New living room rug

Our living room rug came from Overstock.  I had mixed feelings on the color at first, but I'm warming up to it and it's really soft and comfy. 




We had to put the rug pad down first.  Rug pads by the way, need to be trimmed to fit.  Also moving the furniture around to put a heavy rug under it is really frustrating. 




Once we had gotten the rug under the sofa and looking good, my husband raised concerns that the rug was too far under the couch and was making the room look too...large on the left? I did not care for his concerns or having to pick up the couches again. 

However, I do agree that it looks better with equal amounts of wood floor on either side. 

We also realized it would be best to just prop up the couch with books so that we could move the rug around without massive lifting and swearing.  I recommend this method. 

Floors, and the rugs that cover them

Having hardwood floor means needing area rugs.  We've been avoiding this issue for awhile because well, rugs are expensive and they are daunting. I do not have good taste, I don't know what a rug needs!

It is challenging to know what goes into a quality rug.  It's also hard, when you are eco-friendly and trying to consume fewer products made in unethical factories (I conveniently decided this after we bought everything from Ikea), to know where to buy a rug that is going to be durable and also not made by children in a third world country. 

We also need an oddly sized rug for our living room if we want it to run the full length of both couches - about 5'x13' should do it.  Which is a weird rug size, since 5x7 or 8x10 seems to be the norm.  All of this is how I ended up on the FLOR website lusting after carpet tiles. 

FLOR tiles are made in the USA with recycled carpet tiles and they take your old floor tiles for recycling and if you stain one of them you can just buy a new one and swap it out.  They are also significantly cheaper than pretty much all of the area rugs I've been eyeing. 

(source)

I'm a really big fan of the striped one above - I think it'll look great with our couch, bring some color into the room without going overboard, and since the tiles themselves are about 20" square, a long rug in this scheme would be about $300, which seems pretty reasonable.  (Plus there is a sale going on right now that would bring it closer to $200.)

We also need a dining room rug, and since we are trending towards greys/blacks for our dining rooms, I'm leaning towards something bold and graphic for that space. Unfortunately, I also favor bold and graphic tablecloths so maybe we should go neutral.

(positive slant)

(interlaced)

The only problem with the FLOR tiles is that they don't line up perfectly. So while I love the look of patterns like this, I'm just not sure they wouldn't make me crazy. 

(Lasting Grateness)

 I'm going to have to do some more FLOR related research to decide if they are right for us, but my initial hesitation was that they needed to stick to the floor - however, they have an adhesive connection system that you use to stick the tiles to the adhesive and each other, not to the floor, so that concern is addressed. 

We don't just need to find a rug for the middle of our living room though. We also need a thoroughly absorbent entry mat and a rug for under our bikes. I love this indoor/outdoor option for under our bike rack - we need something absorbent that protects the floors and will hold up to stains, etc.  At $33, the price is right but I don't know where it is made, etc. so we may have to pass.

Any suggestions for where to go to buy rugs? Any ethically sourced/environmentally friendly companies that you know of out there?