As most designers will tell you, your living room won’t look put together until you get a rug. Maybe it was not the first thing you were thinking about when you were shopping for furniture, but now that you’re looking at your bare floor, it just doesn’t look right.
Rugs aren’t merely plush padding for your feet. They have a major impact on the look and feel of a space, and they can absolutely make or break a room. But rugs can be rather expensive. If you buy the right one, you can hold on to it for years and years. If you get the wrong one, every day when you have to look at it, it will remind you of the money you wasted.
So what do you do? Just give up and get wall-to-wall carpeting? Buy slippers for the family and call it a day? Of course not. Choosing the right carpet is not as difficult as it may seem right now. Here’s what you need to know.
What Size Rug Should I Get?
That depends on the size of your living room. For the living room, you’ll probably place it in the seating area underneath the coffee table. In that case, the rug has to be large enough that you can put the sofa and armchair either with all four legs on it or just the front two. If there are any smaller pieces of furniture around the seating area, such as end tables or floor lamps, make sure that they can be placed entirely on the rug. It will look better, and it’s also more practical because they won’t wobble. However, all of these tips depend on the overall setup of your room. What determines the placement of the rug is also floor finishing. If your home has flooring with detailed parquet floors, rugs can be only minimal or purely functional objects.
Most people make the mistake of getting a rug that’s too small. For example, one that only fits the coffee table. We would advise against this because it will look out of place.
The standard sizes for area rugs are:
- 3 feet by 5 feet
- 4 feet by 6 feet
- 7 feet by 10 feet
- 8 feet by 11 feet
- 9 feet by 12 feet
You’ll also want to obstructions like doorways and HVAC floor grill, as well as where you’ll be walking. You don’t want to have to walk around your living room with one foot on the carpet and one foot off.
Plain or Patterned?
The next question you’re probably going to ask yourself is if you should get a plain or patterned carpet. This depends on the design of the room and your personal preference. If you have a lot of statement décor pieces in your living room, a plain carpet might be easier to incorporate.
However, some people prefer to use the carpet as a statement piece and then decorate the rest of the room to harmonize with it. If you’re interested in rugs with intricate patterns, the options are endless.
If you want a unique hand-knotted rug that you can pass on as a family heirloom, you can look for them at auctions or specialized vendors like Lawrence of La Brea. If you want to decorate your home in a more rustic style, you can also find patterned carpets to match.
You can get anything, from traditional design to free-form contemporary when it comes to changing up your home. However, you can also find a wide variety of sustainable rugs on the market. Or try and look into local shops or web stores selling used rugs in good condition.
