Kitchen Rug: Third Time's The Charm?

It's no secret that I have been agonizing over a runner for our kitchen for what seems like forever.  Seriously, I posted about it in June, July, August, and September.  Well folks, I think we may have finally solved the rug dilemma.

I was oh-so-innocently browsing in Target one day when I wandered down their rug aisle.  They had some new styles in.... including some gray and yellow runners from their Threshold collection.  I'd pull the picture from Target's website for you, but I think my local Target may be a test market for these rugs because I can't find them anywhere on the internet!

Sidebar-- what is it about Target?  I am certainly not immune to Target's charms (heck, I worked at one about ten years ago, but that's a story for another day).  Sometimes I go there and all of their inventory looks too modern or too outdated or too cheap or too fill-in-the-blank.  Other times I go to browse at Target and end up with a cart full of amazing stuff that I love.

 Amber from Crappy Pictures totally understands.

Well, this particular trip to Target felt just. like. that.  I snagged one of the runners and decided to just try it in the kitchen.  It was from Target, so of course I could return it if it didn't work.  I am so good at rationalizing ways to give Target my money.

I was delighted to find that the colors were perfect, but the size for using the runner down the middle of the kitchen was just... off.  So Steve and I discussed our alternatives and tried some alternate arrangements of the rug. Was the third time the charm for our months-long kitchen runner search? Yes!!

Stripey goodness.

Is it exactly what I wanted?  Well, no.  But I think we came to the conclusion that our kitchen is an odd width/length, and short of hand-making or custom-ordering a runner, we'd never be totally happy.  And we do love the runner itself.  It's a cotton flatweave, so it's washable.  The gray goes *perfectly* and the yellow is just a touch more subdued than the yellow in our linens and the nearby dining room curtains, which has kindly prevented our kitchen from moving toward yellow overload.  And it's in just the right spot to keep the dog dishes from skittering all over our kitchen.

Bingo.

The runner was actually about six inches too long to fit the length of cabinetry in front of the sink.  I'm pretty sure that I can modify it to make it shorter, but for now we've simply folded two of the stripes under and things seem to be working perfectly.  You know me, the easier, the better.  That rug will probably stay folded under for all time.

Sneaky!

The best part?  Unlike the other runners that I've tried from Crate & Barrel and One Kings Lane, this one from Target was a measly $35.  I know that this isn't going to solve our dogs-constantly-licking-the-floor issue, but I think I am just going to have to deal with frequently hand-mopping our floor with my homemade cleaners.  Although it's a pain, it'll better for our health and our dogs' health.  Plus, sometimes having a surface in your kitchen that needs to be regularly deep-cleaned motivates you to deep-clean other surfaces in your kitchen, and a super-clean kitchen is never a bad thing.

So for now (FINALLY!),  I'm calling it.  The search for a kitchen rug is over, thanks to Target and its hypnotic bullseye.