There are some good choices at overstock.com, but it is going to take me some time to make a decision.

I like the idea of combining pieces of carpet into my own abstract design.

I've thought of putting a rug bigger than 5'x7', but I'm not sure I want it to dominate the room. A 7' wide rug will still fit under the two front legs of the sofa.

I'm going to have to put all the new furniture on the floor plan, and that will have to wait until I get back to L.A., as I do not have good drafting software here. I have TurboCad, but it is difficult to use, and I have Draftsight in L.A., which is almost identical to AutoCAD and therefore easy for me to use. I have the floor plan for the entire house already drawn, but only the bathrooms and kitchen have details drawn in. I drew the floor plan for the bathroom designs to start and then finished with the rest of the house floor plan and elevations, but I never got around to putting all the furniture in.

The zebra tapestry fabric I have is really nice - much nicer than any zebra print, and so I will use that for two pillows, even though it will be difficult to make them. I do not generally try to make my life easier and am up for the challenge.

The zebra triangle on the coffee table does not have to stay, in case we get a rug that is somewhat busy. I really do not want something too busy, but I do not want a plain rug either. If we buy a cheap (~$110) rug that we are not too thrilled with, we can put it in the office and replace it. The office needs a rug anyway, and 5x7 would be the right size for that room.

jupidupi, your cat looks like it might be the same breed as the cat in my brother's painting. He used to raise Abyssinians, and that is what the cat in the painting is. He did a lot of paintings inspired by his cats, including this one, which is so abstract that I did not recognize it as a cat at first:

This is in my bedroom in Los Angeles, and I bought this painting from Kevin about 30 years ago, when he was still living in Austin. You have to see this one in person to appreciate it, as it was done mostly with a palette knife and has a lot of texture to it.

I always love seeing the art in your home!

If you do end up ordering online, I’ve had great experiences with Rugs Direct. Here are pages of good-looking rugs I think would work (scroll to find the colorful ones. I would definitely do a rug with interesting colors/patterns in your room) —

https://www.rugs-direct.com/Store/nav/Category-Area-Rugs-Style-Geometric?crawl=n

They have the option to see how the rug would look in your room, which is helpful.

HD Buttercup at SOCO in Orange County has been having a "store closing" sale for months. We got our living room rug there - it was branded HDB, but I found it on the Annie Sleke website. It retailed for something like $1900 and we paid $399 for a 9x12. They have a ton of rugs.

Really like that painting in your bedroom. I have a picture done totally with a palette knife and love it; the colors are soft to medium dark pink, soft to medium bright turquoise, and tones of white. It is large, but not as large as the one in your bedroom. I did have it in the master bath over the stand-alone bathtub.

I am so glad your are going to use that zebra tapestry for your pillows. It is so lovely.

To my way of thinking, the rug needs to be vibrant colors in tune with the teal/turquoise color of the pillows - not teal or turquoise but in that same tone. But, you know a lot more about design that I do, Lars.

Yes, Lars, CousCous is an Abyssinian. I can't imagine having a houseful of them. They're pretty intense. I love that painting in your bedroom. And that cat seems inspired by a Cornish Rex, which is my other cat's breed.

There is an HD Buttercup near us is L.A. also, on Helms Ave at Venice Blvd, and we bought our living room lounge chairs at a store in that complex. That HD Buttercup is the flagship store, and I've been there quite a few times, including when I used to live in Venice, when it was even closer. It looks like they are having a sale in all stores, and so I will go to the L.A. store first.

The rugs-direct.com site allowed me to view this rug in the living room:

I think it looks pretty good, but the scale is a bit off. I can adjust for that. I do like this rug, however.

The OC store is running clearance pricing - I can't go in there because I know it will be trouble!

That rug looks perfect. It is scrumptious with your furniture and decor.

Maybe something like this?

https://boutiquerugs.com/healdton-area-rug/

That pattern is nice, but it has a bit too much brown and taupe in it. Also, it appears to have grooves between the triangles, and I am worried that they would collect dirt.

I like that they have a video of it and that they specify the depth of the pile.

