It’s the Monday before Thanksgiving and I know what’s on your collective mind: turkey and giblets. You were daydreaming about giblets, right? Because I really sense a giblet zeitgeist sweeping the nation… no? Well, I have been known to be wrong. Occasionally. Anyway, I should be preparing for the annual Thanksgiving trek, which will be made exponentially more interesting this year by the presence of a certain 4 month old someone during the six hour drive to Texarkana, but instead I have Black Friday on the brain. It’s not that I believe sales are more important than family, it’s just that I’m still on a decorating kick and I stumbled onto something I want, and damned if I’m paying full price for it (because I’m broke). Also, if you were trying to decide what to buy me for Christmas, here you go:

I know! It’s so… normal. So reasonable at $68. So very much not a bedazzled reindeer skull. But this colorblock rug from Urban Outfitters represents a little slice of inspiration for me. I think I want to redo my bedroom. You know — the bedroom I’ve never showed you because it’s so two years ago. I could keep most of my furniture in my fantasy redo, but I’m going to need a new headboard and linens. And a new rug. Me likey this one. It feels kinda Bauhaus to me. But I need it to go on sale because that other stuff ain’t gonna be free, and you know I just redid the dining room, and when The Hunny reads this he is going to KILLKILLKILL.

I digress. Sort of. You see, after I found this rug, I started looking at UO’s other offerings, and you know — they have some good stuff.

Like these pillows. I’ll take the top one, and maybe if Karly is nice, she’ll get the bottom one for a Christmas present. I’m a very giving person.

I would also like to give myself this origami quilt. I’m a bit concerned about the flowery underside, but I think overall it would do a swell job covering the futon in my office.

I could give this bench to Ike for his room, because I’m sure it tops every four month old’s Christmas list.

I tell you, The Hunny has just been slavering over this cotton Rorschach rug a la Andy Warhol, and who am I to deny his dreams? Of course, I wouldn’t put it on the floor. It would make a much better wall hanging or upholstery material.

I’m sure there’s someone out there who really needs this Rya style shag rug, but no one’s going to buy a 4×6 rug for $198, Urban Outfitters. Put that baby on sale!

I am really digging the arty prints and finishes on lots of UO’s home goods. I wouldn’t be mad if someone gave me this paint splatter vase.

However, I am wondering what you dudes think about this Painter’s Chair, so called because it’s covered in… paint. It’s $298. Thoughts?

And, ok, I know it’s not related to interiors, but I had to show you UO’s Booty Buddy Blanket. THAT IS A SNUGGIE. And yet I find it repulsively compelling…. This confirms my suspicion that Snuggies might actually be awesome if they came in nicer prints.

While I’m busy twiddling my thumbs waiting for some of this stuff to go on sale, you might want to head over and check out the home goods UO already has on sale, like Alexander Girard quilts for DIRT CHEAP (if you like that sort of thing),  good deals on kilim rugs, and cute lamps. It’s never to early to start Christmas shopping. For yourself. I mean for others.

Hidy Ho fair readers! First off, a gigantic HUGE apology for my absence yesterday.  I was out of town over the weekend and suffered major flight delays on my return home Monday night.  I was so out of sorts that I didn’t even realize yesterday was Tuesday until Erin sent me a gentle nudge asking where the hell I was.  Oops!  I was sure that it was still Monday and I was well ahead for the post I was planning.  So, you guys have to suffer at the hands of the airlines and my flakiness.  But, enough about me, let’s get to what you want to hear about:  Our Great Rug Give Away winner!!!!

We enlisted the help of Erin’s techy hubby Ben who found us, no kidding, a random number generator.  La generator tells us that comment number 74 was the winner so….

CONGRATULATIONS MARMOREE!!!!

Holla!  Contact us here to get your rug on.

Marmoree commented that she will be choosing the soft and flowery rug:

As anyone who has been in my home can attest, I love me some grey and white.  Good choice, Mam, good choice.  Karly approved!

When we were first asked to do the give away, not only did I start fantasizing about which rug I would choose, but also, how I would decorate a room around it.  Because I felt like spending my blog-prep time today looking at crap on ebay rather than doing real, ahem, research, I decided to play pretend decorator just a little longer.  Here is the rug I chose:

With this rug as inspiration, I gave myself a time limit: THIRTY MINUTES ONLY, a budget: unlimited, and one site to shop from: ebay.   Oh, I also decided that my rug was 8 x 10, while our give away version is just an area rug. Here’s what I got:

Ok, so a few key pieces are missing:  artwork behind the couch, a bit more lighting, a giant gold dipped poodle statue, but, well, with the clock ticking down from 30, I was RACING.  Look, I love you all, but I can get sucked into some ebay, I had to set the timer for the good of my mental health.  Here’s the skinny on the goods I did find:

1.  The very first thing I decided to hunt down was a floor lamp, industrial, please.  I was delighted to find this French bendy twisty number and new we would be best friends forever.

