Our First Area Carpet & Building Some Iron Pipe Shelves

For some strange reason, I’ve recently become infatuated with area carpets. I always had a fondness for them, but just a few weeks ago, things have gone to a new level. At the wee hours of the night, I find myself watching random “Turkish Carpet” sales videos on Youtube. You know the ones; tourists get off the cruise ships and get hustled into the carpet stores to watch presentations on all the beautiful carpets the artisans of Turkey have to offer. Those pitches look pretty fun, if you ask me.

Since the thousands of dollars is too rich for my blood when it comes to an area rug, I decided to look to the next best area for something similar – Home Depot. Surprisingly, they’ve got quite the offering in this store and many of the carpets are very appealing. Especially if they were sprawled out on a new laminate floor, such as the one I recently installed.

Last week, after Laura and I went grocery shopping, we decided to stop in at Reny’s. We always do this, so it was nothing new. This time though, I had a goal in mind. I wanted to see if they had any area rugs that I might like. I knew, from previous visits, that they sold rugs. I just didn’t know if they sold anything exotic looking specifically for me.

Well, just as luck would have it, I fell in love with a small three by four rug that would fit perfectly under my chair. I grabbed it. That, combined with the very elegant and beautiful eight by ten area rug I purchased from Home Depot just a few days later makes the log cabin room really come alive. Here, take a look.

The larger one is from Home Depot and the smaller one is from Renys. The larger one is called “Home Dynamix Bazaar Emy Red/Ivory Area Rug” and I picked it up for $179. As I mentioned earlier, it measures approximately ten feet by eight feet, which is a perfect size to cover some of the floor and to fit under Steve and Alecia’s old couch. That looks elegant as well, by the way.

Here’s another angle of one of the rugs.

Doesn’t it look nice?

The smaller rug from Renys is a “Genesis” and cost $29.99. I though that was a deal too, given that it will protect the floor from all my rolling around in my chair. I do a lot of that.

In other news, I recently decided to try my hand at making some of those ever-so-popular iron pipe shelves. I love smaller DIY projects. The way these things work is like this; each shelf needs at least two pipe assemblies. An assembly includes a flange, a pipe and an end cap. Each assembly gets screwed to the wall. Take a look.

I bought some 3/4 inch plywood and cut four pieces that measured four feet by eleven inches. Then, I sanded, stained and polyurethaned each piece. I measured, leveled and installed the pipes on the wall and when the wood was dry, I simply placed the pieces on the pipes.

I hung four shelves in all. I think they look good. I just need to find some stuff to put on them. The only issues I was confronted with was some chipping of the wood when I cut it and the stain coming out way too dark. The sample color on the can looks nothing like this. I don’t mind, but I would have preferred some accuracy. I’m sure I did something wrong. If I get sick of looking at this wood, I’ll swap it out with something else. It’s not like it’s screwed down at all.

Also, the next time I make shelves like this, I’ll also cut a strip of wood to screw the pipes to. Then, I’ll screw the strip to the wall. I think that will be better overall for strength.

Let me know what you think. The room is really coming along. All I need to do is to install the trap door, some moldings and some curtains. Then, one really long shelf for the back wall and I’m finished. I think I’ll be in awe when I’m done. This has been a long time coming.