Your room is beautiful and I love, love the rug you posted from Rugs Direct--it looks perfect.

Hi Lars, yes, I wasn’t sure if you would like what looks like ...grooves (?) I thought I would toss it out there though as it is actually grays and teal according to the reviews and not browns and taupe. I have had good experiences with that site. Products come fast and much better quality than expected for the price.

Love your new sofa and the cool painting!

If I had to pick for me with your furniture and art I would do a print like this (below). However, then your cool b&w animal print pillows might not work.

I got the color info from the web site you posted with the rug:

<Colors: Taupe, Taupe/Dark Brown/Aqua/Ivory>

Maybe it looks different in person, but this is why I am hesitant to buy a rug without seeing it.

I don't see aqua in that rug either, and so the photography may be off.

Anyway, it is nice to have options.

Kevin has decided that he wants this one, in 8x10, and so I told him he could go ahead and order it, even though if it is not right, it will be too big for us to use somewhere else, except perhaps my bedroom, and I don't need a rug there.

Thanks for all your help, and I'll let you know how this turns out.

Since Jinx said that she's had good experiences with rugs-direct, I think we should be okay. Kevin and I both think that this rug will help the room a lot. I would like to get the rug before I spend time making more pillows. All of the pillows you see here are meant for outdoors, and I plan to return them to our pool patio once I make replacements. I need to order some more pillow forms now, but I will order forms that can go indoors and outdoors, since I have a lot of outdoor fabric now. The zebra tapestry pillows will be for indoors only, however, and I only have enough fabric to make two pillows plus a foot cushion/ottoman.

I bet that room is gorgeous at night with those colors. Such pretty blues. I love the rug tvq1 linked to. KSWL has something similar and it really makes her room stand out.

Lars, how did both you and your brother become so talented? Did your parents encourage learning a type of art while growing up? Are they artists? It has to be in the genes.

Oakley, both Kevin and I were discouraged from artistic expression growing up, but neither of us let that stop us. I think it made us both more determined, although it would have been much nicer if we had been appreciated as children and encouraged.

Our mother was an only child, and both her parents worked - our grandmother was a school teacher and later a college professor, teaching English classes, although her mother language was German. Anyway, our mother had a lot of private tutors, for art, voice, and music, and she majored in music at NTSU in Denton, TX, where she studied opera. She did paint as a child, and she also created a children's book for my sister and me when we were very young, which she illustrated very beautifully. However, as boys, Kevin and I were discouraged from expressing ourselves artistically. Our father thought that was not manly, and he followed the Texas macho stereotype for men.

Fortunately, my brother and I appreciated each other, and so we did not need approval from our parents for what we did. I am 15 years older than Kevin, and when he was growing up (after I had left home), our parents told him not to be like me, but he didn't pay much attention to them in that regard.

Lars: That's a sad story. Parents not loving your artistic talent as so many here get to appreciate. WE DO appreciate you and your sharing with us here @ The KT. Your talent is "obvious".....and your new living room is gorgeous!

What nicole said! And I’m glad your brother didn’t listen to them. You two are awesome. ❤️

I love your furniture, and the rug you have chosen is perfect!

Lars, I admire the artistic sense, and the artistic abilities, of you and your brother so much. Interesting that perhaps having to hold onto your talents despite lack of parental encouragement perhaps sharpened your determination. However it happened, I always enjoy seeing your pictures! :-)

Am so very glad you and your brother were able to pay no attention to the efforts to squash your artistic talents. The world needs more people who are talented and able to express themselves. And that rug is just perfection, so nice that y'all ordered it.

Lars, that's a wonderful choice and the layout is perfection.

I love that sofa, Lars. And I think the rug chosen will look great. it isn’t so busy as to detract from the art yet still captures the color and design vibe you have going.

Lars you and your brother were born to be artist and make the world a more beautiful place. Thank you for sharing your process in thinking about color and shape. You help me think about the way I perceive light and space.

