A day arrived a couple of years ago when Jules had taken Otto for a walk and he called me on the way home to warn me to line the hallway with towels leading straight into the bathroom. In came Otto covered from head to toe in thick, sticky mud and I knew that our carpet had to go. I couldn’t give this huge dog a bath every day for the rest of time for fear that the carpet was being ruined. Therefore, the carpet went and we painted the MDF boards underneath with floor paint, which has given us an easy to clean and more modern feel in our flat. However, there are those times when all I want in life is to feel the soft, sumptuous tread of carpet underfoot, especially at this time of year. That’s where a good rug comes in. I can not express how important a good rug is in pulling a room together, bringing cohesion, adding a cosy feel, softening the echoes and hard edges of a wooden or stone floor.

I bought the most beautiful kilim rug from Turkey a couple of years ago that I have had to surrender as it shows up Otto’s hair so much and it is so thin that he was starting to make holes in it. I have packed it away safely for that forever home in the country I will have one day (!) and instead have bought a much more practical one. As we begin to finish our DIY and I can start to think about styling our sitting room with a new sofa, chairs and rug my mind has wandered to rug placement (yes, that’s a thing). When putting a room together the placement of your furniture in relation to your rug is incredibly important to the overall feel of the room and it impacts on the size of rug you choose.

If someone is struggling with a room and they ask me to take a look almost always one of the glaring problems is that the rug is too small, big or the furniture is laid out in the wrong formation around the rug. Just with a little tug here or pulling a chair forward there and the whole room can feel different – honestly! So, here are some helpful  guidelines that I will be following to help me lay out my rug and furniture in my sitting room…

Floating rug v. Grounded rug

A ‘grounded’ rug. This rug is part of the beautiful range of House Beautiful rugs designed exclusively for Carpetright and is called ‘Horizon’.

A floating rug is a bad rug. The sofa (block at the top of the graphic – apologies for my poor design skills) does not touch the rug (rectangle in the middle) and nor do the two chairs (two dark blocks at the bottom of the graphic). The rug is too small resulting in the room feeling disjointed and ‘bitty’.

A grounded rug, on the other hand, is a good rug. It is large enough for the two front legs of the sofa to sit on the rug, as well as the front legs of both the chairs. This pulls all of the furniture together, creates a cohesive feel and grounds the room. Ideally there should be about 50cm from the edge of the rug to the walls of the room. I have decided to go with two chairs opposite our new sofa, now that we have sold our teal loveseat, so I will be arranging them to follow this simple rule.

In the past I have struggled to find affordable on-trend rugs but it feels like everyone is catching on quick so I’m very pleased to be collaborating with Carpetright on this post to introduce you to their new range created by House Beautiful – pretty good, hey? I love the different textures, muted colours and bold designs and I think my favourite design is ‘Valley’.

Available in store at Carpetright.

Right, I’m off to place my rug – happy weekend!

Katy x

Gah! I am currently sitting on my bed with my iMac precariously balanced whilst trying to type up this post after painting myself in to my bedroom for the next eight hours. Oh, the joys of DIY! I don’t have anything pretty to share this week so I thought I would give you a glimpse into the chaos around here instead – makes for a nice change, no? Kitchen is almost done, just tiling and door handles to change. Sitting room is half painted and floor is half painted, too. Jules and Otto have gone to stay with his mum for a week so I can crack on with it all (floor painting and Otto do not mix, believe me!).

I wish I could afford to pay someone else to do all our home improvements but we are able to do it ourselves, we have the time, we have the flexibility and between us we have the know-how so somehow it seems like a huge luxury to pay someone else to do it for us. However, there are times when I’m covered in paint or the whole flat is filled with sawdust that I wish I was anywhere but here. Although, there are a few things that I have learnt along the way that make DIY so much easier and less chaotic that I will share with you, too.

Are you ready for the ugliest photos this blog has ever seen?

Tip 1: Don’t freak out!

When the new work tops arrived I burst into tears. In isolation and before they had been oiled I worried that the wood looked too pink and I was terrified that I’d wasted a huge amount of money on something I didn’t like. However, as soon as the worktops were installed and I could see them in context they are exactly what I wanted. It is far too easy to panic when you are doing home improvements that something isn’t right. However, until you have put the whole room together it is far too difficult to tell whether you have made a mistake so don’t freak out prematurely!

Tip 2: Prepare practical stuff

I knew that there would be a few days without a cooker, hob, sink, plumbing for the washing machine and dish washer. Therefore, I cooked some meals that could be frozen and then heated in the microwave so we didn’t go hungry. As well as that I did all the laundry before we began and got the bath set up for washing up (back breaking, I tell you!).

Old worktop coming out.

Everything had to be unplumbed to remove this worktop and for a new sink to be installed.

Tip 3: Don’t get carried away!

On the first weekend of our DIY endeavours we fitted the smaller of the two worktops. It all went pretty smoothly and without much disruption. However, after waiting until the next weekend to do the other side of the kitchen we both got a bit carried away and rushed into starting the work without preparing as much as we should have done. Jules was ready to get going and asked me to clear out the cupboards and instead of doing that job properly I rushed it and didn’t bother packing everything into boxes. Instead I just heaped it onto our table and onto the floor. Such a silly mistake  – the second worktop required far more cutting and the amount of sawdust was out of control! Every single thing that I didn’t bother packing into boxes got covered  and very quickly it all became pretty chaotic. Our over exuberance to get started on that second weekend actually slowed us down in the long run.

Tip 4: Plan time carefully

I think it’s best to work back from when you want the room you are working on to be complete. I knew that I wanted everything to be done by the start of March. Therefore, I made sure I ordered new furniture/materials with long lead times before Christmas. I also organised to sell old furniture by the weekend before I planned to paint (the point I am at now). That way it makes painting so much simpler, especially because I have decided to re-do the floors so getting rid of our old sofa and selling our teal loveseat made clearing the floor space so much easier.

Although there is still a fair bit of stuff packed into the office and bedroom!!!

Tip 5: Buy all the materials you will need in good time

I am lucky enough to be trying out one of the nine new Farrow & Ball colours in my sitting room (they launch on February 1st so keep your eyes peeled and try to guess which one I have chosen!). Only problem is I didn’t order quite enough – rookie error! There is nothing worse than having to interrupt DIY because you don’t have the materials you need. We have also had to do an 7.45pm dash to B&Q in a taxi before it closed to buy the correct jigsaw blades. Gah! Waste of time and waste of money so make sure you prepare properly and always get more than you think you’ll need.

I still have a couple of coats of paint left to do before Jules and Otto come back on Friday and then we will do the tiles in the kitchen this weekend. After that I may never do DIY again…until the next time, at least!

Katy x