How to Choose the Right Size Rug –Room by Room

How to Choose the Right Size Rug –Room by Room

Here are some things to consider when choosing the size of a rug.

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Although there are no hard rules as to the size of rugs for various rooms and seating areas, here are some things to consider when choosing the size of a rug.

Measure the room: In order to decide on rug size, the first thing you should do is measure the room. If you have a wood floor, try to have at least 18-24 inches of flooring around the perimeter of the room.

Measure the space:  Measure the space that you wish to cover with a tape measure. Choose a standard size rug that comes closest to these measurements or have a custom size rug made for the space. Sounds expensive? It doesn’t’ have to be. At Sisal Rugs Direct we specialize in custom size rugs that are affordable and don’t take months to make. See for yourself on the “Custom Options” on all of our product pages.

Living Room/Family Room:  Arrange your furniture before determining the size of a new area rug. It makes a room look more pulled together for all of the legs of the furniture to be resting on a room sized area rug. Or, if you have a smaller area rug, you may want all of the legs of the furniture to be off the rug instead. All legs on, or all legs off is a good “rule of thumb” to keep in mind. You do not want to have your sofa half on and half off the rug.                       

Dining Room/Kitchen:  Under the Dining Room table, or any table that has a rug under it, the rug should be large enough that the chairs can be easily pulled in and out from the table without catching on the edge of the rug. There should be at least 24” of rug from the edge of the table out on all sides. This will allow the back legs of the chairs to be on the rug, even when the chair is pulled out slightly while someone is sitting down. Do not have your chairs half on and half off the rug. It will be difficult to move the chairs over the rug all the time and it will not look right.

Bedroom:  For it to look balanced under a bed, the area rug should be large enough to extend beyond the side of the bed at least 18” for a King and Queen bed and at least 12” for a Full or Twin bed. If you have a larger bedroom you can extend the rug more around the bed, but you shouldn’t go smaller. 

High Traffic Areas:  It is generally considered awkward in a heavily traffic area to be half rug, and half "no rug". Basically, you don't want one foot on a rug and one foot off as you are walking through an area constantly.

As you can see there are no real rules about the size of a rug vs the size of the room or the space to be covered but hopefully this has given you some guidelines to follow when selecting your area rug.

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