The Many Lives Of A Simple Striped Rug

There are few purchases that cost under $3 that have worked as hard or proven as versatile as my IKEA signe mats.

 I have a a weakness for casual stripes (as opposed to bold and polished, the way most people think of stripes), and I think that, like black, every room benefits from a little stripe. 

I remember when I bought a few of these little rugs about a month after moving into our house. It was one of those classic American hoarder Ikea shopping trips where you run in to get "water glasses and maybe a few things to help organize kid toys," but get caught up in how simple (and inexpensive) that  scandinavian style is, and come out wielding a massively unruly shopping cart with wobbly wheels--why are those carts so flipping shaky?-- while forcing your toddler to walk so that the water glasses (and wineglassespictureframesorchidcowhidedesklamp) have a secure spot. 

I remember my husband coming home and asking why his "minimalist" wife had bought 10 front door mats...I claimed I had a plan, and as it turns out many years later I did :)

 They make great, hardy seat covers on dining chairs...this was a temporary fix while I searched for fabric to recover our craigslist bentwood chairs, but I began to love the casual, almost southwest vibe of the mats. So they stayed, now tucked in between the cushion and the chair frame, and they can be easily thrown in the wash when needed (which is often around here)....

And I use one to layer this old, uglybutawesome chair that we inherited and have grown to love, making the brown tweed not so just brown tweedish....

And I have a few that I layer in our bedroom every once in a while. Personally, I prefer mats (if anything) to rugs in our bedroom because I love the simplicity of bare wood floors.

For a year or so, IKEA stopped selling these SIGNE mats, but they started carrying them again a few months ago...so watch out hem Moss...