How To Choose The Right Area Rug For Your Home

Area rugs can be tricky - we have the tips to help!

A checklist to selecting the right STYLE for an area rug in your home, from Design Pro Kimberley Seldon:

  • Select a style: are you going for modern, contemporary or traditional? With so many options, it’s essential to start with a strong style choice to start your area rug shopping
  • Colour: match existing furniture colours before heading out to a shop like Weavers Art. Select paint chips that match the colours of the fabrics in your room. Then take those paint chips with you to the carpet store. That way you won’t be guessing which one is the right colour.
  • Mood: if your new carpet has the same colours as all your existing furniture, they look will create a mood from the room making it aesthetically pleasing, soothing and calm.
  • Accent colours: if you choose an area rug with an additional, bright accent colours, it can change the whole look and can make the space more dramatic.
  • Start with the carpet: if you’re decorating from scratch, start with the area carpet and build a room around it since area carpets are one of your biggest investments
  • Create a  colour palette: using similar colours throughout your whole home will allow you to move things around more easily. The area carpet that looks great in the living room might also look great in the dining room three years later.

A checklist to picking the right SIZE for an area rug in your home because there is no fix for a carpet that is too small:

  • Biggest tip: the bigger the carpet, the bigger the room looks! If you want to make a space look larger, in an open concept, choose one enormous area carpet for the living room and dining room.
  • Living room: it’s ideal to have the area carpet rest underneath all furniture legs. However, it’s perfectly fine to have only the front legs of furniture resting on the carpet if necessary. It’s never ok to have the area carpet sitting in the middle of a furniture grouping where none of the legs are sitting on the carpet.
  • The dining room: it’s ideal to not only have all legs sitting on the carpet, but to have enough carpet to allow the chairs to move in and out from beneath the table without catching an edge. When the area carpet is too small, it’s inconvenient and again, makes the space feel small.
  • Other things to look for in a rug: Medallions in the centre of a carpet, which often only work in an entranceway that’s symmetrical. Or in a symmetrical living room with a glass coffee table. Otherwise, they are hidden underneath furniture, or will be distracting, if they are off center in a room.
  • Country carpets: typically having more color and looser patterns, can be very forgiving in terms of stains and wear and tear, making them ideal for families.
  • City carpets: often include silk, have less pattern and are more sheen. They also tend to be less forgiving in terms of stains and have more visual breathing space.
  • Borders and fringes? Borders make a room feel smaller so avoid borders in small spaces.