Rug Placement Guide for Every Room: Living Room, Bedroom, Dining & More
Rugs, despite seemingly taking the least amount of space in your house, are probably the most interactive bit of furnishing of them all. You walk on them, you sit on them, your kids play on them, and they fill any room with colour and vibrancy! However, not every rug placement is suitable for every kind of room, and so here is a detailed rug placement guide, to maximise your pleasant interactions with our best rugs!
Living Room Rugs
Rugs in the living room aim to perform three functions: add warmth and comfort, define the seating areas, and use their designs or themes to unify all pieces of furnishings. Due to this vast array of goals, these rugs are often the starting point for designers when preparing their overall blueprints for living rooms. Here are some rug decor tips based on room size that you should abide by!
- For Large Rooms: Large rooms are often wanting for colour, and regardless of how much you may clutter them up with sofas, distances between furnishings remain. Rugs in these rooms aim to fill the area with warmth and comfort rather than designate specific areas, and so your sofas will benefit more with all four of their legs sitting comfortably on the rug! They make for very cohesive seating zones!
- For Medium-sized Rooms: As the room gets smaller, the aim of the rug also gets more focused. Naturally you would want to place your rug under furniture, but people often forget that they don’t need to be entirely beneath your sofas. In fact, only having the front-legs of your seating on top of the rug, creates a very intentional, nuanced appearance, while also saving heavily on costs!
- For Small Rooms: The smallest rooms call for the most focus on the main event, which for living rooms, is mostly the coffee table that sits at the center. Being the most visible part of the room, having your rug placed here creates dimension with minimal cost and space consumption, making it the ideal placement for such rooms!
- Other General Tips: Each rug is designed to serve a certain purpose, and so, consider buying a rectangular rug for a two-dimensional seating area, or a round rug for a circular one. Also ensure that the rug is at least as wide as the sofa, or you risk creating an awkward red-carpet image which does not convey comfort. Finally, use these rugs to add texture to your room, perhaps with detailed Oushaks for maximum effect!
Bedroom Rugs
Bedroom rugs also serve three major purposes: Add comfort and softness underfoot, visually anchor the bed, and balance the overall vision of the room. Unlike living rooms, however, bedrooms are often not designed to have a lot of floor space, and as such their advantages are much more functional than stylistic. Majorly, there are three kinds of bedroom rug layouts!
- Under the Bed: The easiest and accordingly the most popular of the layouts, bedroom rugs work great when placed directly under the bed. This visually separates the bed from other furniture, while also providing softness on all sides of the bed. Key things to remember here are that the rug must absolutely extend beyond the feet of the bed, by around 18 to 24 inches, so that you actually get the visual and physical benefits of it.
- Runner Rugs on the Sides: This is a more cost-effective rug layout for bedrooms which also allows for much easier maintenance. Having long, lean rugs on both sides of the bed, or simply one side if the bed is against a wall, serves every function expected of the rug with unparalleled efficiency. You get the softness underfoot, you get the visual nuance, and you don’t have to lift the entire bed any time you wish to give the rug a good wash! It’s a great choice for small rooms or tight budgets!
- Foot of the Bed: If sacrificing the convenient access to fuzziness under your feet is acceptable to save costs, this rug layout is the way to go! Placing a small, bench-length rug near the foot of the bed creates an almost royal appearance, which is too good to pass up on. The downside is of course, most people leave their beds from the sides, and not having the warm rugs underfoot immediately is often a deal-breaker, but this layout is still the way to go for cost and space efficiency!
Dining Room Rugs
- Keep All Chair Legs on the Rug: This is absolutely essential, as the chair can catch on the edges of the rug while being moved. Purchase a rug that extends at least 24 inches beyond all sides of the table, so that no chairs ever find their way to an edge!
- Shape Consistency: For dining rooms, the shape of the rug is determined by the shape of the dining table. This means a round table demands a circular rug, while a rectangle matches a rectangular one. Only potential risk in this formula comes with oval shaped tables, as they prefer rectangular rugs as opposed to oval ones.
- General Tips: Flatweave rugs are best for dining rooms, as they allow for maximum movement for the chairs. Meanwhile, indoor-outdoor rugs are most resistant to spillage, and easier for cleaning. Keep these in mind, and focus on efficiency in spill-prone households!
Rug Placement Guide for Other Rooms
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Hallways: Runner rugs placed on non-slip pads are always the ideal choice, unless you intend to choose a welcome rug simply at the entryway. Remember to choose a dark colour though, as it can help in hiding dirt which naturally collects via heavy traffic.
- Kitchen: The aim here is softness, not appearance. As such, runner rugs extending across the sink and the stove, or small rugs just beneath the sink, can both be perfectly functional choices! Get a washable, indoor-outdoor rug to maximise efficiency, and you have the perfect rug to fulfil all your needs!
- Outdoor Seating on a Patio/Deck: Follow the same principles as the dining room rules to the tee. Just add weather-resistant materials to your list of concerns and you’re all set!
Beyond all these rules, are some general principles like leaving space between the rug edge and the wall to create visual contrast and dimension, use rug pads to maximise rug life and prevent slipping, and use flatter rugs for high-traffic areas, leaving the plush all for you and your own bedroom. Follow these rug decor tips, and you are fully capable of finding the perfect rug to furnish your perfect home!
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