I recently moved to an apartment with a very long and narrow living room (12' wide x 25' long). This is creating a challenge for me and my MCM furniture because I want to leave space open but if I leave it too open, it feels vacant -- yet I'm concerned about a cluttering it up as well...
Good Questions: Living With Carpet and MidCentury Decor?
Los Angeles
My carpet is an ugly beige color and looks awkward with a square shag rug on top. I'm trying to find a way to tie my mid century modern style'd furniture together and have been told a rug is a great way to do it. I'm wondering if you have any suggestions? I've thought perhaps a shaped rug might work better?
Also, do you have any links or photos of MCM living rooms with built in carpet for inspiration? Thanks, Brett
Hi Brett, there's a few examples of MCM decorated spaces from our house tours showing rooms appointed with carpets...and even one with a rug ontop of carpet. Check out Sam’s Sydney Simplicity, which shows a shag with a patterned carpet below it.
Another striking MCM example of using rug ontop of carpet is from Gregory's Palm Springs In the Suburbs, where the living room was decorated with a large pattern rug ontop of the neutral carpeting.
And small rugs can also be used to compliment (or distract away from) the carpeting, as the case was with Derek's MCM themed carpeted apartment, shown in his house tour, Gidget Gets a Sex Change.
We also recommend looking at playing with FLOR carpet tiles, which allows for unique patterns, shapes, and layout that often work well with MCM style decor at a reasonable price. Anyone else out there with similar carpet conundrums they've solved? Resources to share?
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Personally, I think beige carpeting is kind of boring, but being ubiquitous and neutral, it's easy to ignore as a "statement" and just decorate around it. I have had it in nearly every home I have lived in, it no longer bothers me. (In fact, I deliberately chose beige -- albeit with a "carved" pattern -- for my brand new bedroom. Beige reminds me of tatami mats, and I was going for a vaguely contemporary Asian theme.)
Anyhow, just find a mid-century style area rug, if you need something in the space, or enjoy the spaciousness. Period MCM rooms didn't fill every bit of space, after all.
view SherryBinNH's profile
I'd break the room into at least two areas or it'll get awkward quickly. You could do two seating areas or a seating area and an office, or something. Can't help with the MCM vibe, as it's not my thing, but long, skinny rooms I can work with. Good luck!
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile
I'd avoid Flor tiles on carpet—they tend buckle on anything but a flat, flat surface.
view Veruca's profile
Except in front of the front door, I don't do rugs on carpet - it looks too cluttered. I just embrace the beige...mostly because I don't spend the day staring at my floor and I seriously doubt anyone else does.
view ChrisGal's profile
I succumbed to my first beige WTW carpet this year in a new apartment I otherwise love - I know how you feel! I ended up painting some walls richer colors, which draw the eye up from the carpet, and placing a smooth, dhurrie style carpet on top in one room. That worked well as it lays flat, and the colors happened to blend. You can see some pics from an old AT contest here...
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/northwest-6-yojmacs-outdoorsy-relaxing-colors-065621
Good luck :)
view yojmac's profile
Personally I wouldn't stress much about the carpet. Beige WTW totally recedes and I, for one, don't even notice when I walk into someone's home and they have it. Cover it with a rug if you like - the awkwardness is probably more from having a square rug in such an exaggerated rectangular room than from being on top of carpet.
But I agree with Veruca about the Flor tiles. Definitely more for a nice, smooth wood floor.
view bigwavejen's profile
Both of my grandmothers had beige wall-to-wall with their MCM furniture. It may not be aesthetically ideal, but it's authentic.
view Lisa (Montreal)'s profile
"FLOR can be installed in virtually any area that has a clean, hard, dry surface. FLOR should NOT be installed over carpeting or padding*...
* FLOR has a firm, but flexible backing. Installation of FLOR over a soft subfloor or existing carpeting or rugs will cause the tiles to separate when weight is applied to the surface."
http://www.flor.com/service/flor/install_instructions.html?id=wKyMTzgV
view bepsf's profile
In my rental, the worst part by far is the wall-to-wall carpet, which is a weird, 80's(?) chevron stripe - mainly grey, black, white with bits of blue, green, beige, purple in there too. very weird. we put a large, plain seagrass area rug over it to tone down the pattern a little.
view annekeo's profile
My condo has WtW carpet (beige, of course) in the living/dining room and bedroom... until I can afford to replace it with either bamboo or wood, I've found that a colorful MCM-esque rug in the living area looks reasonably nice. Unfortunately the cowhide that my mom bought for me just blends in and doesn't look quite 'right'.
BTW- I didn't realize until the past couple of years that I grew up with mostly Danish Modern in my parents' old house (some of which I have today), but we always had wall-to-wall carpet and I don't recall it being bad... oh wait, that was dark brown shag carpeting in the '70s :-)
view joe_russo31's profile