Area Rugs 101: The Top 3 Places I Find Rugs... (when I don't get lucky at HomeGoods)
We have mostly hardwood floors in our house with the exception of two guest rooms, which we had newly carpeted the week before we moved in (because the idea of someone else's dust, dirt, and dander grossed me the **** out). So upon moving in we were met with the task of finding 7 area rugs for our home, all of varying sizes.
Lucky for anyone reading this- I watched company sales for an entire year prior to buying our home when I would receive home decor magazines in the mail (because I'm that frugal and budget conscious). I would clip out "ideas" for rugs and paste them in my "one-day book" that I mentioned in prior posts.
What I noticed was that most companies have certain items that go on sale at the same time every year. (For example: Bassett always has their major 30% sale in the month of October, Home Office furniture usually goes on sale in the month of September, Organization items go on sale in January- which of course goes right along with New Year's Resolutions.)
Now my first choice for reasonably priced rugs would of course be HomeGoods. But, when it comes to HomeGoods you have to be patient and go often to come upon the right rug. There's something about the "hunt" that I love and I consider a hobby, however HomeGoods is always hit or miss and most people just don't have the time to frequent HomeGoods multiple times a week like I do. ( BTW Sign you have an HG problem: when the workers know your name and one comments that they haven't seen you in a whole week : P) Most often your best bet is to find rugs online and there are some great sites out there that also are budget conscious.
So when it comes to finding area rugs online, the top three places I search and find great quality, reasonably priced, and multiple-sizes-offered rugs are:
1. RugsUSA.com
2. Esalerugs.com
3. Homedecorators.com
The Pros & Cons of each:
1. RugsUSA : Rugusa.com is the number one spot I find great rugs at reasonable prices.
Pros: What I love about this site: Searchability (is that a word?) I love how it is so easy to search for a rug. You can search by price, size, color, style, materials, and brands. Most rugs come in multiple sizes, which is especially great if you are buying a living room rug and you want a runner to match in another area of the room. You can even narrow your search by popular rugs that others are purchasing. Selection: They have 1000's of rugs in different patterns, colors, weaves, styles, etc. Favorites: If you create an account you can favorite rugs you like by clicking the heart and adding them to your wishlist. It's an easy way of cataloging rugs you come upon in case you want to compare them and decide between a bunch. Shipping: It's free and fast. I was amazed at how many of the rugs I've ordered for my own home or homes I've decorated- come sometimes less than 48 hours after I've purchased them. Sales: There is almost always a sale going on. If there's not, do yourself a favor and wait for an upcoming holiday. There's always a promo code (that they offer right on the website) of 20% and even 30% off just prior to holidays: Labor Day, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, St. Patrick's Day, you name it. Advice: Not sure what rug size to buy? Click the Rugs101 tab in the upper right-hand corner and the website will give you great tips on determining what size.
Cons: This biggest drawback of this website is if you wish to return a rug. If you change your mind- you do have to pay return shipping (which in some cases can be as much as $25). This includes you dragging the rug to your nearest shipping place, or they can schedule a pick-up. But if you work like me- you might not feel comfortable leaving a large item by your front door to be picked up when you're not home. However, if the rug isn't as pictured, you can call and customer service is pretty good about covering the cost of shipping if the rug truly isn't what's been pictured (which has only happened to me once in the 20+ times I've ordered from this website).
Tip: Create an account and put a rug in your cart, then exit the website. Within an hour or so you'll get an email from the company inviting you back to "what you left in your cart"- with an additional percentage off. Sometimes this percentage is better than the sale that's going on. Remember to type in promo codes in your cart before checkout, they are not automatically applied. Also, forgo buying the rug pad if your rug needs it. Homegoods sells them in the back by the rugs for a ton cheaper ($7.99-$14.99 depending on the size).
2. Esalerugs.com: My second go-to is this site.
Pros: Searchability: The "search ability" is ok- I just find Rugsusa's easier. Favorites: Like mentioned above esalerugs also has a "Favorites" which they refer to as a "Wishlist", so it's easy to catalog rugs that you find to go back and compare. Selection: They to have thousands of rugs with many different size choices. Sales: They have great sales usually around holidays as well- I just find Rugsusa sales and promo codes to be better. *Shipping: the biggest pro of this website over Rugusa is that they offer free shipping and free returns. I love this because I feel much more comfortable ordering a rug, knowing that if I change my mind, I have 30 days to return it.
Cons: They don't offer promo codes on top of sales like Rugsusa does. When they are having sales, it doesn't mean every rug is on sale like on Rugsusa.
3. Homedecorators.com: The Home Decorators Collection has now been taken over by Homedepot.com :( ---> Read Cons to find out why this upsets me.
Pros: Selection: They have close to 12,000 rugs in varying sizes and I have found some of my best and most favorite rugs in my home from this company. Savings Center Filter: Homedecorators/Homedepot does run "special buys", where you can get great deep discounts on certain rugs. Which is perfect if you're frugal like me. Shipping: It's free and you can return the rug to your nearest Homedepot if you aren't happy with it. Store Availability: since this company has been taken over by Home Depot- sometimes the rug you are looking for is available at your nearest store, and you have the option of doing "pick-up" at the customer service desk.
Cons: Price: the rugs they offer aren't as reasonably priced as they once were. The biggest con is that if you now go to homedecorators.com you will be redirected to Home Depot's website- where you can "search" the Home Decorators Collection- among other companies they offer. About half the rugs in my home were purchased when HomeDecorators.com was it's own separate entity from the Home Depot. Unfortunately, that site was much easier to navigate, the "search-ability" was amazing, and the sales were soooo much better than they are now (every October and March they had amazing rug sales/promo codes). We also use to get magazines from Home Decorators that had home decor, furniture, rugs, curtains, etc. Now that it's been taken over by the Home Depot and these sites have been combined- all of those items are lost in the mix of everything else the Home Depot site has to offer- and that's a large CON to me. Don't get me wrong- it's still one of my top three places to find beautiful rugs, it's just not as easy and great as it once was.
**Updated** April 2018...4th Place: Just found boutiquerugs.com off surfing instagram... bought this awesome rug for a recent room I decorated in a client's home. Love their rugs as well
Check it out here:
Honorable Mentions
Wayfair and Jossandmain come in 5th and 6th- but it's usually hit or miss and reminds me of an online "HomeGoods" at times.
I hope you enjoyed this post! Happy rug hunting :)
If you enjoyed this post check out my latest post on my favorite rugs that are currently on sale:
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