Magic Carpet.

We have been slowly making our way to a more settled and finished apartment, and I am straining to heed the advice of many of my lovely readers: “take your time! wait for the right pieces!” We still have a couch to find, a dining table/chairs to locate, and a number of other smaller pieces to carefully select — and so I am finding myself alternating between decision paralysis and a reckless bias towards action. Fortunately, Serena & Lily helped us complete our master bedroom (now we only need to mount our TV on the wall and find a small piece of furniture for my printer over in the corner of the room I now dub my office/writing nook) by sending us one of their stunning rugs, all of which are marked down until tomorrow. I selected this beautiful Amelia hand-knotted style in the prettiest shade of blue and it has transformed our bedroom. S&L has been my ride-or-die partner in design, as so many of their pieces have elevated and completed various iterations of rooms in our homes in the past few years. This rug is no exception. It is absolutely breathtaking in person, and even though we’ve not yet hung artwork in our room (we will be soon hanging some framed Audubon bird prints above the lamps on both side tables), the room now feels “finished,” especially alongside our upholstered bed (coincidentally, also from S&L — the first item I purchased from them years ago) and my new and cherished raffia dresser (which you can see in the background of one of the pictures below). We ordered our rug in the 8×10, as I recently saw a helpful diagram demonstrating the proper dimensions for various rooms and arrangements, and apparently an 8×10 is the ideal size for a queen bed with two bedside tables. It sophisticates and focuses the room — not to mention softens its look and feel, as you can see from the “before” and “after” pictures below.

We did not have a large master bedroom rug in our former apartment as the room was oddly shaped and we instead used small 2×3 size rugs at our bedsides (similar to this), and Mr. Magpie and I now feel like we missed out on a small daily joy for years of our lives: it is the absolute loveliest, most luxurious feeling to jump out of bed onto the soft cushion of a carpet in the morning! (Why am I so late to the game on this?) I will also say that though this rug will need to be professionally cleaned on a regular basis (I have learned that hand-knotted rugs — especially beautifully-crafted ones like this! — will need to be removed and cleaned offsite, whereas professional cleaners can actually come to your apartment and treat your machine-made rugs on premises), its design will cleverly disguise dirt/debris in the months intervening. I also originally considered this gorgeous diamond-print rug for the room but am so glad I introduced blue into the mix with the Amelia rug, as our bedroom would have otherwise been fifty shades of gray…

I’m so happy we ended up ordering a rug for our bedroom, as it feels like a relief to have at least one room that is done — and a room where I spend the vast majority of my time no less, as I pass most mornings writing in here. However, we did also consider this diamond jute rug for our dining room, as we felt the neutral would be inviting and versatile no matter what dining set we select, and I very seriously contemplated ordering this rug in the blue or this fun textured rug for micro’s nursery (we thought either would be perfect with his Nash crib). I am still on the hunt for the perfect entryway rug, and S&L’s current discount on all rugs is enticing me to select another piece of theirs. We have a long foyer that runs the length of our dining room and then widens a little bit in an area in front of two hall closets before opening up to the living room, so I’m torn between a runner for when you first walk in or maybe an area rug in the spot where we have the closet doors. I think it might look odd to have both a runner and a rug in tandem with one another, so it feels like we need one or the other. Decisions, decisions — but regardless, I am smitten with this Mirabelle in the ivory whether we end up with a runner or an area rug for the space. Mr. Magpie is voting for the latter, as we are thinking we might hang one of our larger pieces of art right there and place two x-benches beneath it. The rug would make that area feel like a proper room — an intentional space! — for putting on shoes and coats, and trust me when I say you really have to make the most of every last inch in a New York apartment.

P.S. I wrote about this yesterday, but purchasing a rug pad to place beneath a high-end rug like this is essential. It not only protects the rug and the floor, but it softens the feel underfoot.

This post written in collaboration with Serena & Lily. Thank you, Serena & Lily, for the beautiful rug!