How To Choose The Perfect Rug For Your Living Room

Living rooms are the heart of the home, it’s the room that instantly comes to mind when one pictures their future home, the place guests are brought to be entertained, the haven you retire to at the end of a tiresome work day. So why not make it the best possible place you can? That is why having the perfect rug can make that haven that little bit better. A rug symbolises the comfort you experience in life and these are legacy pieces that extend that comfort for generations.

Now deciding on which rug suits your living room best can be a daunting process which involves many factors such as colour, design, shape, size, materials and much more. But never fear, Rug Artisan is here to make those choices much easier! With your ideas and our advice to tweak them, that dream rug can be manifested into a reality. However, even if you don’t have any idea what will be best for you, just drop us an email here or a message in our chat box and we will connect you to our team of designers who are equipped to get you exactly the rug you need.

Let’s get started!

The first factor to consider is what you want the rug to represent; do you want it to be the centre of attention? Or to just blend seamlessly into the background? Or to complement the furniture around it? At Rug Artisan we offer a vast collection classified into relevant categories to help you decide exactly what kind of design you are looking for. We have something for everybody! And secondly, the size of your living room must be taken into account, whether it is an individual enclosed room or an open plan, and how much space the furniture takes.

With the living room likely to be the one area in the house to receive the most traffic, the yarns used and the pile height should be taken into account when ordering your rug (for more information about the yarns used check out our buying guide here).

How to place your rug in the living room

Once you have decided which type of design and colour suits your living room best, the next step is to decide on the rug placement. The right position can enhance the room’s look and feel complete and yet there is no wrong position. Whatever you feel suits you best, then that is the right position. However there are some general measurements that could be considered when doing so. Living rooms generally require large area rugs. Apart from providing a luxurious and soothing backdrop to the room, the rug should also be able to accommodate all the furniture in the room in a comfortable fashion.

The rug should run the length of the sofa with at least 15-18 inches from the edge of the furniture to the edge of the rug. The rug should also be a minimum of 12 inches away from the walls to ensure it doesn’t seem squashed, and makes the room look smaller than it is. Larger rugs tend to make the room appear bigger. However, each room comes in different sizes and measurements can be adjusted accordingly.

Now comes the placement of the furniture. They can either all be placed on the rug or placed around with the rug in the centre, however care should be taken that loose furniture such as single chairs, or tables should not be placed half on and half off the rug. This can cause them to become unbalanced. As for heavy sets like a large sofa, this positioning can be used since it will be anchored down from the weight. 

The first option keeps the surrounding furniture grounded and sets the foundation for the entire room to appear uniform. Particularly in open spaces, this placement suits best as it defines where the actual room begins and ends.

The second option can work well if the room needs to be divided in different sections – a lounging area, TV section and so on. This can be with the rug in the middle of your seating arrangement, which gives an amazing island feel that can be accentuated with the coffee table in the centre of the rug. Ensure the surrounding furniture isn’t placed too far away from the rug as it will create an isolated picture and the furniture will appear to ‘float.’

Although the most common rug shape chosen is the rectangle, a well-placed round or oval shaped rug can stand out even more.

Or perhaps an even bolder choice of a hexagon shaped rug. That’s the thing with different shapes, you can experiment to your heart's content to find which matches your living room best. And then play around with furniture placement to give a distinctive look to your living room.

Sometimes the answer lies not in one rug but two. ‘Layering’ is a cool way to create a chic yet sophisticated look to the room. Playing around with the positioning of both can draw the furniture together, especially when there are multiple chairs and tables. On the other hand, the rugs don’t need to be ‘layered’ on top of one another. Perhaps one can be placed in the centre of the seating arrangements with a smaller rug in front of the fireplace to create a warm feel, or a runner rug along the back of the main sofa towards the doorway.

All in all, these are just some guidelines you can follow to make your living room the place to be in the entire house. There is no wrong or right way to place your rug, if you think it suits your look, go for it! However, if you were unsure about it, hopefully this guide helped clear that up. If you are still hesitant and uncertain about the entire process, feel free to contact us here or drop a message in the chat box.