Tips on choosing a rug for your home

It may seem like it should be an easy decision, but when it comes down to it, you should put some thought into choosing a rug for any area of your home. Good quality rugs can be expensive and are quite often a big investment, so the last thing you want to do is purchase one that doesn’t suit the colour, style or tone of the room you are putting it in.

Here are our top tips for choosing the perfect rug for any room:

• It may seem obvious, but the first thing you should do is measure the space you want to cover before you go to the store. The last thing you want is to bring your rug home and find it’s far too small (or big) for the space. Also consider the shape and positioning of the furniture that will sit around the rug.
• Interior design experts say that the furniture surrounding the rug should have at least their front legs resting on the rug. This is so that people sitting on surrounding sofas or chairs are resting their feet on the rug, not the floor.
• Take the shape of the room into account. Rectangular rugs are best suited to rectangular rooms, while square or round rugs look better in square rooms.
• Think about the amount of foot traffic that will be passing over the rug. This will help you determine what type of material to go for. You’ll want something hard-wearing for those busy rooms, or something more delicate for those lesser-used areas.
• Also think about how the rug will be used. Will it be purely decorative? Will children or pets be sitting on it, or potentially making a mess on it? Will you be putting a coffee table or ottomans on it?
• To create a harmonious atmosphere, take the colour of the room (including walls and carpet), plus the colour of surrounding furniture, into consideration when choosing a rug colour and pattern. Darker rugs will help a room feel intimate, while a lighter colour will look less imposing.
• Having said that, if the colouring of your room and furniture is quite subdued, a rug gives an ideal opportunity to inject a splash of colour into the room.
• Before you splash out on an expensive rug, think about how many years of use you potentially want from it. If you like to regularly change the look and feel of rooms in your home, it makes more sense to buy an inexpensive rug that you won’t feel so bad about replacing a few years down the track.
• If you want a patterned rug, take trends into account. Dramatic or “fashionable” prints can quickly go out of style, so you don’t want to be stuck with something that will look dated in a couple of years time.