Throw Rug – DIY Life Hack

Have you ever had a throw rug you absolutely love but it doesn’t stay put?  This has happened to me so often that I got to a point where I settled on throw rugs I didn’t like as much just to have the rubber backing on them.  With a house that has all wood floors, a little vinyl, and a little tile, I knew I was going to have a love/hate relationship with throw rugs.

Throw Rug Shopping

When we moved into our home, I thought I would take my time shopping for throw rugs.  I originally thought I wanted true antique rugs and was happy to wait for the right ones.  As life happens, we quickly realized we needed throw rugs right away.  We have two big dogs, one of which is a 6 year old Bernese Mountain Dog, Chewie.

While 6 may not seem old, for his breed it is.  These dogs are known for their hip and stomach problems as well as only living to be 8-10 years old.  They consider them seniors at the age of 5.  Chewie was showing signs of hip pain a couple weeks before we moved, and continued to show these symptoms in our new home.  The hard surfaces and stairs were proving to be hard for him right away.  So we went shopping.  By ‘we’, I mean the whole gang!  My mom, mother-in-law, 2 girls, Cody, and myself.  We went to this HUGE store called Nebraska Furniture Mart.  WOW!

We were greeted by a wonderful salesman, Dan, in the rug department.  And they were having a really good sale!  50% off!  Thus, we ended up buying and ordering rugs for our sitting room, aka den, girls’ playroom, parlor room,  hearth room, aka family room, and kitchen.  We did buy four other rugs that day at Bed Bath and Beyond for the sitting room (jute to go under the rug from Nebraska Furniture Mart), master bed and bath, and the girls’ bedroom.  Whew!  It was a lot of rugs but the selection was so good!  The rug for the kitchen had to be special ordered as they make them once ordered.

Delivery and Problem

We were told it would take 6 weeks for the rug for the kitchen to come in.  It came in 3!  We laid it on the floor and it looked amazing.

All our other rugs, even without any rubber backing, have not budged.  However, all of them have furniture anchoring them.  Our master bedroom rug did have one corner that wanted to curl.  The kitchen rug would slide every time the dogs came running or if we stepped on it quickly.  Eventually, we want to buy a butcher block island to set in the center of the kitchen but, until then, we had to come up with a solution for keeping the rug in place.

I can’t stand the rubber backing mats that you can put under throw rugs.  They bunch up and don’t really keep the rug in place.  I wanted a different solution.  We used a double sided tape to put vinyl on top of our pergo in our last house for the studio.  While it worked well, it also left a sticky mess that took me a lot of scrubbing to get up.  I was concerned about using it on our wood floors in our master bathroom.  So we went to the store to see what we could find.  Command Hooks!

The Solution

I found command strips that are meant for hanging pictures.  They come in different sizes and have different weight ratings.  We went with the 12 lb rated ones.  I followed the directions on the package and cleaned the floor with rubbing alcohol.  I used 7 command strips.

 

 

This worked great for a couple days until Chewie, weighing in at 80 lbs, slid into it.  The rug came loose on one end.  And the velcro just detached so I was able to stick it right back down.  I have since added some extra command strips on the entry points of the rug to help with sliding dogs and it is working like a charm!

My Kitchen

I am now in love with our kitchen.  The colors in the rug make me happy every time I step into it.  Just need to find the perfect size butcher block island!

And yes we live a real life which means a dish rack on the counter and pictures and artwork on the fridge!

 

 

I love our kitchen decor.  I made the tiered tray from old baking dishes and wood posts, all found at a garage sale.  Love the towel holder and the sign that came out of my grandma’s kitchen.  And the thieves hand soap and cleaner, the best!  That kiddo of mine is pretty cute!  I could keep her on that counter as decor all the time.  Cody found the copper knife block at an estate sale and we picked up the yellow beadboard and metal animals at a show.  Love, love, love!

How have you used command strips or hooks in unusual ways?

Happy Decorating!

~ Jennifer