Rugs are like shoes to an outfit, without shoes even a perfect outfit would be incomplete, and without a rug even the most beautifully decorated space is incomplete. The most obvious reason to have a rug is for the look of it, they have a unique way of playing with all other colours of a room to create a perfect space. Rugs instantly add design, texture and comfort to any space, but with so many options to choose from, there’s a lot to consider when shopping for the perfect one. Rugs are an incredibly important part of any scheme. The softness and acoustic sensibilities that they offer alongside the colour, design and texture make them indispensable in areas with stone or timber flooring,' says Jo Littlefair of interior designers Goddard Littlefair.
How Do I Choose A Rug For My Living Room?
The most important element of choosing a rug for a living room is getting its size right. A living room rug will be less successful if it sits isolated in the middle of the room – it will look too small for the space, which will then feel less cohesive. Ideally, a living room rug should be at least 15in longer than your sofa, and wide enough that it can sit just beneath your sofa's front legs, and reach across the majority width of the room so that it looks balanced in the space.
Choosing a rug for a living room can be the first step in picking a colour scheme, too – something to bear in mind when looking for living room ideas to inspire a redesign.
'Rugs are key to the design vision early on, certainly not to be considered late, as they can either ground the furniture or create a moment in a larger space,' advises Charu Gandhi, Founder and Director at Elicyon.
Fine artist and fabric expert Lady Deirdre Dyson, who has designed contemporary rugs for over two decades sees rugs as pieces of art, and considers furniture placement over them as highly important. 'Carpets should be seen and not hidden. I prefer glass coffee tables so the carpet is still visible,' she says.
How Do I Choose A Rug Color?
'As Charu Gandhi says, rugs need to be chosen right at the start of your planning and design process, just as a flooring type or colour would be,' says Homes & Gardens Editor in Chief Lucy Searle. 'A rug, like flooring, serves as your "fifth wall", which means that it might be the element in the room that inspires the colour scheme – so choosing a rug's colour is essentially the same process as choosing a wall colour.'
'To approach that in the best possible way, consider first the atmosphere you want to create – dark rugs will of course make rooms feel darker, smaller and cozier, light rugs will make a living room feel brighter and larger. Next, consider the room's orientation to get the hue right – sunny rooms can take cooler colours, while light-starved rooms will benefit from warmer tones.'
Should A Rug Match Wall Color?
A rug shouldn't match a wall colour, ideally, as this won't create a layered look that is the ideal in any room. You can of course pick out the wall colour in elements of the rug's design, or choose a lighter or darker tone of the wall colour for the rug.
There are no hard and fast rules surrounding rug shapes, although ideally the area and shape of it should mirror the room – or zone of the room – shape and its proportions. Here, design experts have their say, in particular about choosing irregular shaped rugs.
'Using an irregular shaped rug adds another dynamic element to an interior. Irregular shaped rugs give greater freedom for the positioning of furniture. Traditionally furniture is placed in the centre of a rug (such as a coffee table) however with irregular shaped rugs a piece of furniture can be placed to one side to show off the irregular outline fully. This adds great interest to a space,' says interior designer Shalini Misra.
'They can also be placed with no furniture on them at all acting as an artwork in the space, creating a focal point on the floor. When having a bespoke irregular shaped rug made you can take inspiration from the shapes of some of the furniture such as with angular sofas.'
Interior designer Jo Littlefair of Goddard Littlefair agrees in the importance of irregular-shaped rugs. 'We love using irregular sized rugs and overlaying them purposefully to create an organic slightly more casual styling approach. Larger areas can be covered using this technique rather than commissioning bespoke rugs which are expensive and time consuming.
'When combining rugs in this way consider combinations that have different scales of design to give contrast but try to connect the pieces with a common thread of colour.'
Simon Goof of Floor Story is another fan. 'We really love irregular shaped rugs because the rug definitely becomes the focal point of the room and done right, this can look stunning. We have many off the shelf irregular pieces but we can also design these to go in to difficult spaces and work around furniture, which is a great use of an irregular shaped rug when planning spaces which are also slightly more unconventional.'
Liza Laserow, Founder of Nordic Knots has this advice: 'For an irregularly shaped rug to shine, it's best to give it as much breathing space as possible. The negative spaces will complement and elevate the irregularities, allowing it to hold itself in a room; this was our intention when designing the new Art Deco collection. I would recommend finding a spot in your home that doesn't have too much furniture, such as a foyer or hallway, or otherwise let the rug create a connection between groups of furniture in a living room.'
A rug is one of the easiest and quickest ways to inject a large expanse of colour into the home. There’s no time-consuming painting or decorating, just pop it on the floor for an instantly refreshed room. Rugs come in every colour imaginable, so choose as much or as little colour as you feel comfortable with – anything from a classic grey to a vibrant rainbow.