2.  La couch:  while I wanted to go with vintage, I had a hard time finding the right look that didn’t need to be recovered.  White leather is always welcome in my home, so I settled for this Tufted Leather Sectional.

3.  I spent far too much time digging up tables, my desktop folder lives to tell the tail, but finally decided that this Baughman end table was the winner.

4.  The round glass coffee table made the cut because I passed one up on craigslist once and have regretted it ever since.  Note, the ebay version is chrome, but you can bet your bottom dollar that I would have that puppy powder coated in gold faster than you can say “but chrome is so nice.”  Note part deux:  The ebay table is $599, the craigslist version was $60.  I fucked up.

5.  While I didn’t have time to find art, I did wrangle these German vases

6. And a few throw pillows here, here and here

Since my pretend walls are still bare, how about you dudes make some suggestions?

Here at Design Crisis, we are givers. True, we like to give to ourselves most of all, but every now and then Karly and I have our Oprah moments and get spazzy with the giveaways. I trust that you will all stampede each other in cyberspace, and/or faint at the awesomeness of our latest contest sponsored by CSN Rugs, because — let’s face it — what is a giveaway without drama?

I know, I know — simply reading DC is already prize enough, right? Well, your heads are all bound to spin at the extra special prize you can win just for submitting a comment, which will make you eligible to win your choice of these fabulous wool rugs — oh and check out their entire selection of rugs while you’re at it!

Mmmm, mmm, 2×3 feet of sexy tufted wool…

Maybe you’d prefer this one?

Or perhaps bold and graphic is more your style?

Neutral with a kick is always in vogue.

Or maybe you’re having a soft and flowery moment…

So, is your head still there, or did it spin off into outer space at the very thought that you could win a brand, spankin’ new wool rug just by leaving a comment? Hello…?

THE FINE PRINT — READ IT!

To make yourself eligible for the contest, you must leave a comment on this post by Sunday, June 28. A random drawing will be held in top secret by Karly and myself on Monday morning, and the winner will be announced on Tuesday.

The winner will be able to choose ONE of the rugs featured in this post, all of which are available in the 2′x3′ size. Sorry — wish we could giveaway an area rug! Maybe if you’re reallllly good, then next time… But, check out their entire selection of rugs to lather up your lust in the meantime.

Only readers from the United States are eligible, and we can’t ship to PO Box addresses, either. Use your grandma’s address, already!

Once the winner is chosen, CSN will ship the 2×3 foot rug of your choice directly to you. If — for some crazy reason — your top choice is out of stock, we’ll just ask you to choose again.

Ok? Sound good? Aaaannnnnnnndddddddddddddddd GO!

Even though summer is coming and cool, bare floors are perfect for hot Texas temperatures, I’ve been thinking about rugs a lot. There’s nary a stitch of carpet in our house and I like it that way, but I have a feeling baby will not. There’s no way I’m installing carpet over our gorgeous wood floors, but I have the overwhelming urge to pad every flat surface in some sort of thick woolen coating. Kind of like this waiting area designed by Tjep:

Sorry about the bad picture, but are you not sorely tempted to create your very own padded cell from Persian rugs? No more fretting over paint colors or furniture choices, just tell the carpet store you’ll take everything they’ve got in Tabriz, including this guy from Hannes Grebin:

Holy bejeesus, I totally want to start cutting up all my ugly rugs in bizarre shapes and then sewing fringe on the edges. It would solve my everlasting boredom with rectangles problem, while still allowing me to escape from the ubiquitous animal shaped rug (Cows, zebras and ponies, I prefer to see you in your natural state — no need to undress for me).

Despite disparaging the rectangle, I wouldn’t kick this sexy number out of the bedroom. Can you believe the peeps over at AT panned the Downloading Rug by Richard Hutten? Oh well. More for me. Still, I’m not sure baby would appreciate the sense of humor inherent in Hutten’s rug — unless he takes after daddy and is born a baby computer genius. Hopefully he won’t take after mommy’s swiss cheese brain.

Somehow I am thinking baby would prefer for me to cover everything in bright bespoke carpet, like this townhouse decorated by Danielle at Fun on the Floor. I actually think the stairs are super cuteamous, but sorry, baby — ain’t got no stairs.

