Dining Room Area Rug

With our parlor currently being renovated (very slowly), and there is only one other way to get to the back of our home, our dinning room is getting quite a bit of foot traffic.  I've become concerned that our old floor is being beaten more than required.  On top of that, our toddler has been running around the room playing and wrestling.  My mind goes crazy the level of damage that can be done to these unprotected pine floors.

My wife and I have been on the lookout for rugs locally and from various other online sources.  I came across the "souvenir" shop at Colonial Williamsburg and found the Leaf Green Garden Maze area rug (seen here).  We liked the look of it and as it was designed based upon a sample from Colonial Williamsburg's archive is a major plus.  The manufacturer is Capel Rugs and is constructed of 100% Olefin.  

I know what you're thinking.  What is Olefin?  I had no idea until I looked it up.  It's a synthetically made fiber that has several advantages.  It is abrasion and fade resistant and also resists water & mold.  Hence why this rug can be used both indoors and outdoors.  Cleaning up is much easier than on a "normal" carpet but I can imagine that fluids would pass through it much more quickly than other materials.  

An important note on historic rugs.  From my understanding (which is limited), rugs were of two types in the 18th century, if used at all.  There was the braided type in ovals and circles and then there was the canvas from sails.  Sails were woven canvases of hemp or flax sheets.  Obviously, Olefin would never have been found in an 18th century home (it was invented in the 1950's).  It's woven appearance is similar to a thick canvas, like a sail.  Texture-wise, it takes some getting used to but with it having the appearance of a sail-like material, it fits well with our home's historic details.  Also, there is no pile, just a flat non-fuzzy canvas.

The internet is full of various prices for the same exact item.  I searched and searched and found this source: Brick House Rug Center.  The shipping was free and took less than a week from their warehouse to CT.  It came wrapped in a thick plastic sleeve, but was compressed during shipping/storage and has ripples from the folds.  In time, these should flatten out.  The rug came with a cleaner from the manufacturer as well as a non-slip pad (needed as this rug is slippery on a wooden floor).

And one last bit, the coloring from the seller's site, as well as that of the manufacturer show more green tones.  The carpet I received seems much lighter being a mixture of green and white.  I'm not sure why, with exception to computer screen coloring.  Maybe there was an error in shipment/manufacturing or perhaps this is what it is.  Below is a comparison with the coloring of our pine floors.  The difference is not too far off to make us cringe but is a bit of a let down.

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