Many moons ago, in a budget far, far away, I dreamt of a bedroom rug that would feel soft underfoot, help to dampen the sound (for better movie watching), and would help to make our nearly 90 year-old house feel warmer in the depths of a New England winter. I could find rugs that I loved (no problem there) and then I would see the price. Ugh. Many were in the, cough, cough, $4,000 range (notice the giant exclamation point above my head, a la Metal Gear Solid). Now, let’s get real here: we have a dog (who likes to vomit on rugs, like she did this morning), we aren’t perfect (I do occasionally spill things like tea), and I can’t justify spending that much money on something that will mainly be covered by the bed. So the hunt continued.

Finding rugs that I love in an affordable price range (under $700)… well, not so easy, actually. Most of them (that I could imagine tolerating) were solid, with very little texture, and read like wall-to-wall carpeting (gross). The ones that weren’t solid were uber-traditional – intricate scrolly bits, lots of red, black, gold and green – and that’s not my bag (baby). So hunting went on like this for some time. Years, in fact. Until I looked in the most unexpected place: the baby department. Seriously. That’s where I found what I was looking for. No, I’m not kidding.

I had wanted a tone-on-tone color story for the master bedroom: neutrals of greys, creams, taupes, silvers, whites all mixed together with different textures to create a soothing place to sleep, relax or be, uhem, romantic. Ironically, those same moods are often the goal (sans the romance) of nursery design. No one wants to have a baby’s room that’s saturated with primary colors (that’s more for a toddler), or stimulating like a teenager’s room (hot pinks, electric blue, neon green), so it turned out that the baby department was the way to go. Plus, the prices of these things are on par with what people tend to want to/be able to spend on furnishing a nursery. And the rugs are meant to be played or crawled on, so they’re really soft. Ding ding ding! Winner!

So, when you add the damask wall stencil that I did on the wall a few weeks ago with the tonal warm white rug you get, well, a dreamy, soft, peaceful place to rest your head. Mind you the room’s not done yet – we’re still looking for curtains, waiting on an order for a new ceiling light, and have designs on replacing our bed – but it’s getting there. Quietly. Prettily. Softly. Nighty nighty.

Enjoy!

* Lyrics from Corinne Bailey Rae’s Trouble Sleeping off her self-titled debut album.