My $400 rug burn
I don’t have many regrets in life, but if I were to list my top three, they would be:
The style choices I made for my grade 5 school photo
(who has two thumbs and accidentally wore a Canadian tuxedo? 👍 This gal 👍)Selling my little house on a hill in French River when I moved to Charlottetown
Deciding against the rug pad
Allow me to explain.
Picture it. Charlottetown, 2024. I was engaged in a fiery debate with myself…
Do we REALLY need to spend $600 on a rug?
Of course not, Ashley. (that’s what I call myself when I’m trying to be a responsible adult)
But this is no ordinary rug. It’s the most perfect rug in the whole world. It was MADE for Hijinks. There has never been—nor will there ever be—a more perfect rug for our new office. I NEED this rug.
Need is a strong word Ashley.
I know we’ve never spent $600 on a rug before, and this feels like quite a splurgy splurge, but it’s going to tie the whole studio together.
I ignore the “voice of reason” and go ahead and click ye olde add to cart button.
Ohhh what’s this? I can save 200 dollarydoos if I ix-nay the ug-ray ad-pay! (That’s Pig Latin for “who the hell needs a $200 rug pad?”)
$400 seems SUPER reasonable for The Best Frigging Rug Ever™, so I buy it.
Obviously.
I mean…seriously. Who needs a $200 rug pad? (Spoiler: I now know who needs a $200 rug pad. It’s me. I needed that $200 rug pad.)
Fast forward to six months later.
(Looks are deceiving)
It feels like Christmas, but better. It’s MOVING DAY!!
The first thing I haul into the office is The Best Frigging Rug Ever™
I unfurl our heaven-sent rug in all of her glory, waiting for the angels to sing.
But the rug appears to be broken.
No angels are singing. It won’t sit flat. It flips up all the time and is the only negative thing about our beautiful studio.
Rug = 1
Ashe = 0
Tim had feelings
I send Ashley back to the website (this is definitely not an Ashe job) to buy the damn rug pad. But to buy it without the rug is going to cost $400.
Frig that. We’ll find a cheaper version somewhere else. Surely someone else has made the same mistake and has posted about a perfectly good alternative.
I find a recommended one for $200 and order it. (Yes, if you’re keeping a tally, that is the amount it would have cost me in the first place. Thanks for pointing that out.)
Great! Problem solved. Lesson learned.
Yeah, nope.
The rug pad arrives and it ucking-fay ucks-say.
But it isn’t the rug pad’s fault. It wasn’t made for our rug, so of course, it doesn’t fit right.
The Best Frigging Rug Ever™ is still flipping up (while I’m flipping out), wrinkling, and generally looking like a mess, aaaaaaand it’s the centrepiece of our literal design studio.
Awesome.
I’m stuck with a useless $200 rug pad that I’m going to have to sell so I can justify forking over $400 for the rug pad that I should have bought in the first place.
Why am I telling you this?
I’m glad you asked.
When you’re looking at investing in your brand, an all-inclusive branding package can feel like a lot. But if you skimp on the foundational piece to save a few bucks, you’re going to have a logo or website that never performs the way you imagined it would.
At Hijinks, we might seem pricey but that’s just because we’ve included the rug pad because we know that you need it. (Thanks for nothing, rug company 😒)
If we make it optional to do the foundational work to make us look more “affordable,” sooner or later, you’re going to be frustrated and searching for Band-Aid solutions until you realize that you should have just bought the silly rug pad in the first place because, in the end, you’ll end up spending more money trying to fix it.
So trust me—whether it’s your rug or your brand—invest in the foundational piece, even if it seems like a big investment. Because, at the end of the day, it’s the more affordable option. And no one wants to be tripping over a bad brand.
Just like a rug that really ties a room together, a Hijinks brand will do the same for your business. Give us a shout if you need a hand.
PS: side note, regrettable style choices from your childhood are good for storytelling and belly laughs. Stay weird, friends!
