Advice and Ideas
Make your home stand out using unique & practical large rugs
Rugs are usually the last “piece of the puzzle” when home decorating. A few people prefer not to use them; others can’t imagine their home without some lovely large rugs covering the floors.
We’re among the latter, no surprise here, and we think you must be too since you’re reading this. As rug designers, we don’t just create rugs, but we also think of ways they can make a difference in someone’s home (or workplace).
In this article you’ll find information about:
- The advantages of using large rugs
- How to choose a large rug for the living room
- The best large rugs for the bedroom
- Ways to fit a large rug in an open-plan space
Rothko Deep Rug by Sonya Winner Studio
Why choose large rugs for your room?
Here are just a few of the many benefits that big rugs can bring to your home:
Convenience.
Large rugs are the best option to zone your floor. If you choose a good quality wool area rug, you’ll discover many advantages for your home. In both winter and summer, a wool rug keeps your home at a stable temperature and creates a far more comfortable and cozy living environment. From this point of view, using large rugs is better than going with smaller rugs, because they cover a bigger area without any gaps.
Adding a rug to a room can improve its acoustics.
Large area rugs can help retain the sounds inside the room. In other words, they can become indispensable elements for rooms where you like playing your piano or other instruments or just simply enjoy listening to music.
An easy way to cover the floor’s flaws.
Large rugs are very useful when you want to cover floor defects and they cost less than changing the whole ground floor. They also help to dampen the noises that a wooden floor can produce, such as creaking.
Bring everything up together.
A modern rug becomes the centre of the room. It will act as an anchor for the rest of the elements, highlighting or complementing colours and patterns of other more subdued pieces of furniture.
Now that we have clarified how practical large rugs are for the home, in the examples below we’ll show you how they can magically transform your space.
How to choose a large rug for your living room
The rug in the living room should enhance all your different elements of furnishing. If you were to use a small rug in a space with a lot of furniture, it will be lost amongst the other furniture elements.
When choosing the size of the area rug for your living room there’s a simple rule to follow: look for a rug large enough to cover the seating spaces where conversations take place. Either with the front legs of the sofa and armchairs positioned on the rug (half on and half off) or all legs of the furniture sitting on the rug (all on). Read more about positioning furniture on your rug in our blog post here.
Shapes and colours for your living room rug
Interior design is an art form so feel free to play with colours and shapes as you please experimenting to maintain balance. From geometric rugs to irregular rugs or classic-shaped rugs, anything can work for your living room. The secret is to identify and respect the element of connection between the items in the room. It could either be a specific colour or the pattern of the armchair you inherited from your grandparents.
You can choose a designer rug that is complementary to the rest of the room, one that creates a contrast. For example, the After Albers Cornflower is a geometric blue rug that works superbly with a dark green simple designer sofa. This combination creates a nature-inspired theme for the living room (the ocean and the forest).
If you want a more vibrant interior, or the “Wow Effect”, then choose a colourful irregular rug, such as The Scribble Rug. Its freeform design will add fluidity to your space, and it’ll be the unexpected element that creates that sense of originality which gives some “spice” to your space.
Large rugs for the bedroom – things to take into consideration
Your bedroom is the place where you retire after a long day. Here you want to find peace and all the conditions to rest.
A bedroom with a cool large rug is incredibly cosy and creates balance and harmony to make your bedroom a special place to relax. For bedroom rugs, choose the rug’s size by taking into account the major elements in the bedroom: bed, wardrobe and chest of drawers.
The length of the rug should be bigger than the length of the bed. As for the width of the rug, it is best when the rug width is bigger than the width of the bed, wardrobe and dresser combined (so that they all fit on the side of the rug).
Usually, in a bedroom with a large rug, the bed sits on it. So, if you feel like you don’t want to hide the beauty of a designer rug, you can always choose to use two smaller rugs. Read all about it here: The Best Tips to style your space using Multiple Modern Rugs.
Shapes and colours for your bedroom rug
We recommend you use a large rug with shades of blue, purple, green, or brown, but you can also opt for a rug with neutral shades, such as white, cream, or grey.
Thinking about your choice of rug shape: if the furniture in the bedroom is simple, you can opt for a geometric or irregularly shaped rug to add a little contrast.
Ways to fit a large rug in an open-plan
For an open-plan space, you could consider using an extra-large rug or a large rug (depending on the size of the space) for the main area – usually the lounge/drawing room. Other smaller rugs can be used to create different zones, like a dining area (however, for the dining zone, the rug has to be big enough to place the table and the chairs completely on it and to be able to move the chairs back to allow you to be seated will still remaining on the rug).
Shapes and colours for an open-plan rug
Usually, a rectangular open space looks best with a rectangular shaped rug positioned in the same direction. A square room would be better suited with a round(ish) or a square(ish) rug. You can mix and match different rug shapes and colours, or you can choose the same modern rug in different sizes, if the space is generous enough or if it has an atypical shape.
Never forgot though – rules are created to be broken. Feel free to explore with your home interior design. If you need some help to choose the best large rug for your space, our team is here to advice you. Contact us …
Also, why not see how our clients have styled multiple rugs in their spaces here.
Discover our designer rug collection in our shop!
