How to Choose the Right Area Rug

Floor rugs are functional additions to your home or office floor and they combine an aspect of nice aesthetics to the room with functionality of making the floor of the room cosy and comfortable to walk on. Moreover, a rug placed on the floor of a room serves the purpose of noise reduction by absorbing the sound produced when the impact of the heel of a shoe hits a bare floor when walking across the room. Rugs come in different shapes, sizes and are made of different materials. The functionality of using a rug on a certain floor also differs from one carpet to the other. Due to this, some carpets are better suited for some areas more than others. We have compiled some of the factors that you should take into consideration when selecting which rug should be placed in which area of your house.

Size

The size of a rug that should be used in a room is guided by the size of the room. A good design concept that paints the room as properly organized is having a floor rug that covers almost the whole floor and is centrally laid leaving a uniform edge all around the rug. The space left between the edge of the rug and the wall also depends on the size of the room. With larger rooms, you can leave about two feet in between the wall and the rug while smaller rooms require about half a foot left in between the walls and the rug edges. A rug that has space all around when laid on the floor is easy to remove and clean since all the edges of the rug are easily accessible.

Using rugs that have varying sizes in the same room also serves the purpose of defining spaces. For instance, a rug that is a laid on the living room floor can be punctuated by smaller rugs on top of it that are placed below the sitting spaces on furniture. You could choose going with same colored smaller rugs that match with that cushions on the couch to achieve an all-round color effect or use a contrasting approach with each sitting space having a unique colored miniature floor rug.

Material

Rugs are made of different materials, which makes choosing the right rug for certain spaces very important when decorating a room using a rug. An area like the kitchen space or the bathroom door in your house requires rugs that are made of water resistant material because of the high possibility of water spilling on the rug. The kitchen also requires rugs that have a non- slip surface underneath which helps prevent accidents that can happen when a person slips when they are standing on the rug. Rugs that don't have slip-resistant backing built into them can be laid over a rug pad which helps prevent slipping.

Areas like the bedroom and the living room require rugs that are warm and comfortable to walk on. Consider rugs that have wool as the main material for the bedroom and living room.

Design on the Rug surface

Rugs come in different colors and some have multicolor designs on the surfaces. Choosing the right rug for spaces that visitors first see when they visit you home gives the visitors a good first impression of your home. Consider multicolor patterned rugs for hallways and exterior corridors that receive lots of natural light in your home.

Plain color rugs work well for the living room or office floors and choosing a color that blends with the appearance of the walls gives the room a serene feeling that can be conducive for working in the office or relaxing when at home.

Some patterns that originate from ancient cultures give the room they are laid in an aura of opulence. Having a rug with such a pattern on the floor in a home office is great and gives you confidence when you have a meeting with clients at home.

Ease of cleaning

The rug you lay on floor requires cleaning from time to time. Pet owners and folks who have young children who play around the house require more frequent cleaning of the rugs than homes that only have adults. Carpets that have a flat surface are easy to clean with daily vacuuming unlike high-pile rugs that require professional cleaning. For pet owners, having high-pile rugs can be cumbersome as regular professional cleaning can become expensive. It is also inconvenient for them to move furniture around every time they remove the carpet for cleaning and replace it thereafter. Pet owners should therefore consider having carpets that are more flat on their floors than high-pile rugs.

Amount of traffic in the room

When picking a rug that you want to lay on the floor in a certain room, consider the amount of foot traffic that you expect in the room. People tend to follow similar paths when moving from one point of the room to the other and this can cause the carpet to experience uneven wear along the paths. A good way to mitigate this is ensuring that you rotate the carpet from time to time so that all the areas on the surface of the carpet get worn out evenly.

Rooms with high foot traffic such as the living room and hall pathways require floor rugs made of materials that are more durable and can withstand the high foot traffic without showing much deterioration on the surface. Sisal rugs and rugs that are made of synthetic materials work great and can with stand high foot traffic. Choosing rugs that have intricate patterns on the surface is also a clever way to hide the tracks that result from people walking along the same paths.

Softer rugs like woolen rugs should be reserved for rooms that have little movement on the rugs surface like in the bedroom.

Shape of the Rug

The generic shape for most rugs is the rectangular shape but modern rug designs include rugs that have shapes that are more diverse. The rectangular shaped rugs can be used as the main rug for a large room while round shaped rugs work well for defining the sitting areas on the floor in the dining room.

Custom-made shapes are also available and these can work well when placed on room entrances and passageways. Inclusion of a customized message on the surface of the rug is also a nice addition that you should consider when selecting a rug to be placed at an area such as the main entrance of your home. The rug welcomes visitors with a nice message and some rugs have creative designs that read differently when the rug is viewed from opposite sides.