I wouldn't worry too much about what's done or not done. I would go with the rugs that look best in your home and that you love. The decorating police will not be visiting your home any time soon. You can make this work by choosing your furniture and accessory colors so that everything works together harmoniously. It would really help if you could show pictures of these rooms with the rugs in place. I hope it all works out for you!

I guess my "not done" comment refers to my memory that I've seen blacks and blues in very modern rooms, but don't recall seeing them together in more traditional settings. The black rug and its other colors seems so strong, and the blue is more muted and subtle. I wish I could post pictures, but don't know how.

If I were worried about the decorating police, they'd lock me up for life for how the whole house looks! I like eclectic, am used to going with what I like, and am not concerned with what others think. However, as we've worked on this house, I've discovered that some things that sort of nag at me as not being quite right often turn out to be against some logical design rule that I later discover. So I was hoping that some of you who have seen way more interiors than I have might give me some insight. I am particularly deficient when it comes to making color decisions!

If I knew for sure that we would be replacing the sofa, chairs, and 9x12 rug as we'd planned to do, I wouldn't be so concerned. However, we went way over budget on building the house (mostly due to DH's decisions), and he is very unhappy that I've even bought the DR rug and want to get this one now, due to the terrible economy. The only reason he agreed was that we had none for the DR, and 6 people scooting chairs in and out over the present 4x6 rug in this area of the living room was going to possibly do some damage to the floor. So this could be the last thing we buy for the house.

Anne

Without photos it's hard to make suggestions. The importance you're putting on the hardwood floor may not be an issue at all, but it seems it's playing a huge part in your decision.

It sounds like you have green and henna playing thru each of your rugs so that should help tie them together. Black goes with anything and I see nothing wrong with putting a mostly black rug with one that has a lot of blue. I'm assuming the design of all the rugs is similar?

I have three rugs in my FR and they're all different. One has mostly a rust color background, the other is deep rust red/blue, and another has muted tans and rust. The rust tones make them all work together.

If you can email pics, send me one and I'll post it for you.

I see my email didn't show ..........it should show in this post.

To post pictures, open a free photobucket account at photobucket.com. Upload your photos, then decide the one you'd like to post. Under or beside it will be several links. Click on "HTML". It will display a yellow icon that says copied. Come back to your message box here and paste that into this message. Hit return to do another and repeat the process. Your picture will appear here when you select preview. If not, try again. We'd love to see your pictures so these great idea people can offer help. Good luck.

It's not likely you'll find an antique, handmade tribal rug with a black background, but there's tons of modern manufacturers. Why not just get a carpet company to cut and bind you something in the right size in a plain color or subtle pattern, and then you can always layer a great area rug when you find it?

I went out one last time today, and found another rug. Now I have 2 "finalists", neither being without faults!

The new choice has a mostly very light golden oak background a little lighter than the floor for both the main field and the main border--in other words, it seems to be a bit too much of the same thing. It has a black edge, black in the background of the two 1-1/2" borders on each side of the main border, and black scattered about in small doses throughout some of the rest of the design, including part of the medallion. Most of the medallion is a rust color that is close enough to the henna in my other rug that it looks ok. There's very little green in this rug. It's a beautiful densely knotted rug. Negatives-- this rug doesn't look good with the paint (we're not repainting!) or the furniture, and when the sun shines, watch out!-- it really looks like a bright gold, and it costs more. Other than the intensity of the light colored background, this rug seems to balance with the other two rugs as far as the overall look, and it looks better at night. So if we never had the money to replace the 9x12, I wouldn't feel like the room is out of whack.

The "black" rug--the other colors in it look good with the paint, the coverings on the chairs that go around the table on it, the present sofa, the other rug in the same room, and the floor. The only negative is that it makes that part of the room so dark, especially at night, that I can almost feel the floor tilting down over there! Also, it seems to be too much for the blue (which looks gorgeous in the daytime, and dark at night) in the DR. If I choose this rug, it seems like my only choice to balance all three rugs would be to get a dark rug to replace the 9x12, and I really don't like the idea of 3 dark rugs.

annz, the design of all of the rugs is somewhat related. The experienced daughter of the owner of the decades old place where I got the one rug has been very helpful, given the various constraints I have in choosing this rug. If you could see the color this floor makes the rugs appear, you'd probably understand why I'm giving it the importance I am. Your email did not show up on the screen, BTW.

sujafr, thanks for the explanation for posting pictures. DH said he'd try to help me get some pictures loaded some time tomorrow.

ideefixe, I'm not looking for antique tribal rugs, just handmade ones with traditional designs. Your suggestion to have a carpet company make a rug for the time being is a good one, except that I need the rug by Sunday!

Thank you all for your posts. I hope I'll have the pictures up tomorrow.

Anne

After living with the 2 "new" rugs for a couple of days now, we've decided neither is right and that we need to forget about getting one by Sunday and look later on without a deadline to find the right colors. We finally got some sun today, and that helped. The light, bright one is just too busy and too in your face, although it is beautiful. The black one has other colors that are perfect, and a design that works with the blue rug, but the black is too striking; we want a more subtle look, like the blue one has. So we'll just put our existing 4x6 under the table, and the chairs will just have to be on the hardwood floor. They have smooth metal caps on them, so I hope they won't scratch the floor.

Thank you for your input in helping me think about this.

Anne

GW members email can usually be found by clicking on 'My Page', located after the user name.

To save your hardwood floor, buy some felt pads with adhesive backing. They can be found at hardware stores in different shapes and sizes. Apply them directly to the metal caps............