Area rugs have the potential to make a profound impact on any space. An area rug can simultaneously break up the pattern or color of the carpet/flooring, while also creating a focal point for people to gather.
But whether the impact of that area rug is positive or not so much depends entirely on your ability to choose the rug wisely. Get this wrong and a rug can simply make your space look busy. It might get in the way and prevent you from moving your furniture. It might even be a tripping hazard!
Choosing the Perfect Area Rug for a Space
In this post, we’ll look at how to choose the perfect area rug for any given space.
Get the Size Right
If you make your rug too small, this can actually make the space that the rug is in seem smaller! That might seem counterintuitive, but the unconscious association we make here is “small rug, small room.” At the same time, being able to see all four corners of the rug means that we can see the distance to the edge of the room – which instantly creates a smaller sense of scale.
Conversely, a large rug that spreads out across a large area makes your room seem vast – especially when you can’t see the ends of the rug.
Choose the Perfect Position
You’ve decided you want a rug, but have you chosen the exact spot where it is going to go?
Very often, rugs have a subtle influence on attention and focus. They draw the eye and people often tend to gravitate toward them. For example, if you place an area rug in your living room, this will often cause people to stand around that rug and gather there to make conversation.
Think then: where do you want people to gather in this room?
Likewise, a rug can serve as an ideal way to break up a room. If you have an open plan lounge area that goes around a corner for instance, then you can use a rug to effectively turn that space into two separate areas (without introducing any physical dividers).
Think about what you want your area rug to say about the space and how you want it to communicate with your visitors.
Busy or Plain?
How busy should your area rug be?
Excessive patterning has the potential to make your room look busy and overstuffed. Patterns can date quickly, and the effect can ultimately be a little garish.
But on the other hand, a plain rug can be rather boring and may look like you just cut out a square of the carpet! What’s more, is that the plain rugs show dirt and dust much more readily.
The right answer will depend of course on what else is in the room. If your décor is Eastern-themed and you have lots of ornaments and a generally eclectic tone, then something with more color and life will fit well. If you aim for a more minimal approach, then you should keep your rug in line with this.
This is one of the main considerations: to ensure that your rug matches the style of the room generally.
To ensure that this happens, another important tip is to consider the rug at the same time as the rest of the room.
Too often, we will choose a rug after designing the room and hope that it fits. This seldom works.
Instead, choose a rug while you design the rest of the room and ensure that it is factored into your décor from the very beginning. This way, you can find other ways to pick out those colors (in your curtains and pillows), you can create space around the rug, and you can generally make a far more cohesive design.
Consider Layering
Can’t choose a rug? Build your own at Carpet Land! Narrow your selection down from a wide range of patterns and textures, along with colors and shades. You will be able to design your own size and fit it directly to space. Stop by our store today to browse all the available options.
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