Rug Pads for Carpeted or Hardwood Floors

Happy mid-January, everyone. Is it just me, or is time FLYING by lately? I have had barely a minute to even think about my house or home décor over the past few months. Which is both good (time with family, exercising, pursuing other interests) and bad (my home needs some freshening up). But it is what it is, I guess.

 

Nevertheless, I have a very important, albeit not-super-glamorous, discovery to share with you all. It involves rugs and a product that keeps them squared up and in place.

 

We've got wall-to-wall carpet in our living room (although we hope to remedy this in the near future), and you may or may not remember the two rugs (first and second) I've tried out in here. Over time, I'll admit to having gotten a bit frustrated because the rugs wouldn't stay put. They would inch, ever so slightly, to some slightly askew position, even with furniture legs holding them down.

 

Like so (this is a straight-on photo; notice the clockwise shift of the rug?):

 

 

Every week or so, I'd be on my hands and knees moving living room furniture aside so I could yank a couple of unruly area rug corners back into place. Not my fave activity.

 

You can, hopefully, imagine my delight when a representative from Rug Pad USA contacted me with an opportunity to review a couple of their products. The company is based outside of the Greater New York area and specializes in manufacturing premium rug underlays for area and Oriental
rugs...but, more importantly to me, they thought they could fix my rug-shifting woes, both on carpet and hardwood floors.

 

After giving them two rug dimensions (one larger rug on carpet, one smaller flatweave rug on slippery hardwood in my kitchen), Rug Pad USA custom cut the pads and promptly shipped them out. I have been living with the rug pads for several weeks now, and they.are.awesome.

 

For the rug-on-carpet dilemma, I was sent an Premium-Lock felt & rubber rug pad (I think), which consists of a grippy rubber mat...

 

 

...attached to (surprise!) some thicker felt for padding.

 

 

I laid the rug pad down (rubber side on top of carpet, area rug on top of felt), adjusted the squareness of my rug, and went on with daily life for weeks. This rug hasn't moved, people. And we've even had some major Kinect-playing hours, full of jumping and sliding and shaking all around by humans young and old, right on top of this thing. I'm sold.

 

 

For the flatweave on the hardwood (which had a rug pad underneath previously, although you wouldn't know it by how slippery it was), Rug Pad USA recommended their Eco-Solid organic rug pad. Again, the pad came custom cut, so I opened the package and put it under the small rug in front of the kitchen sink (after a lightning-fast disposal of my old, useless rug pad) and went about my life.

 

 

Weeks later, I'm impressed and satisfied and able to easily recommend both the products and service provided by Rug Pad USA. I find I still need to adjust the kitchen rug slightly, but I think that's more because the rug itself gets rammed and upheaved by the legs of bar stools that my toddler pushes around the kitchen to "help" me with dishes. Which inevitably ends up in my having to towel down the entire kitchen, top to bottom, an hour later.

 

But that's another story for another day.

 

In the meantime, if you have a pesky shifting area rug, no matter the surface of your floor, you should check out Rug Pad USA. No lie. It may just change your life.

 

 

This post is sponsored by Rug Pad USA. Opinions expressed are 100% my own. 

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Faux Bois in the Living Room

This post is sponsored by Lamps.com. All opinions are 100% my own.

 

When Lamps.com approached me a little while ago about featuring one of their lamps, I ran - not walked - to their website to check stuff out. Like a greedy little... I dunno. Whatever's something very greedy and overly excitable about lighting options, I guess.

 

 

This lovely contemporary lamp sang to me from the cyberwebs. (Which isn't easy, btw.) It looks a bit reddish in these photos. In real life, the color is a pretty, rich shade of chocolate.

 

 

I love the streamlined look of the entire lamp - a simple base, slim lamp stem, and adjustable height feature. Design elements are neither overlooked nor wasted.

 

 

And, although it was a hard choice of lampshade (honestly, I kept going back and forth between about five of them), you just can't go wrong with faux bois. 

 

 

A table lamp is just what the corner of our living room has needed for a long time. (For real; we've read many a chapter squinting in the not-quite-sufficient-for-reading light of the track lights.) And this one is perfection.