Meanwhile, mommy has some rugs picked out, but they aren’t exactly kid friendly.

Oh, Dan Golden’s rugs make me laugh! It’s a good thing his area rugs cost upwards of $13,000, otherwise I’m not sure I could stop myself from buying one.

And then there’s the Roadkill rug by Oooms. Since I’m pretty sure my entire house will look like this in a few years anyway, I figure might as well save my money and pick something else.

This super textural rug by Dacia Manto might make a good base for junior’s creations. The neutral background will allow his jelly sculptures to stand out while the shaggy pile will add interest to the rest of the field. Plus I just really like this one.

Did you know that Timorous Beasties — makers of crazy wallpaper — also makes rugs? Wait! I think I may have chosen a name for our son…

So, our own timorous beastie probably has some ideas of his own about rugs he’d like (to ruin).

This foam rug by Laurens Van Wieringen is obviously kid approved. Plus it has the added bonuses of texture, pattern and color — three known strategies to disguise peanut butter and puke.

Apparently, older, undie clad children who can’t be bothered to put down the laptop enjoy staring at the melting icecap featured in Nanimarquina‘s Global Warming rug. Seriously, what is up with this picture?

Another Dan Golden gem. This one’s a bit more age appropriate. Of course, I still prefer his Morphine rug.

How cute is this rug by Richard Niessen and Jennifer Tee? This would truly, honestly look great in the nursery, but I shudder to even contemplate its cost. I’m not too bummed, though, because although I love this rug, it’s not even my favorite one.

I’ve pretty much decided on Dialogue, by Anne Lykke:

That’s right. Do I care that it looks like (and may actually be) a photoshopped image of a standard shag rug with a few moppets thrown on top? No, I do not. I would cover over my wood floors for this rug. Nevermind that the cat would get lost in a sea of wooly stands, or that we might lose the baby altogether, it looks so soft. And simple. And that sounds good right now.

Did you know chevron (no, not the gas station) is the new zebra? Seriously, it’s everywhere. Exhibit A:

Walnut Wallpaper‘s amazing collection of wall coverings includes this hand printed beauty by Paper Mills, which is even named Zebra, although clearly it’s a chevron pattern, right? I like this so much better than zebra (even though I do, of course, have the ubiquitous rug in my dining room) because it’s less safari and more classic. Plus I totally feel like I could paint or stencil this (a la Karly, the stencil queen) on a wall myself!

Exhibit B: When I saw this post on Decorno‘s blog featuring House of Mann fabric in the grandest scale ever, I knew I was going to have to do some serious shopping research into this chevron business.

I already see myself lazing away in this canopy while DH fans me with palm fronds and feeds me grapes… I have a feeling he probably doesn’t share the same vision, but I may have to order some of that fabric for outdoor cushions anyway. House of Mann swears it’s mildew and UV resistant, and since hemp is a renewable resource, it might temporarily assuage some of the guilt borne by my rampant consumerist tendencies. Probably not, though.

Exhibit… whatever: Once I started looking in earnest, I found that chevrons come in a zillion color combinations, some resembling Missoni from its heyday in the seventies, and some even produced by Missoni today.

Clockwise from top left: Pillow by Twinkle Living at Design Public, Lulu DK chevron fabric, Missoni’s current offerings at Sak’s Fifth Avenue, and a crazy awesome hooked wool rug from the American Country Home Store. Yep.

Although I am digging some of the colorful options — especially that insane rug — I really like chevron  best when it pairs one light tone with one dark one, because simplicity is the chevron’s ace in the hole. Check out these amazing Madeline Weinrib Rugs. Don’t worry. They’re not expensive. They are ridiculously expensive, because Madeline Weinrib is an atelier, you see, and things made by an atelier (insert accent) cost a lot of money. Don’t ask me why.

(Photo on right courtesy of Domino)

God, I really want that rug, but I’m not a millionaire… crap, I’m not even a thousandaire, so I may have to do as adorable deal hunter Nick Olsen did and whitewash a flatweave rug (like a dhurrie, sisal or seagrass) and then paint some colored chevron stripes on it:

(Photo courtesy of Bellasugar)

Love the navy, white, and oregano green, paint palette… and do I spy a hint of my new favorite color in there? Dreamy!

My last issue of Domino also featured this super cool chevron patterned urn distributed by Zocalo:

Hooray for the foray into 3D surfaces! The chevron does a great job of defining volume and classic black and white always works because it’s graphic enough to be punchy, white still accommodating a range of decorating possibilities. This chevron has all the positive attributes of the beloved zebra print, but it just doesn’t feel like it’s trying so hard.