How To Match Furniture to an Area Rug

In the sphere of interior decorating, people often refer to rugs as the pieces that ground the surrounding furniture and bring cohesion to a space. Rugs can either support the designs of other items or shine as centerpieces among them. To achieve the results you want, you must have a sense of how to match furniture to an area rug. Without this knowledge, your home probably won’t exude an air of fashionable curation, and it may instead appear lackluster or even muddled. We’ll go over the chief qualities to consider when you’re choosing a rug so that you can make the best choices for your rooms while keeping the style of your furnishings in mind.

Think About Rug Sizing

Sizing matters a great deal because it determines whether a rug has the ability to bring together furniture in the first place. In the vast majority of cases, your primary furniture items should touch the rug to create a unifying effect. If the rug is too small in relation to your tables and chairs, those furnishings won’t fit on the rug, and it will seem more like a misplaced floor mat than a suitable foundation. It can also create the impression that a room is smaller than it truly is. As a result, it’s smart to measure out the lengths and widths of your furniture before looking for rugs. This way, you’ll know for certain the minimum dimensions your rug will need to have.

However, there are some situations in which you may approach sizing differently. In hallways, where the main purpose of the space is to provide unobstructed passage, any rugs you place won’t have contact with large furnishings. There, it’s important that you utilize area rug runners that match the elongated shape of the hallway to cover up more of the floor than a shorter regular rug could. Another situation in which you might size a rug in a different way is when you’re ornamenting a corner that’s not the dominant focus of a space. There, you could use a smaller rug because it will serve as a side decoration instead of a uniting base.

Determine Where You’ll Place the Rug

Where you place a rug in your home also has a considerable influence over how well it plays with your furniture. As we alluded to with hallways and side corners, your rug choice may change based on where you intend to put it. These variances are due to the size and shape of the furniture pieces that are central to each room as well as to the furnishings’ typical arrangements within the rooms. The area that generally sets the baseline for sizing rules is the living room because it’s the area in the house that usually has a rug. There, your rug should fully encompass a coffee table while allowing the front legs of chairs to rest on it.

When you pick out a rug for the dining room, on the other hand, the rug must fully surround the table and the chairs when they’re pulled out. Otherwise, those chairs will be more unstable when people sit in them since their back legs will be off the rug.

In the bedroom, the bed serves as a large focal point, but you usually want it to rest against one wall. Because of this, it may not be possible to center the rug beneath it. Instead, you might offset the rug’s positioning so that it sticks out from the bed’s foot and sides.

Whenever you’re unsure about what kind of arrangement would work effectively in a room, you can look up guides that expert decorators have shared on the Internet.

Know the Effects of Color Choice

Knowing how to make good color choices is another aspect of mastering the concept of how to match furniture to area rugs. When you picture your completed room, you should have a clear idea of the atmosphere you want there. This can determine the color tones you use. Perhaps your goal is to have a formal space. For this, you might go with deep, rich tones to convey the sophisticated mood you seek to set. Alternatively, going with muted hues in your rugs and furniture can express soothing relaxation.

You don’t need to keep the tones completely consistent all the time, however. Contrasting light and dark colors can make your room more interesting. It’s up to you whether you utilize a dark rug with light furniture or vice versa. Either way, the rug can pop out captivatingly from its surroundings. No matter what technique you use for matching your rug and furniture, be sure to stay within an overarching color palette to avoid unattractive color pairings.

Complement and Counterbalance with Pattern

Patterns also affect how well your rug and other decorations will work together. If you follow a set style in your home, selecting patterns that are established as acceptable within that style is an easy way to narrow down your choices. For example, if you already have an eclectic mix of colorful vintage and modern furniture pieces that fall within the bohemian aesthetic, you could specifically search for bohemian-style rugs. A minimalistic home with angular furniture would benefit from a rug with blocky stripes or geometric patterns.

The idea of counterbalancing your chairs, tables, and other furniture with rugs is another side of patterns you should consider. You want to strike an equilibrium when it comes to patterns in a room, as too many will make it disordered. However, shying away from patterns altogether might hold your home back from reaching its full potential. Generally, if your furniture is heavily patterned, you should get a rug that’s modest in this respect to accompany it. You might use a rug that’s completely plain or one that has a subtle pattern with only slight color variations, as these won’t clash or compete with the furniture. Conversely, when you have relatively plain furniture, you may want to use rugs with busy or daring patterns to make the space more fascinating.