Our Top Rug Placement Tips

(Rug charts from Ruggable.com, check out their article “A Complete Guide to Rug Sizes” for more helpful tips!)

Undoubtedly, the most difficult part of an oriental rug purchase is choosing the right rug. With such a wide variety of colors, designs, and weaves it can be overwhelming to attempt to find the rug of your dreams. Fortunately, our team of experts are happy to help you sift through our wide selection to find the rug that is just right for you. 

Once you’ve found your rug, however, you will soon encounter the second most difficult part of the process: placement. It’s not always easy to find the best spot for your new treasure, and even if you have a general idea where you want it to go, lining it up just right in your room can be harder than you may have first thought. Should the end go under the couch, or sit out a couple of inches? Does the rug need to be centered with the room or centered under the bed? How will dining room chairs look on top of a rug?

Over the years, our delivery experts have faced these issues and more while laying our inventory all over the Louisville area. Now, we want to take some of that experience and share it with you so that next time you go to lay one of our gorgeous pieces in your home, you will find the help you need to make it look just right. Here are a few of our top rug placement tips for the three most important rooms in your home!

General Guidelines

Before diving into specific rooms, here are some helpful suggestions for placing a rug in any location:

Placing a rug in a room with a lot of furniture can be tricky business. When laying a large area rug, it is best to move all of the small furniture out of the room that you can before beginning. For larger pieces that are harder to move, such as a bed or a dresser, it is sometimes possible to roll the rug under by lifting various sides of the furniture. To do this, first place one end of your rolled up rug in the exact location you want it to stay. Then, as you unfurl the rug onto the floor, have someone else lift up the sides of your furniture as you run into them, rolling the rug under as you go. This can be much easier than lifting up the entire piece.

As far as centering the rug, some designs are more forgiving than others. If the pattern on your rug involves a center medallion, it may be best to align it as close as possible with the middle of your room in order to allow the expert symmetry to shine through. If, however, your rug contains a repeating pattern throughout, there is much more leeway for you to play around with placement.

If your rug is in a highly trafficked area of your home, such as the entryway or living room, a pad can be a huge help. They will keep your rug from shifting out of place too often and can prevent any stretching or tearing that may occur. Additionally, leaving your pad in place while your rug is out for cleaning will make it a simple process when placing your rug back where it belongs. (If you need a pad cut for a rug, just give us a call with the size and we will have it ready for you in no time!)

Dining Room

A rug in your dining room adds a flair of vitality to an area that is the heart of all types of gatherings, from holidays to house parties. For these rugs, size is what is most important. You will want to find a rug that is large enough to fit your entire dining room table set with space enough to pull the chairs all the way out without the back legs coming off the rug. This will eliminate any unevenness when you sit down and remove the risk of creating a congested environment.

Living Room

A living room rug is a must. This room is meant for “living” after all, and it’s likely that you will spend much of your life at home enjoying the comforts of this space, not to mention hosting friends and family. When placed rightly, living room rugs offer an inviting burst of beauty and symmetry that can transform not only the feel of this one space, but of your entire home. So, what are some guidelines for where living room rugs should sit?

First, it’s good to keep in mind that not all of the furniture in your living room must necessarily be on the rug. Trying to squeeze couches, coffee tables, chairs, and side tables all completely on your piece can make the space feel cramped. A packed space is often much less inviting, so in order to allow more room for your furniture to breath consider placing some of it entirely or at least partially off the rug. 

Couches, for example, can look great with just the front legs on the rug, and there’s nothing wrong with placing it just behind either. We do recommend not leaving too much empty floor space between the front of the couch and the edge of your rug, but feel free to play around with how much is on or off until it’s just the way you like it!

Bedroom

Naturally, the placement of a rug in a bedroom will almost always be dependent on the placement of the bed. For a large area rug, it is usually best to place much of it under the bed with the rest of it extending a few inches out. This keeps the room looking neat and organized, whereas a rug only slightly covered by the bed may appear disproportionate. Oppositely, if the rug is found too close to the wall by the headboard the room may feel cramped, so finding the sweet spot (perhaps ¾ or ⅔ of the way under) is helpful for creating a balanced and open atmosphere.

If you do not love the idea of a large rug hiding partially under your bed, consider placing a small rug or a runner in the open spaces in front of or along the sides of the bed. These are relatively easy to place once you have found the right size, just be sure to leave some space between the bed and the rugs.

We hope these tips will be a great help to you the next time you go to lay one of our handmade masterpieces in your home, and we are happy to answer any further questions you might have. Just give us a call!

We look forward to seeing you soon.