Let's be honest, we are home now more than ever. A lot of us are revamping our homes and a new rug might be in the works. With so many sizes out there, do you find yourself stuck on which direction to go? Say no more.
You want to determine the best rug size for your space, which can be hard if you don't know where to start. Start to think about the room itself.
When sizing for all spaces, bigger is better. A rug can really throw off a room if it's not placed right, so going for the bigger size (even if it's just a few inches) makes all the difference. You also want to make sure you are following the room's direction. If you have a long room length wise, you want the length of the rug to mimic that. Same thing goes for the size of the space. If you have a large room, you want a large rug. If you have a smaller room, you can opt for a smaller rug. A lot of my clients put painter's tape down to mock the placement before they purchase the rug, which has helped in many circumstances. Even when initially guiding my clients in the right direction with a rug, some are hesitant with going bigger until they actually see it marked out first. Hello painter's tape, our savior!
Different spaces require different rug sizes, right? Let's talk about that.
The Entry: The size of this space is everything when it comes to placing a rug in an entryway. A runner can benefit in a long hall and a rectangle or round rug can benefit from a squared off entry. Use your front door as a guide for choosing the size, you want the rug to be wider than the door.
The Hallway: Runners are it. Keep the hallway clutter free and let the runner do the talking.
The Bedroom: This one is my favorite because you can experiment! Have you ever seen a runner on each side of the bed? Yep, it's possible! If done right, it can create a very unique look. Place a runner on each side of the bed, mirroring the nightstands. However, a tip here is to make sure the runner is wider than the nightstand to keep the proportion and scale in tact. Otherwise, pulling this off could look odd. If you don't want to go that route, you can go the more popular route. That is, placing a rectangular rug under the bed which doesn't quite extend up to the nightstands but will take up almost 2/3 of the bed. When I go this route, I usually choose an 8x10 rug for a queen bed and a 9x12 for a king bed. The rug should come out about 20-25" from the sides of the bed. The other option here is similar, but the rug would cover the entire bed and the nightstands. With this option, essentially all legs on furniture are touching the rug. In this case, you would need to go even larger with the rug size.
The Living Room: There are many options for a living room, it all depends on the set up of your home. In a living room, the couch is usually our focal point. There are several ways we can place a rug under a couch to pull a room together. If I'm designing an open concept, I usually go with the largest rug so I can place all of the furniture surrounding the couch on the rug - meaning all legs touch. This creates that seating area and doesn't make the room look like it's floating, which is an important piece with an open concept space. If your couch is against a wall, go with a rug that covers enough for all front legs to touch. You could also go smaller and get a rug that only the coffee table sits on. If you go this route, make sure you measure the negative space surrounding the coffee table, as well as, the coffee table so that you can get the appropriate rug size. To pull off this look, the proportion matters. This route is a good way to go if you have a small or narrow space and you want the room to "feel" larger.
The Dining Room/Home Office: I paired these two together because the scale is similar in both. The rule is simple, you want all legs on the rug. Meaning, the table and the chair's legs should all be on the rug and with enough space to pull the chair out. I would recommend making sure the rug has about 20" of space beyond the legs to allow for enough seating space.
My inbox is always open if you need some additional guidance.
Happy rug shopping!
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