Common Area Rug Placement Mistakes

Area rugs have the extraordinary ability to bring together the individual furniture pieces in a room while standing out as decorations in their own right. To gain the desired effect from your rugs, you must make sure they fit properly with their surroundings. Various size, shape, and material options factor into whether a rug will work well in a certain position in your home. Take note of these common area rug placement mistakes, and avoid them as you decorate your home.

Using an Unsuitably Small Rug

The most important consideration to make when you’re placing a rug in a room is how its size interacts with the space. Rugs are meant to visually hold your tables and chairs while creating a central area on the floor that effectively sets it apart from the rest of the room. If you have a rug that’s smaller than the dimensions of your furniture, it will appear more like an awkward mat than an intentionally chosen piece. In the living room, you’ll want to engulf a coffee table within the rug’s area while also setting the front legs of your sofa and chairs on it. The specifics may differ based on the section of your home in which you place the rug, but its length should always be greater than the side of the furniture that touches it.

Ignoring the Rug’s Shape

Ignoring a rug’s shape is also a common area rug placement mistake. Although you don’t need to match your rug exactly to the shape of the room or the furnishings under which it sits, you should still think about how it will affect the sense of balance there. To illustrate, a square or circular rug could appear out of place in a hallway because much of the floor will remain bare after you put it down. Using an area rug runner in this space would be much more effective, since it would better complement the space with its elongated shape. Another example of a mistake could be placing a round rug under a rectangular dining table. This disparity in shape could hurt functionality because certain chairs could hang off the rug onto the bare floor when people are sitting in them. Without all their legs on the rug, these chairs could become unstable, since they’re lighter than living room seats.

Disregarding Material Durability

When we give attention to rug material, we often think about the visual interplay it will have with the rest of our décor. However, it’s also important to consider whether a given material will be appropriate for the area in which you plan to place the rug. In a high-traffic location, you should have a rug that’s durable and easier to clean, since it will face a lot of wear. Putting a delicate, high-pile rug near an outdoor entryway would quickly lead to it becoming irreparably ruined, whereas a hardier synthetic rug would be better equipped to handle dirt and abrasion. On the other hand, if your main goal in a particular room is to maximize its elegance, a sumptuous woven wool rug would satisfy this desire better than a hardier but less refined one made of cotton.