Bedroom Rug Placement Best Practices
Bedroom Rug Placement Best Practices
Bedroom rug placement can be surprisingly complicated. You have to contend with where you’d like to place it not only for your aesthetic preferences, but also for how it might affect your bed or furniture. Depending on your bedroom, you may even want a rug that can keep you from stepping on cold flooring in your bare feet.
The best way to get your bedroom rug placement right is to start planning and measuring early. Before you get started with the fun of choosing your rug style and pattern, take some time to consider these options and follow our placement and measurement best practices.
Not only does the old adage “measure twice, cut once” apply to rugs as much as anything else, but by considering these options, you might find exactly the design inspiration you were looking for to transform your entire bedroom for the better.
Under a bed
Even if you’re placing your rug under your bed, you’ll probably want to see at least part of it. Make sure you measure your bed and take the time to visualize exactly how much you’d like your rug to protrude out from under it before you make your purchase.
For one of the best classic bedroom looks, consider purchasing a rug that’s a fourth or a fifth wider than it is long. When placed beneath your bed, these rugs will protrude out from either side more than from under the foot of the bed. This will help your bedroom feel more balanced and spacious. Even more importantly, it will also ensure that your nice, soft rug is the first thing you step on getting out of bed every morning.
When deciding how you’d like your rug to look, measure (and consider marking) the extra distance around your bed. The specific size of these rugs will depend on the size of your bed. You can see our full guide on how to measure a bedroom rug for more information, but for a quick reference:
- For a king size (76” wide by 80” long) bed, the best rug for this purpose would be a 9’ x 12’. This allows your rug to protrude out from under your bed far enough that it looks prominent and will make your room look bigger.
- For a queen size (80” wide by 60” long) bed, try an 8’ by 10’ rug. This provides you with enough space to put a piece of furniture such as a trunk at the foot of your bed.
- For a twin size (39” x 75” long) bed, either a 5’ by 8’ or a 6’ by 9’ inch rug could work. Try centering these rugs around the bottom two-thirds of the bed instead of the whole bed to leave room for stepping on the rug when you get out of bed.
In the center of the room
With a small enough room and/or a big enough rug, you can center your rug in the middle of your bedroom space, rather than prioritizing how it’s going to look compared to the bed.
Centering your rug in your bedroom is a subtle way to decentralize your bed as the focal point of the room. Depending on the style of rug you choose, this placement choice could also either make your bedroom feel even more cozy or give it a more welcoming, multi-purpose atmosphere. If you spend a lot of time in your bedroom doing things other than using your bed, this could be a nice way to make the room feel more usable.
Depending on the size of your bedroom, you could still follow the instructions for placing your rug under your bed, but we recommend measuring your bedroom itself instead. Then, re-measure and mark where you’d like your rug to end up. One of the best looks for centered rugs is to leave a few inches of space around the sides of the room.
This looks especially nice if you have a hardwood floor or carpeted floor that’s a different color than your rug, because the contrast of color and textures makes for a very visually dynamic design.
As you work on measuring where you’d like to place your rug, keep in mind that you’ll have to carefully consider how to arrange your furniture. Which pieces would you like to place on the rug, and which should remain off of it? Are there any pieces which, like your bed, can be partially on and partially off the rug?
For example, it often looks great to leave enough space away from the wall that you can set up end tables on either side of your bed that you don’t have to place on your rug.
Elsewhere in the room
Of course, just because you’re putting your rug in your bedroom doesn’t mean you have to put it under your bed at all. If your rug is small enough or your bedroom is big enough, there are plenty of other ways you could make a rug look great in your bedroom. For example, you could try placing:
- Two small rugs on either side of your bed
- A rug at the foot of your bed
- A small rug around some sitting furniture, to create a secondary space within your bedroom for reading or relaxing
- A rug near your closet or wardrobe for you to enjoy while you dress
- A runner rug that could create a path from your bedroom to your master bath or hallway
These are just a few ideas. Whatever you decide, however, you should pre-plan and measure before you buy. Keep in mind where you’d like your rug to be positioned relative to your bed and your furniture. When you’ve found a good spot for it, measure the area where you’d like to place your rug and consider marking it with masking tape.
When you’ve got your spot picked out and marked, arrange your room the way you’d like it before you place your rug. That way when you bring your new rug home, all you’ll have to do is dispose of your marking tape, place the rug down, and enjoy.
For more in-depth help on how to measure your bedroom rug, see our full guide. If you’d like some help deciding what fiber and style of rug is right for your bedroom, we can help with that, too.
When you’ve got your idea worked out and you’re ready to make it a reality, get in touch with our team for all the help you need. We can’t wait to help you achieve your dream bedroom!
