Getting the hang of decorating with area rugs is relatively easy. Walk through your rooms and get a feel for the way the rooms flow. Then bring your favorite, personal looks to these rooms with a rug, say a very modern rug with lots of colors.
If you stick with the same color family, it makes for an unbroken flow. Maybe you prefer all rooms to all look different, like an art gallery. Animal print rugs are attention-getting yet look great with virtually any style of furniture or any design period.
Keepsake rugs or rugs for special occasions are becoming very popular. Collectors and creative home decorators find that specialty rugs like these can tell a family story or set the stage for a special family or seasonal event. Talk about conversation starters!
Create your own area rug with your favorite colors and have it made at your local retail flooring store. Bring in a piece of wallpaper or fabric swatch and the flooring experts along with their design consultants can create a rug with colors that coordinate with what you already own.
If you want to put a rug in your dining room under your table, decide first if the chairs will be on or off the rug. Of course, this will help you determine the size rug you need and you won’t get stuck with a rug that the chairs are half on or half off of. The same idea goes for an area rug in the living or family room… the size of your sofa, will determine the size of the area rug to buy.
As a general rule, designers say you get an area rug 12 inches larger than a normal size sofa and 24 inches longer than a very large sofa. If you are considering putting an area rug over wall-to-wall carpet (yes, layering is all the rage again today!), try to stay 30 inches from the wall. Anything less than this will make everything look out of proportion.
