One may say that rugs give rooms a sense of coziness and comfort, and make the living space feel truly like a home. However, scrolling through an abundance of rug offers can be a daunting task, especially if you’re not sure what you’re looking for. Making some decisions beforehand will tremendously shorten the time wasted on a rug hunt. That’s because then you’ll be able to use advanced search options to choose the characteristics, such as material and shape, or look for rugs designed for a specific purpose. Here are some tips based on advice given by interior design experts that could help you narrow down your search.
Type of Room Matters
When shopping for rugs, it’s crucial to consider whether your choice is the best fit for a particular room type. According to designer Frank de Biasi, the living room is where you have the freedom to experiment. He finds bold patterns to be completely acceptable, as long as the rug blends in with the rest of the room, without becoming “the dominating element”. Contrastively, a bedroom usually requires a softer approach, with muted colors, if you’re looking to turn it into a peaceful sanctuary. When it comes to long and narrow spaces, such as hallway, kitchen or bathroom, the go-to type of rugs are runners.
For the dining room, there are two main factors you should take into consideration. Firstly, given that this is the room for eating and drinking, there will inevitably be spillage. Go for patterns that can make stains less visible and materials that are easily washable. Secondly, from the stylistic standpoint, the rug should cover the space where the table and chairs are. This also includes where your chair is when you pull it to sit down. Thus, measure the room carefully and avoid rugs on which leg chairs won’t slide, such as shag rugs.
Think about the Whole Household
In order to find a rug that suits your needs, you need to consider who will be spending the most time in that particular room. This includes household members, frequent guests and pets. The reason this matters is because your carpet of choice should not just be stylish, but it has to be practical. Surely, you don’t want your favorite “floor decorator” to be ruined within a couple of months after purchase.
People who live alone and have no pets have the luxury of not having to think too much about the practicality of the material. However, even then, for the parts of the home that are “high traffic”, it would be advisable to consider durable fabrics. These would be, for instance synthetics, cotton, jute, sisal and wool. In the cases where children and pets inhabit the space, thinking about durability and cleanability, regardless of the room type, is inevitable. What is more, if you have children and are worried about potential toxicity of carpets, opting for natural fibers is the safest option.
Color and Pattern Matching
The obvious way of ensuring your rug doesn’t seem out of place is matching it with the rest of the room. However, not so obvious is what “matching” actually entails and how to pull it off. What you need to take into account are the color schemes and pattern combinations. Keep in mind that the choice of color largely influences what size the room appears to be. Darker colors will give the impression that the room is more confined, as opposed to light ones that make it seem more spacious.
Unless you are looking for a wall-to-wall carpeting, you should make sure that it goes well with the flooring. In the case of patterned tiles, use a simple, one-color design. On the other hand, you can spice up a plain floor by combining it with a patterned rug. It is possible to apply this principle of contrasting plain with patterned to any other large surfaces in the room, be that the walls, furniture or bed sheets. If you are feeling more audacious and wish to experiment beyond simple color-matching, there are techniques to successfully combine different patterns.
Finishing-up the Rug Hunt Saga
As you’ve probably realized by now, rug shopping takes some premeditation. However, try not to go overboard with following the “rules”. If you allow yourself to have fun with it, there is no doubt you will find a rug that suits your taste and lifestyle.
