To Zebra, Or Not To Zebra...

A year and a half ago, if someone had mentioned zebra rugs to me I would have immediately thought of The Real Housewives of New Jersey or The Jersey Shore (to all of you living in NJ - please don't take that personally, I know the individuals on these shows are not representative of everyone living there).  In short, I thought they were gaudy and over the top.

Then along came Pinterest...

...and photos like these

Source

Source

Suddenly, a zebra rug went from gauche to "have to have it!"

Unfortunately, I'm not having the best of luck finding one.  Synthetic rugs tend to look cheap and cowhide rugs are expensive (and let's not even discuss an actual zebra hide because I am not made of money); it's hard to find something I can afford that looks nice.  A few months ago I found the perfect cowhide zebra rug on RueLaLa and waited patiently for two months for it to ship... only to find out that, after the shipping range elapsed and I emailed a customer service representative, they had oversold the rugs and I wouldn't be receiving one.  Certainly disappointing.

So now I'm left with a choice: continue to scour the internet for the perfect zebra rug, or give up and buy some other rug that's easier (and cheaper) to obtain.  My living room is very similar to that in the first photo - white couches and chairs, dark hardwood floors, and (few) dark purple accents.  Does anyone have suggestions for what else might work?  I think a white rug would be too much white and I don't want too much purple so that's out as well.