On another topic you mentioned on another thread that you had intended to rent your house out as a short-term rental and now can't. Have you considered doing small intimate dinner parties in your home once the pandemic is over? It is a big thing in NYC and people pay a lot to eat a specially prepared meal in the chef's home. Your home is so beautiful and I have read about your amazing dishes, I for one would pay to eat anything you prepared. And you could choose how often you held a dinner and hand pick who you allowed to attend.

hcbm, That's a great idea, and I would love to give dinner parties again, especially if they could be lucrative. At this point, I do need additional income, since we are not renting this property, and we had bought it thinking that it would provide supplemental income. We can maintain it ourselves without renting, but that means that international travel will have to wait, and we do want to go back to Europe, once it is safe. Since I also love to cook, giving dinner parties would be great. I used to do that a lot when I lived in San Francisco.

When I considered the meaning of life, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of my life was to make the world a more beautiful place, and so you really got to the core of what I am trying to do. My one problem is that I feel that art is fleeting, but I have come to grips with that. A lot of what my brother and I create is very temporal, but that is okay.

Lars, the physical art is sometimes fleeting but the sense of beauty, emotion, and emotional pleasure is everlasting. I think the feeling art and beauty gives us, makes us better humans and we pass that on to others. I have relatives who are artists and I love looking at their pallets. The colors splashed on the paper with no thought to design except to use to paint give me a happy sense that life is good and there are many other wonderful things to do and see.

Lars, I've been under the weather and haven't been able to get online. I am so happy you and Kevin are together! The one thing your parents could not take from the two of you are the artistic genes you boys inherited, which you obviously did. It's like a "neener neener" to your dad. His generation and living in Texas? I'm in OK so I can imagine what you dealt with.

You are a role model for being a big brother. I salute you!

I love the rug you’ve chosen - looks like it was custom made for your room. 👍

I love the energy of the space. And that rug would be perfect there. As for growing up with the essence of your being suppressed or undervalued, I’m glad you and your brother found a way back to it.

Oakley, I hope you are feeling better. Please give us an update when possible. This is not a good time to be under the weather.

I've been to Oklahoma a couple of times, and it did not seem to be significantly different from north Texas, except that there were more native Americans and some reservations. One friend from there told me that Oklahoma was part of the Midwest, but considering all the oil wells, it seems more like Texas to me.

The rug should be here early next week - Monday or Tuesday, according to what Kevin heard from Rugs Direct. I was expecting it to take at least a week to get here, but I'm happy that it is arriving quickly, since we will be here for only two more weeks.

I think our father's treatment of us growing up pushed us away from him, and so we ended up in California, where it is easier for us to express ourselves. Not that we couldn't in Texas, but that there were more opportunities here. I could not have had the careers I had in California if I had stayed in Texas.

I'll post photos of the rug installation, once we get it.

Rug arrived today - Sunday! That was pretty fast, but they only had to ship it from Fontana, which is 67 miles from here. I wasn't expecting it this early, and so I have not yet made the zebra tapestry pillows yet, but here are some photos with the rug in place:

It makes a huge difference in the room (for us), and I am thrilled with the rug itself. It is always difficult to tell what colors something will be, but this one is exactly what I wanted and is better than I expected it to be.

I like that it is not too busy, as the room is fairly large (for me), and I want it to keep a feeling of spaciousness.

Kevin bought an additional recliner so that I would have one as well. These chairs are not very attractive, but they are much better than what we had before, and they are extremely comfortable.

Here's how the living room looked when we bought the house:

All of the furniture was left behind, including the bulky TV and all the fake plants, but not the étagère in the corner. We did keep the floor lamps, coffee table, and side tables. The fake plants were the first to go. The dark brown recliner was very comfortable, but I convinced Kevin to let it go and replace it with smaller ones, which turned out to be just as comfortable, but still not ideal aesthetically.

We only recently replace the TV because there was nothing wrong with it, other than being bulky, and it is in our garage at the moment, along with the old sofa, ottoman, and lounge chairs. I have to schedule a pick-up for some time in November. The earliest they could pick up when I called last week was Oct 20, and we won't be here then. We still have plenty of room in the garage, however.

