not your cup o’ tea.

  7. Oh, that’s a really good idea!

  8. Kim says:

    If it’s only temporary and you are planning on having an area rug, I’d try to match as close as possible. Possibly hiding the mismatch pieces under where the area rug will be or placed randomly throughout like you do when the wood tones vary slightly in different boxes of hardwood.

  9. Nicole says:

    I’m all for saving money. Especially if you’re *hoping* to have this be a nursery eventually. ;)

  10. I am not sure how hard it will be to find a good match. We’ll see. As for the carport–we were so against it, and were anxious to sell it. But now, our garage is out-of-control packed so Chris actually parks in the carport. It is a little backward and we hope to get in organized this summer.

  11. meaganbriggs3 says:

    Anything to save a few bucks! How hard is it to find a matching color?? Cute shed! This may be a stupid question, but why do you need a carport if you have a garage? Just curious!!

  12. Courtney says:

    That was going to be my suggestion too. We were in the same situation, had some leftover, but not enough. It has worked out really well just to try to match as best we could, but put it under the rug… Nobody even knows!

  13. Allison says:

    If you’re set on redoing the whole house’s floors I’d buy a box of closely matching “filler” and plop it down where the area rug will be. When the time comes to redo the floors you won’t have to worry about finding a match, and who knows, by then your tastes may have changed anyways.

    Use the saved money to buy a kick-butt area rug!

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