For the past couple of months, I've been wanting to make some changes in my living room and freshen it up. While, I love the flat weave rug in our living room and the color grey. It was just too much grey, grey sofas + grey walls + grey rug = grey overload. One of the cool things about having hardwood floors in your home, is they can handle loads of color. After looking at a slew of rug options, I came to the conclusion a natural fiber rug for our living room would be a fantastic option and look timeless.

I'm a modern girl at heart I love clean lines and non-fussy spaces and I also love classic elements in rooms that look good year after year. I'm all about staying power when it comes to my foundation pieces in my home. I've been a fan of natural rugs for quite sometime, specially woven jute rugs. Prior to re-building our floor, we had a jute rug in our living room. Jute rugs just look so timeless and can be a great foundation for laying another rug on-top. After searching high and low, I found a fantastic Woven Jute rug, and I'm in love!

Our new rug arrived about three weeks ago, and I wanted to make sure I absolutely loved the rug before sharing all the deets on the blog. I ordered the Barley Twist Jute Natural rug from West Elm for an incredible price, only $399 for a 9x12 rug. Which was a total steal! I was a little nervous to pair a natural color rug with my grey sofas, but they look so fantastic together.

I'm also happy, I went with a larger area rug this time, the 9x12 rug fills out our small living room nicely and basically floats in the room, with about 1.5 feet to spare. Another plus, is the light color and larger size helps to create the illusion our living room is bigger by drawing your eyes down and out. We placed the new rug over our existing rug pad to give the jute jug extra cushion + help protect our hardwood floors.

Barely Twist Jute Rug Pluses & Negatives

The woven pattern & design look fantastic both in real life & in person
The bottom of the rug is almost flat woven like, nagative - the rug can;t be flipped
Its pretty soft underfoot, but can feel a little bumpy
We've experienced a little shedding on the rug, which is normal since its made with natural fibers

I was a little nervous to unroll the rug since our puppy is only 8 months, I was mostly concerned with him getting overexcited and marking our rug! I was also nervous about his nails potentially getting caught in the rug. So far all my fears, haven't happened! Our puppy seems to like layer on the rug.

I'm seriously smitten & addicted to Jute rugs, they're perfect options for high traffic areas. My family spends a lot of time in our living room and this rug will for sure get a lot of action. Next up on my list to update in our living room, pillows. You all know how much I love pillows and now that my floors have gotten some love, its time to give my sofas some love with new pillows. I freaking cannot wait until the goodies arrive in my mailbox, I'm so ready to do a happy pillow dance. I'll share more pictures of our living room, along with some additional changes I'm considering making to our space once the pillows arrive and are in place.

What time of rug do you have in your living room? Are you a natural fiber rug person too? What do you think our new rug?

Hello friends! I've missed you all like crazy, how in the heck has it been a month since I've last blogged. I've been working a few projects around my house, a few updates to my living room that I'll share on Wednesday. I started the series Small Home Style to inspire & share stylish ideas to incorporate into small spaces. Living in a small space can be a design challenge, from figuring out furniture placement, to determining storage solution for small bathrooms. However, with challenges comes the opportunity to make it work and get creative. As a small home dweller myself, I'm in the trenches making my small home work harder for my family while remaining stylish.

I recently came across this amazing 540 square foot home and I just had to share all the clever design and storage ideas. The stylish house was designed by Jessica Helergerson. Both the exterior & interior have me dreaming up some fresh ideas to incorporate into my she shed.

The front door opens to the sweet kitchen and dining room area. The kitchen and dining room area, feel like the heart of the home. The rectangle table others plenty of seating and can easily transform from lazy brunch to elegant evening in. The wood burning stove is a charming addition in the dining room and kitchen spaces.

image via Jessica Helgerson Interior Design

I'm in the love with the ship lap siding inside the cottage and love love the focal wall of re-claimed wood used backslash in the kitchen. The natural wood tones look so good against the white interior walls.

Floor to ceiling bookcases are perfect for small spaces, not only do they provide great storage solutions. Bookcases also help draw the eyes up and out helping a small room look larger. The ladder leads to the master bedroom loft area.

The loft area feels bright and open, even though its teeny tiny space. Since the space was too small for side tables, wall sconces are the perfect solution.

The kids bedroom and built-in bunks are so perfect for space. Seriously bunk beds have come such a long way and are fantastic space savers.

Small Home Style: Design Takeaways

Use a vintage buffet or hutch to add additional storage options for dinnerware in small dining rooms and kitchens
Consider using one color palette in small open areas
Have extra funds laying around? Raise the roof and turn a flat ceiling into a vaulted one
Add bookcases either free standing or built-in
Use wall sconces when space is at a premuin for side tables