Size Matters
When it comes to rugs, that is. Here's how to choose the optimal size rug for your space
Rugs protect your floors, muffle sound, warm up your tootsies on cold winter mornings when you can’t find your slippers, and hide ugly tile, threadbare carpet, or that spot where your ex-husband spilled bleach on your newly refinished hardwood planks. And yes, as The Dude in The Big Lebowski knew, they really can tie a room together—assuming the rugs are the proper size, that is.
A perfect example of a perfectly sized rug, in a room by Studio William Hefner.
A too-small rug, no matter how expensive, makes a room feel cheap, as if the homeowner couldn’t afford the more-appropriate larger size. An overly large rug gives the impression that you’re waiting for the room to grow into it, or that it is a holdover from a previous, larger home.
There’s no shame in not being able to afford a larger size of the rug you really really wanted, of course. Nor is there shame in repurposing a beloved rug from a larger space in a smaller one. But you needn’t shout the fact to the world, either.
More important, the wrong size rug fails to ground the room, so to speak. It distracts rather than unifies.
Fortunately, selecting the right size of rug really isn’t that difficult. Below are a few tips to keep in mind.
• In a seating area, it really does help if at least the front legs of the sofas and chairs are resting on the rug. A rug large enough to accommodate all the furniture legs can create an ultra luxe effect, but that isn’t always possible or desirable. Depending on the palette of the room and the design of the rug, a floor covering that large could be overwhelming rather than opulent. And of course, rugs can be damned expensive.
Having at least some of the furniture legs atop the rug reinforces the cohesiveness of this serene living room by Blushing Boho Design’s Michelle Riley.
If your rug isn’t large enough for even the front legs of all your seating to rest on it, you still have options. You can centre it amidst the chairs and sofas, so long as it covers most of that space; you don’t want the rug to seem to be floating. You can also see how the rug looks if the front legs of the furniture on just one side of the arrangement fit on it. Or you can layer the rug atop a larger one—sisal, jute, and even cotton flat-weave rugs are especially nice for this purpose.
But if the rug is so small that it looks like a floor mat in context with the rest of the room, admit defeat and consider using it as a wall hanging, à la a tapestry.
The floral rug here looks more like a placemat for the cocktail table than anything else. Perhaps if the larger rug were closer in colour to one of the dominate hues in the smaller rug, it might have worked… though I doubt it. Photo by Francesca Tosolini/Unsplash.
And here’s a tale of two rugs: one on the floor and one on the wall. Photo courtesy of The Citizenry.
• Leave enough space around the perimeter of the rug to expose the floor beneath. A tried-and-true guideline is at least 45 centimeters/18 inches in a room, but especially in smaller rooms, as little as 30 centimeters/12 inches can work. Any less space, and you might as well get a fitted carpet, no? As for floor runners in corridors, narrow entries, and such, try for exposing roughly 15 centimeters/6 inches of floor along the sides.
• Do not have the edges of the rug line up precisely with the edges of the furniture. I see this most commonly with sectional sofas for some reason, though also with sofas and beds. It looks naff, for lack of a better word.
The owner couldn’t spring for a few additional centimeters/inches of width?
• If opting for a rug in the dining room, be sure it’s large enough that all the chair legs can rest on it even when the chairs are pulled back. Tbh, I’m not a huge fan of rugs in the dining room: It’s so much easier to sweep the crumbs from a floor post-meal than it is to hoover, and let’s not even talk about cleaning up spilled wine or gravy. But if you do go for rug, choose one that is at least 30 centimeters/12 inches wider than the table on all sides to accommodate the chairs.
It must be so annoying to sit on a chair that’s half on/half off a rug like the one above. Photo by Hutomo Abrianto/Unsplash.
• In a bedroom, feel free to ignore the old “rule” that the rug must fit completely under the bed as well as extend beyond the sides and foot. Runners on the sides and/or at the foot of the bed are lovely options. Ditto a rug that fits under only the lower portion of the bed. Again, the point is to ground the furnishings, which the rug will do so as long it extends at least 30 centimeters/12 inches (again!) beyond the edges of the bed.
This glorious bedroom, courtesy of Pippilottaaushamburg, shows what I mean about vis-à-vis the rug beneath only the lower part of the bed but extending beyond.
• In a multipurpose room, consider using rugs to delineate the different spaces. Perhaps the living area will have a rug while the dining area doesn’t. Or maybe they both will, in different but simpatico styles.
I love how Courtney Giles Interiors layers a floor covering atop the larger natural-fibre rug to distinguish the sitting area from the work space.
• For the love of all things beautiful and safe, use a rug pad. No, rug pads were not invented by retailers solely so they could reap additional revenue. They really do prevent slipping. (Yes, I know someone who broke an ankle after skidding on a rug, and no, he’s not even old.) Pads also further protect the floor beneath the rug and make walking on the rug even more pleasant.