Retro Rugs: Where to Snag Your Shag

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Shag Carpet
Image courtesy of Shaw Floors.

Shag carpeting is one of those retro throwbacks that has had a harder time returning to vogue than, say, mahogany panels. But many of us grew up in houses that had it, so even if it's not "officially" trendy again, a bit of shag on the ground can really help make a mid-century house feel like home.

This all comes to mind because those vintage fashion experts at Retro Renovation offered a suggestion of where to find very cool and very colorful shag carpeting. For those who want to get beyond the drab browns, greys, and blues, RR recommends the Disney Magic line from Shaw Floors.

I thought it worth pointing to our own previous coverage of floor covering, courtesy of Tanja Kern, who included a section on shag carpet:

Shag carpet: (starts at $4 per square foot) Some homeowners who like the retro vibe are breaking up their hard surfaces with shag carpet. Soft underfoot, it comes in a wide variety of loop lengths, colors, sheens, and textures. New introductions involve weaving small metallic yarns into the shag to make it shimmer. Check into having regular wall-to-wall shag carpet cut down and hemmed to the size of an area rug for the ultimate in flexibility. Resources: Karastan; Modern Rugs; Shaw.

For the truly ambitious, a DIY shag rug sounds like a fairly simple project. But while it may not be technically challenging, as this video demonstrates, it's awfully time consuming: