What is the right size rug for my room?

While it may be tempting to measure your room and decide on a rug size based solely on the dimensions of the room, instead consider how your room is being used. An area rug does exactly what its name implies; it defines an area. Think about furniture grouping. In many homes now, “open concept” is definitely a thing. But with furniture placement in today’s large rooms, you can clearly see where one space ends, and another begins. Another thing to consider is what activity is going on in the area. Is it being used for sitting, eating, sleeping, playing with the kids? Along with furniture placement, all of these things determine the room’s flow and what size rug you need. Here are some tips.

Living Room
While there are dozens of right ways to place a rug in a living room or den, there is only ONE wrong way, and that is putting the rug in the center of the room with all the furniture sitting away from it like it is a campfire. For a rug to define the area, it must at least touch every major piece of furniture in the room. So when measuring for your living or den area, measure from the legs of the chairs, couch, ottoman, whatever major pieces you have, and this will give you the smallest rug you can use to define the space. From there, the largest rug you can use will be determined by how much of your furniture you want to sit on the rug and the space confinements. This will give you a size range of rugs that gives you a wide selection.

Dining Room
The most important thing to think about when placing a rug under a dining table is how big your table is. The rug needs to be large enough that the legs stay on the rug when the chairs are pulled out. This is important to keep the chair feet from scratching your floor and because catching your rug on the chair leg will damage your rug over time. The rule of thumb is to add a total of 3 ft to both the length and width of your table. This will allow 18” for your chairs to be pulled out and still stay on the rug.

Bedroom
Bedroom rugs can be several different sizes depending on what size of the bed is in the room. For instance, if you have twin beds, you might consider one runner outside of each bed. Or maybe just one rug in between the beds. If a larger, single bed is in the room, you might put one larger rug under the bed. It doesn’t have to go all the way to the nightstands or the head of the bed! It only needs to be as far up that when your feet hit the floor, they are on the rug. And if the rug is down a way from the head of the bed, it will allow some of the rug to show at the foot. Measure the bed’s width and choose a rug that leaves 18-24” on each side of the bed.

Tips to help us help you:

Measure your space to get a minimum and maximum length and width.
Take pictures. This helps us to get a sense of your space visually. Some people have even taped off the area where they think a rug should go.
Bringing fabrics or flooring with you will help you be certain that the rug you’re choosing will coordinate perfectly with what you already have.