 

 

Also, I just have to say: the original lamp base was damaged during shipping. I contacted Lamps.com and they promptly sent me another one, free of charge with no questions asked. Two thumbs up for that convenience in customer service.

 

What lamps are you guys loving lately? Have you added any faux bois to your décor? I'll admit it freely - I'm in L-O-V love with this trend.

 

Do what you want, but I'd highly recommend checking out Lamps.com - the fantastic lighting options they've got will astound you.


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Ikea Hack (Hemnes) with Cozy Wall Art Decal

This post is sponsored by Cozy Wall Art - creating products that accent the life and personality of a home. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

 

Most of you guys probably know by now that I have a thing, some might call it a fetish, for customizing Ikea furniture. (If you don't believe me or have forgotten, check out what I did to a Hemnes dresser, Lack table, and Malm dresser.)

 

While I've loved the results of my previous Ikea furniture personalization efforts, I have to say that those projects were waaaay more labor-intensive than the dresser makeover I'm about to show you now. And I love this one just as much, if not moreso.

 Let's start at the beginning. A few weeks ago, Cozy Wall Art contacted me and asked if I'd be willing to do a product review for them. I checked out their website and immediately fell in love with many of their products. The decals are actually designed for walls, but as soon as I saw this one, I knew I had to have it for my girls' dresser as a key part of their bedroom makeover.

 

Why would their dresser need any attention, you might be wondering? Three words: boring. white. laminate.

 

(Continue reading after the jump.)

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Signazon and a Fake 90th Birthday Bash

This post is sponsored by Signazon.com. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

 

Have you guys ever heard of Signazon? They're a customer-focused printing company that, although large, focuses on the details of each customer and every individual order to get it perfect.

 

The guys (and ladies) at Signazon don't just do business cards and photocopies. (Not that there's anything wrong with entities who DO do just those things, of course.) They provide a wide variety of printing-related products and services.

Here's just a glimpse of what Signazon does:

 

Custom Banners. I love this option. Do you have an annual holiday party that needs a little sprucing up in the décor department? (I'm looking at you, Christmas Sweater Party hosts) or a welcome home gathering in the not-so-distant future? Custom banners are great for a quick, bold statement and for outdoor use (especially if you live somewhere where inclement weather is a consideration for outdoor décor destruction...which, if you don't, please tell me where you live so I can move there).

 

 

Stationery. My knee-jerk reaction to custom stationery and letterhead is that they belong at an office. But I was at a neighbor's house the other day, and she had a stack of personalized stationery with her name on it on her home office desk. I found it adorable, and admit to a) coveting it and b) considering changing my name to be hers, if only for a week or two, so I could use her stationery. There's something awesomely personal about writing on paper that's designed to be uniquely your own.

 

 

Invitations. You guys (ladies) who come to this blog are an inspiringly creative, talented, and party-licious bunch. Which is why I think you might be interested in learning about Signazon's custom invitations. Doesn't the thought of having someone else do the invitations make your next party To-Do list breathe a sigh of momentary relief? There are so many options - the sky is virtually the limit here - this is a great feature.

 

 

Wedding Banners. Have you ever driven around a city trying to find a wedding and/or reception but been unsure whether or not the parked cars you see are an indication of your destination or if they're parked there for something else altogether and you would feel like a fool heading into what you thought would be a small garden wedding that turns out to be Vern & Ruby's 90th birthday bash, complete with amped up Billie Holiday and spiked Metamucil? (Note: Vern and Ruby are, in this instance, fictional characters invented to make my point. Not that I wouldn't wish anyone a happy 90th, of course. In fact, just in case: Happy Birthday, Vern! You too, Ruby.) But I digress. What I'm trying to say is that having a wedding banner to announce the festivities' location is not only helpful for out-of-town guests, but it's just plain fun. Plus, the newlyweds can take it do decorate their barren new living room walls (yep). Win-win.

 

 

 I hope you all check out Signazon for your everyday (and not-so-everyday) printing needs. (I'm especially looking at you, Vern & Ruby.) 

 

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This post is sponsored by Signazon.com. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

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