I especially want to thank Jinx (as well as all the others who gave advice) for recommending rugs-direct. They got terrible reviews on Yelp, and I cannot understand why, but none of the reviews there are recent.

The old furniture looks like my style...HAHAHA! That new rug is so perfect, like it was made for your room.

What a gorgeous rug. Have y'all tried turning it the other way?

Oh, that looks awesome, Lars! I’m so relieved it was a good experience. :)

Lars--that rug is just perfect!

Love it!

I love how you and your brother use color. The rug is a great match for your sofa and chairs.

Yes, we did try turning it 180°, and that turned out to be all wrong, but I had to see it in both positions first.

Kevin really likes how the cat's leg in his painting matches the angle in the rug in the third photo. We both think the rug goes very well with his painting.

The old furniture was not bad, if you like that style. I did find it more comfortable than the new sofa, but Kevin thought the old sofa was too soft. I didn't, and I thought the new sofa was either too stiff or the seat height was good high, which is why I wanted a recliner.

We don't sit on the sofa, but it will be good for when we have guests who want to sit up rather than lean back to watch TV. The pillows do make the sofa more comfortable, and I will be making new ones this week.

Does anyone else like the "before" pictures better? The old furniture is in good shape, and sofa makes into a bed, which the new one does not.

I thought the old furniture was more comfortable, and if we were going to rent the house, we would have kept it. However, since we have decided not to rent it, we decided to install furniture that is more to our tastes. We did live with the old furniture for over a year, although we spend less time in this house than in our primary house in Los Angeles.

Kevin wants me to replace the two turquoise pillows on the new sofa with orange brocade pillows that I have not yet made. I am going to make the zebra tapestry pillows first. I have quite a bit of the orange fabric, and so that will not be a problem, and it will be easier to work with than the tapestry fabric.

The new rug looks fantastic, Lars. I too am sorry that your parents did not appreciate you and your brother's artistic talent and creativity. I am glad neither of you listened to them.

I like your present furniture much better. To my way of thinking, it represents you and Kevin and it is so very lovely. But, no, no, no to the orange pillows. The turquoise are too perfect.

I said "no" to the orange pillows too, but I will make them anyway to see how they look. We plan to have several alternate pillow covers, and all of them will have zippers so that we can switch them at will.

To me, the orange brocade does not go with the small dot fabric, but it looks okay with the zebra tapestry, which I need to start working on this afternoon.

You are a very kind brother.

I love the new rug, and the colors and design coordinate really well with your furniture!

I wouldn’t care for orange pillows either, but you are very accommodating to try them, Lars. I would definitely see raspberry pillows, or whatever that is lining the bowl on the table. It looks like a bright raspberry to me in the photos.

I really love the rug. It really looks perfect in the space and draws the eye toward the sofa.

The red color is sort of a raspberry color, which goes with the red in the artwork on the wall in the right of the second photo. Kevin did that work with color pencils, and so it is not a painting.

I do not have any fabric that color here, but I do have some red and gold brocade fabric in L.A., although it might be a big gaudy and it definitely does not have a MCM look to it, although the colors could work. I have a small piece of that fabric here, but I think the orange brocade is a better choice.

I also have some purple and chartreuse brocade fabric that I am considering using in this room - it is more subtle than it sounds, and it might work for a small pillow for one of the chairs. I received some more turquoise-ish fabric yesterday that might also work, but I had planned to use that fabric for outdoor pillows.

We're going to end up with more pillow covers than we need, but it will be fun to change them around. I have to check to make sure that I have enough zippers - I think that I do. I ordered a bag of 22" zippers in assorted colors for cheap, but some of the colors might not be usable - at least at this point.

Lars, just as my personal taste and also my husband's, we both like the look of the old furniture better. Nothing against the new stuff, it's just in no way "OUR" style. We just like soft and cozy and warm furniture that looks livable...HA! Your furniture is fine to look at but it doesn't look comfortable to me but that's just my personal taste. So anyway, you asked :)

Lars, and Kevin, you two make me smile with pleasure for the obvious love and respect you have for one another. It truly warms my heart.