PIP: help me pick a playroom rug

baby*love

I'm looking for fun, bright, primary colors - gender neutral for the decor in our playroom in the finished basement. I have 2 girls but I am so over pastels and pink/purple.  I want it to be reds, yellows, blues etc.  I think my general idea is the "preschool" look with cubby storage; a chalkboard wall, craft table area etc.  I know I could play it safe and just do bright stripes or polkas but I really want a FUN rug the girls will love with ABCs or something along those lines... So, I have been looking for a fun alphabet rug or something similar to tie that area of the room together and I've found some cute ABC and number rugs (most are from education or school supply sites/companies that sell to preschools and daycares).  My concern is that it may be something we tire of quickly and might feel really flimpsy like a cheap bath mat since most are nylon or acrylic and all of our other area rugs are wool and thicker quality.  On the flipside - the rugs we have in the kids rooms now are beautiful and from PBK and Land of Nod but they have pulls and shed a good bit so I know $$$ doesn't always equal better quality.  Most of the preschool rugs reviews say they stand up to alot of usage... Here are some of my choices:

breezee_bean

I love the worm and the butterfly ones. 

jettagurl

The last is my fave...I like the idea of them stepping square to square to do the alphabet/numbers.....cute but a bit crazy.  

Then the Butterfly one.

the first two are totally bland color-wise compared to the last 3.  

 

Sounds fun!

 

oparcm

I like the 4th one. 

baby*love

  my fave right now is the caterpillar as well. butterflies are 2nd. DH thinks the butterflies (albeit in primary colors) are still too girly

femmegem

The butterfly is my favorite. Very cute.

AnneUCSB

I like the butterfly one!

Heidisean

Hi Kelly!

I love the 1st one!

kelly&paul

#4. those are all very cute. where are they fr

amy05-04

Another butterfly vote!

baby*love

No concensus! Now I'm further confused. I'm going to make DH make the call

Heidi - how are you feeling?  So happy for you!

I first found some on www.sensoryedge.com  but there are TONs of educational supply sites with different pricing / shipping deals. Way cheaper than PBK and LandofNod but I'm sure it's a totally different kind of rug as well. We have w2w carpeting in the finished basement so I am OK with a really thin rug like this...

jpowell3

I really like the 1st one!

hcmamm1

I like the first one.

mollynpatrick

I'm an elementary school teacher so I've had lots of experience with "school rugs" like the ones you shared. I'm not sure that I'd buy one for home. IME, they aren't very soft and they have to be "industrial" to stand up to all of the wear they undergo in just one school year. I'm thinking about getting this rug for our playroom. I wish the letters were a little less "hand-written" looking for my son's sake but I like the colors. It's pretty inexpensive for the size (5x8), too!

https://www.homedecorators.com/P/Alphabet_Area_Rug/110/

 

baby*love

Cute rug Molly! I know what you mean about the letters too. I had to nix a few that either were out of order or kinda cursive for the same reasons. I am pretty familar with school rugs too and I know that it will be a glorified bath mat But we have new w2w carpet in our finished basement (cream color) so I'm really moreso looking for a color splash/ educational tie in for the room than a softer wool rug.  I also needed the 7 x 10 oval size b/c it's a really large space so I didn't want to spend a fortune on a nicer wool rug.

I ended up ordering the caterpillar version (the slightly softer blue and colors go better with what I've got in my mind for down there) and PBK has an adoreable apple chalkboard clock on clearance that I'm getting as well so I've justified my rug savings to purchase a few other cute accessories!  

Thanks everyone for your input!

jlw2505

The 3rd and 4th one stand out to me the most.