Right before Christmas, we shared the progress we’ve made in the dark green basement room at the cabin (Side note: we’re 95% sure we’re calling it the forest room with the other two rooms being the lake room and the mountain room) including paint, bed, squeezing in a nightstand!, etc..see that full post right here! The most recent addition is a vintage rug we hung!
If you remember, this is the only room without natural light. Our a-frame is built into the side of a mountain and this room is the part built in to the mountainside. The window leads to a window well with a steel hinged door on it so no animals can get in, but people could get out in case of emergency. Other than that, the window doesn’t provide light or fresh air like a normal window would. We started brainstorming how we could disguise the window, while still allowing it to be accessible (hanging curtains or blinds would just draw more attention to it) and we landed on hanging a rug over the window that doubles as art!
We found a beautiful, one-of-a-kind vintage Moroccan one (it was dated made 60 years ago) on eSaleRugs.com–we get A LOT of our vintage rugs there–and it was the perfect size and felt cabin-y, too. Hanging it took less than 15 minutes!
We picked up 2 carpet tack strips for $2 each at the hardware store. They have nails that you normally drive into the floor, so we did that (into the wall) and then secured screws into studs as well so it was extra secure.
Tack strips have hundreds of little nails used to keep wall to wall carpet in place, but they worked perfect for holding our rug in place, too! We chose to just secure the top and leave the sides free-hanging so it looked more organic, but also in case there was any sort of emergency it would be really easy to pull the rug aside (or even off!) to get out of the window.
Don’t mind the ceiling vent that still needs a cover (#workinprogress) but I’m loving the extra layer of texture on this wall! And one bonus we didn’t anticipate is how much brighter the room feels. While the dark window kind of sucked light out of the room, this bounces it right back in.
I bought two matching wooden antlers for above each bed, but when I held them up, I couldn’t take centering them off-centered. Soo I think we’ll just leave it like this for now and truly let the rug be the art and maybe add a small gallery wall on the neighboring wall.
Forest room, you’re shaping up to be pre-ttyyyy cozy.
SOURCES
Wall Color: Benjamin Moore’s Castle Peak Gray
Flooring: Oak Aspeland from Stuga Studio
Channel Tufted Queen Beds
Mattress
Sheets
Ivory Knit Blanket
Tassel Grid Lumbar Pillow
Lumbar Pillow Insert (this is my favorite $20 one!)
Fur Throws
Lamp
Nightstand
Rug
Hi Chris and Julia! I love love love the forest room. I have been thinking for awhile about hanging a rug up behind our bed and using it as a kind of headboard. We love the no headboard life but it feels incomplete without something behind it. Have you had any issues since hanging your rug? Do you think having it as a decorative headboard would work? It looks awesome!!
Absolutely!! That’s a great idea
Love everything you are doing at the AFrame!
I think this is a very interesting solution to an awkward window. Mounting the rug horizontally might look better, but would compound the difficulty of egress, because I think now the window is pretty close to the edge of the rug. This might seem odd, but maybe consider adding something red and handle-like or pullcord-like, maybe red tassels from the upper corner, or tassels with a few red beads, or something along the side to signal “pull up n case of emergency” in addition to the emergency info you mentioned will be posted…..
I echo the concerns of others about getting OUT, but also am concerned about the ability for emergency responders to get INTO the room from the outside window well. Often in a fire, someone who is already outside the building will tell fire fighters that there is someone else inside. Have you tried accessing the room from the outside as if a fire fighter were using the window well as a way to get INTO the space to get sleeping people out??
Count me on the side of feeling very uncomfortable with this arrangement.
Not against the rug on the wall (I think it’s gorgeous!) just against the blocking of the window in this way.
Yes. I agree. A rug is heavier than a curtain. And it’s not on a sliding rod, it’s attached to the wall. If it’s that easy to pull down in an emergency it’s likely to fall on the folks on the beds. It’s hard to get out of basement in an emergency. This is the sleeping room, not just a family room down there.
If you end up keeping the rug vertical (you mentioned in the comments you may try it horizontally, too), I wonder if it is possible to fold the fringe behind the rug when you re-attach it, so the fringe doesn’t stick out onto the ceiling.
Love the rug, and I think as long as guests/renters know there is an egress window there, I don’t see a safety issue. The cabin is so lovely!
On the fire side, it seems fine to me? Like heavy curtains, which tons of people have.
But aesthetically, idk. I think the ‘tapestry/rug on wall’ look works in a boho room (like it’d look right at home in one of Justin’s Blakeney’s spaces, for example). But when it’s not in a room that’s global/boho/eclectic, I feel like it just looks weird and college-ish. But maybe it’ll look less off to me as the rest of the room comes together?