When I first moved into my condo, one of the first things I decided I needed to buy was a  rug for my living room.  I didn't have one in my old apartment, and even if I had it wouldn't have fit in my new 12'x16' space.  I'd read in a few different decor magazines that if you're starting a room from scratch it's always better to purchase a rug first, as apparently it's easier to match upholstery to a rug than the other way around (If you read my earlier post, I had some difficulty finding a fabric for my sofa to match my new rug so I can't begin to imagine trying to match a rug to an upholstered piece).

I was somewhat focused in my living room rug search in that I only went to one store.  That's right, just one.  I did however visit every single location of that store in the Greater Toronto Area (I'm not kidding, we looked at every one from Mississauga, to Scarborough and even north to Vaughan).  The store in question was HomeSense.  HomeSense is great for all sorts of things, but unfortunately for me being carless makes it a little difficult to visit.  There are a couple of locations in the city, but they just aren't as massive and magical as the ones you can find in suburbia.  Handily my mom came to town for a week or so to help me move, so I made use of her car.  Aren't moms wonderful??

When you go into HomeSense the rugs are hung very neatly from the walls which is great - you can flip through them quickly and see the whole rug easily - not like some carpet stores where they're piled up on the floor and in order to see one you fold back the corner of the one above it, and invariably the only rug you're even slightly interested in seeing is the one on the bottom, so you have to somehow lift up the 25 or so rugs above it. . . . Ugh! I get winded just thinking about it . .

The only problem with buying a huge rug a HomeSense is you have to

Given that delivering rugs is oh-so fun,  my mom and I did it twice as the first one I bought looked decidedly washed out against my hardwood floor.  The second rug purchase worked much better, and thankfully it stayed on my floor once we'd heaved it into my home - have I mentioned that my condo in on the second floor in a building with no elevator?