Last year I found this pretty blue and white rug for $20 at Home Goods while shopping for some props for some images in my next book. The rug is small–maybe 3 x 5 feet and not something I would normally purchase because I like to use really large rugs and I usually stay away from “scatter rugs” like this, but I needed it for a background.

Once I got it home, I loved the pattern and realized that since it’s a thin rug, I could fold it up and use it for things other than covering the floor. It even washes up great.

I folded up the rug and used it as a throw on our ottoman and it’s been there for nine months.

It works a lot better than a regular, blanket throw to add some color and texture because it’s so sturdy that it keeps its shape and position and, no one cares to use it to cover up with so it stays put all the time. Even though my ottoman has a white slipcover, the rug on top cuts down on how often I have to wash the slipcover, now I just wash the rug which is 1.5 million times easier than wrestling off that slipcover.

See that thick black and white throw with the black tassels back there?

It’s a tiny rug too. I found it for $10 at the At Home Store. I’m thinking about getting another one and making it into a long lumbar pillow (here’s a great, simple tutorial here’s another idea–using fabric glue!). It adds a lot of interest on my outdoor ladder on the underporch.

We have these chairs in our backyard and if you sit on them in your bathing suit you get hash marks all over your body. I found that a tiny rug is the perfect size for throwing over a chair and it’s thick enough to protect against hash marks. When were done, we just throw it on the ladder to dry.

I brought that same throw inside to pink-ify my “mom corner” in my all-man house. Again, it’s just thrown over the ottoman, but it’s such an inexpensive ($12 at At Home) way to add color and texture to a room without committing to a new pink chair. Amen.

And there you have it, a few low commitment, high impact ways to add color, texture and interest to your home just by adding in a few inexpensive scatter rugs–you could even hang them on the wall, use them on the end of the bed or over a bench, as a table cloth….