It’s easy to take rugs for granted in rooms because they’re literally underfoot. If you don’t stop to look down, sometimes, you can forget they’re even there. But rugs are always quietly going about their business providing foundations for spaces that not only can make them more polished and stylish but also more comfortable and functional, too. The only catch? Rugs are only truly effective when you get the sizing, material, and placement correct; otherwise, they can be anything from a tripping hazard to a serious design mistake.
If you’re trying to figure out how to choose a rug and rug placement, this guide will help you get it right. That way, your rug will be doing the most for your room, even though it’s just lying there on the floor.
Why Rugs Are Important in Room Design
Rugs aren’t just pretty—when selected carefully, they can also be practical for multiple reasons. In addition to potentially reinforcing a color palette and introducing a pop of personality or texture into a space, rugs can also add softness underfoot for coziness and provide some traction, too, which can prevent injuries from falling and slipping. They’re also great for sound absorption and provide a little bit of insulation and warmth in a room. Rugs can be used to define areas in large, open spaces, and they also ground your furniture so it doesn’t look like it’s floating in the aether. Finally, rugs can protect flooring that’s susceptible to wear and tear—or cover up stains and imperfections you might not want to fix for whatever reason.
You might be tempted to skip getting rugs for your rooms because they can be expensive, and they’re not as useful as sofa and beds or tables and chairs. But they’re more of a foundational item than a finishing touch and should be a priority for purchase, second only to essential furniture.
Choosing a Rug Based on Room, Style, & Space
Rugs can be tough to get right, but when you nail, say, living room rug placement, your space will sing. How to get there? Selecting a good rug comes down to a few key elements, which are broken down here.
Room-by-Room [Bathroom, Bedroom, Living Room, Etc.]
The first thing to consider when thinking about how to choose an area rug is where it’s going to go. Each part of your home has unique characteristics and functions that will affect the type of rug you’ll want. These are the kinds of things to think about for each of the following rooms:
Bathroom: Because this area of the home can be wet and humid, rugs here need wicking-properties and extra anti-slip considerations, like special backings and and washable, moisture-friendly fabrics. Typically, smaller mats are the best bet here in terms of size, but larger bathrooms can handle bigger designs.
Bedroom: Comfort is the name of the game in a sleep space. To prevent that cold feeling when you put your feet on the floor in the morning, you’ll want something soft and cozy.
Living Room: The biggest things to look for in living room rugs are potential softness and proper sizing. Don’t go too small here—nothing looks more off-balance than a postage stamp-sized rug in a huge, open living room.
Dining Room: Washability is of utmost importance in dining rooms. You’ll also want to make sure that pulling out and pushing in chairs is easy, which often requires a larger rug so there’s not an uneven flooring transition to deal with. That’s why you’ll likely want something relatively thin or flat, too, so you won’t get stuck when getting up from the table. Thinner is also better for not trapping crumbs—and often patterned wool is better here to conceal stains and spills.
Entryway: Depending on the size of the entry, you’ll probably want two “rugs” here: a doormat and maybe a somewhat larger rug to anchor the rest of the room. This rug should be able to stand up to high-traffic, so you’ll want something especially durable, like wool, sisal/jute, or washable cotton.
Kitchen: Runners and any rugs here should be cushioned, if possible, to provide comfort and support while standing. Don’t pick anything too precious, since this area can be messy with cooking. Flatweaves are great because they don’t have as many grooves—or as high of a pile—for food to get stuck in.
Style
Aesthetically-speaking, you’ll want to make sure your rug complements the rest of your furniture and furnishings. Plenty of colors, patterns, textures, shapes, and materials exist. Shop for something that speaks to you.
A good rule of thumb when it comes to style? It can be nice to have some contrast between your flooring and your rug, so look for something opposite of what’s already there in terms of tone. If your furnishings lean solid, some pattern underfoot is nice and can hide stains and spills more effectively. If your room is already on the maximalist side of things, you might want to go with a solid rug or something that’s more textural as opposed to patterned. You can go as bold or neutral as you want with color—that’s up to personal preference, too.
Size
Rugs come in a variety of sizes, from doormat-esque 2’x3’ rectangles to 12’x15’ mega carpets and even larger custom sizes. In general, people tend to go too small with rugs, so bigger tends to be better within reason. A couple of things to keep in mind with sizing are:
How to Choose Rug Size for Living Rooms: Living room rugs are 8’x10,’ 9’x12, or 10’x14’ usually, but some spaces could be an exception to this rule. To get the sizing correct, make sure at least two legs of every main piece of furniture in your primary seating area—sofa, accent chairs, coffee, and accent tables—are fully on the rug.
How to Choose Rug Size for Other Areas of the Home: Since rugs are often meant to anchor the furniture where they’re placed, the idea is to ensure that you can see enough of the rug once the furniture is on it. So, in a dining room, for example, the table and chairs should fit onto the rug entirely, and you probably want a good extra two feet of border around each side of the table to account for pulling out the chairs to sit down. Bedroom rugs should stick out from under a bed about two or so feet on the sides and front of the bed; that way, when you get out of bed, your feet will hit the carpeting and not the cold floor.
It’s important to know the measurement of your room before shopping for the right size rug. That’ll be a good first indicator of what sizes to consider.
Rug Placement Tips & Ideas
Rug placement is second in importance really only to choosing the right size rug. No matter the room, to get placement right, consider using painter’s tape to outline the way a rug would interact with your space and furnishings. Not only does this help you get a visual sense of whether a given rug will be too big or too small, but it also can help you put the rug in the most appropriate area of the room.
Often, centering a rug in the room makes a lot of sense. But occasionally, you might find that you want to cheat it towards the front or back of the room (or to the left or right). This depends on the layout of your furniture, and the taping method can help you here, too.
Two other tips? As far as orientation goes, rugs typically run in the direction of the length of your focal furniture (think: parallel to a sofa in a living room or lounge and the length—not width—of your dining table. Finally, remember rooms should have walkways that aren’t covered by rugs (unless the room has wall-to-wall carpeting). Make sure you have anywhere from 18 to 30 inches available on all sides of your rug(s) for optimal flow and safety.
How to Choose a Rug: Other Considerations
Though size and placement are the chief concerns when shopping for a rug, other factors should play into your final selection. You’ll want to think about the material as well, which can often speak to its washability and durability. Silks and finer fabrics will always be less durable than wool, which is easy to spot clean and fairly stain resistant on the whole. These characteristics make wool a great choice for high traffic areas.
You can also find washable cotton and synthetic rugs, which can literally be thrown into a washing machine as spills or stains arise. These styles are also great for busy rooms or locations like dining rooms and kitchens, where food and drinks are prepared and/or served.
Give some consideration to the pile of a rug, too. Lower-pile style, like flatweaves, aren’t as soft underfoot, but they’re typically durable. Higher-pile styles will feel very cushy underfoot but may be more likely to stain or show wear depending on the material.
Sample Different Rugs with DesignShop
If you’re ready to shop for a rug, you’ve come to the right place. DesignShop has styles that come in a variety of materials, sizes, and piles. You can order samples today and have them in hand by tomorrow. Select the design that’s the best for your room, and your space will be comfier, cozier, and more polished as soon as you roll out that rug. Just don’t forget a rug pad!