The Ultimate Guide for Choosing the Perfect Rug
A guide for the best sizes of rugs for different rooms, the best rug materials for different uses, and ways to pair them in open floor plans.
Without a doubt, one of the most frequent questions I’m asked in my Instagram DMs or email every day are about rugs. I mean, they’re just so dang perplexing. What size should I get? What should I do in an open floor plan? What’s the best material to use with a family that spills all the time?
It really is one of those big decisions that can make or break a room coming together.
So if this one is a doozy for you, I thought maybe it would help to put together a big guide for choosing the perfect rug every time.
Entryways
Last year, I made the mistake of ordering a rug that was slightly too big for our foyer. See how that blue rug butts right up to that chest? It was pushed right up against our front door too, which wasn’t ideal, but I lived with it anyway until I found one that was a better size.
Pick one that leaves 8-16 inches of bare floor or carpet exposed around the rug.
This 3×5 rug was just the right fit.
For materials, go with ones that can stand up to heavy traffic. Cotton flatweaves can be washed. Wool rugs repel stains, but be aware they can shed. Polypropylene as well as natural fiber rugs like jute, sisal, seagrass, hemp, and bamboo slat are great at standing up to lots of foot traffic.
I love using colorful, patterned rugs because they hide stains well.
Dining Rooms
One of the biggest mistakes I made years ago was putting rugs under our dining room table that weren’t large enough, so every time we would push out our chairs, the legs would get caught on the edge of the rugs.
This Ruggable we have now gives us plenty of room to scoot them in and out. (I wrote a full non-biased review about my Ruggable here BTW. Some things I love about them, some I don’t.)
I used a 6×9 in our breakfast nook. (You can use a rectangular or square rug under a round table, if you prefer.)
And we use this 8×10 rug in our dining room.
It’s best to use flatweave or low-pile rugs under dining tables so they don’t get caught on chair legs. And it’s best to use stain-resistant or washable rugs like wool, cotton, jute, sisal, seagrass, hemp, or bamboo slat.
Living Rooms
If you can’t manage to fit the front of your furniture legs onto your rug in your living room, replace it with one that will fit or layer your smaller rug on top of a larger natural fiber rug.
We use this 9×12 rug in our living room since it’s a rather large space.
And we used this 8×10 rug in this living room since it was a more narrow space.
You can opt for flatweave, low-pile, or high-pile rugs depending on your style, but for durability, it’s best to use materials that are wool, nylon, polypropylene, cotton, jute, sisal, seagrass, or hemp.
Bedrooms
In bedrooms, you can use softer materials that are less durable since they get less traffic like silk, olefin, and chenille. Wool and polypropylene work well too.
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Since our master bedroom is a bit on the small side, but we have a king sized bed, we used this rug in 8×10.
For Olivia’s room, we used this braided wool rug in 8×10 under her queen bed.
This rug we used in this bedroom under the queen bed is an 8×10.
And this rug we used under this queen bed in our guest bedroom is an 8×10.
Doorways
For porches and in front of doors, it’s best to use a rug that’s wide enough to reach both sides of the door and made of materials rated for outdoor use.
I loved doing the layered look on our porch.
But since we’ve stenciled our front porch floor, it does the job without the layering to mimic the look of a rug.
Kitchens
Leave the area in front of the stove and refrigerator clear from a rug, but consider putting one in front of your sink or along the kitchen island.
If you have a galley kitchen, a runner would work best.
Just like dining rooms, use flatweave or low-pile rugs. And it’s best to use stain-resistant or washable rugs like wool, cotton, jute, sisal, seagrass, hemp, or bamboo slat in case food is dropped.
This wool rug repels stains in our kitchen like a champ.
Open Concept
If you have an open concept but feel stuck with how to mix rugs in different areas of your open room, choose rugs that have similar color palettes and similar styles (but don’t make them match).
If I’m using a blue striped flatweave rug in a living room, I’d want to use a blue checked flatweave rug in the adjoining dining space. Both are in the blue color family, both have straight, geometric lines, and both are made of the same type of material (but they don’t match).
On our back porch, we used a round jute 8′ rug and a natural striped 6×9 rug. They don’t match, but they work together as a pair.
These are some of my favorite pairings for open concept spaces:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
And these are some of my favorite budget-friendly rugs:
Whew! That was a lot, but I hope that helped.
