Today we’re going to talk about everything you need to know about living room rugs. Well, at least everything I keep in mind when I select living room rugs.

Rugs make a huge difference to any space in so many ways. They help demarcate an area, ground the furniture, add colour or neutralise it depending on the situation and add a whole lot of warmth and texture to any space. If used well, they can bring a space alive.

All You Need To Know About Living Room Rugs:

I’ve seen a whole lot of rules on how to go about styling with a rug. Over time I’ve realised that I have liked spaces where the rules have been followed, as also spaces where they have not. I myself have broken some of these rules where I thought appropriate.

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Like any form of art, decor isn’t about following rules. It’s about getting so many different elements to work together in harmony.

So rather than list them as ‘rules’, we’ll explore different things to consider while you are making your rug choice. You can pick which of these fits into your space the best and choose accordingly.

What Should Be Your Rug Size?

The first thing I consider when picking a rug is the size I need. There are standard rug sizes available in the market, and it obviously makes life much easier if you can make one of these standard sizes work for you. The rug size is picked in reference to your furniture layout.

This first rule below is a win in all rule books I’ve ever seen and is also my favourite way to pick the rug size.

(1) Front Legs Of Furniture On The Rug:

That heading is self explanatory. Choose your living room rugs such that the front legs of all the sofas and chairs that go around it will rest on the rug.

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This works best in our small apartment set ups. Because the rug extends below the furniture, it makes the space look bigger. It also grounds all the furniture on to one base and ties it all in.

I selected my own living room rug using the same rule. You can see how it makes the space look wider because it’s spread under the furniture.

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(2) No Legs Of Furniture On The Rug:

What if you already have a rug you love? And it isn’t big enough to fit in below your furniture?

I would first see if I could use it elsewhere and get a bigger rug for my living space. But if you really think that’s the perfect rug for your living room, don’t let rules stop you.

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Do make sure that the rug is not the exact size of the centre table. It must extend beyond it so it can be seen. Also, even though the furniture doesn’t get it’s feet on the rug, at least you will!

We had used a similar small sized rug in Em’s Living Room, because she already had it and wanted to bring it’s colours into the rest of her living room.

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Sometimes, you might need to mix up these two rules. The pic below is of my living room before I got my living room rug. I was using my bedroom rug temporarily, which was long enough to get the feet of the sofa chairs on it, but not wide enough to fit under the big sofa.

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Also, if you scroll up and compare it with the earlier pic, you’ll notice how even with all the same furniture, the space looks bigger in the first pic with the bigger rug. It looks smaller in this second pic because visually, the living room ends where the rug does.

(3) All Furniture Legs On The Rug:

I would never do this in a tiny apartment sized living room, but it works really well in a large space. When you are placing your furniture away from the walls, towards the centre of a large hall, the furniture can look like it’s floating in the middle of nowhere.

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Big sized living room rugs help to define the area and ground the furniture.

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Do make sure that your rug doesn’t touch the walls though. There should be a space of at least 12 to 18 inches between the rug and the walls. The room extending beyond the rug helps the room to look bigger than it would if it ended where the rug did.

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How Do You Choose The Colour Of Your Rug?

Just like with size, the colour of your rug works in reference with the colour of the furniture around it. And as with size, there are no ‘rules’ to choosing the colour of living room rugs.

I’ll show you all possible combinations below, and each one of them looks great.

(1) Neutral Rug With Neutral Furniture:

How can you go wrong with neutrals? Though this sounds like the safest bet, it can look horribly boring unless done right.

The living room below is almost all in one colour. But the monotony of the colour is broken with the use of so many different patterns and textures.

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On the other hand, the living room below uses bold neutrals almost like they were different ‘colours’. The brown colour and large texture of the jute rug contrasts with the absolutely plain, cream coloured sofas. Black accents with the cushions and light fixture give us the third ‘colour’.

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(2) Neutral Rug With Coloured Furniture:

A neutral rug is easy to style with because it gives you the most flexibility to choose colours in your furniture and decor.

The rugs below are not only neutral in colour, but also in pattern. A plain rug means you can add colour and pattern around it freely.

This is done in a subtle way with the mustard sofa and a whole lot of pink accents in this pic.

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And done far more boldly with bright pops of colour in this living room.

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(3) Coloured Rug With Neutral Furniture:

Rugs are a great way to add colour to a room. The colour is understated in this living room. The blue from the rug has been picked for all the accents in the room and ties everything together. The orange has not been repeated, so you have a bright burst of colour, yet not overdone.

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Even though the rug in this room has also been teamed up with neutral furniture, all the textures used make the space look much brighter. The beaten brass table, patterned leather pouf and black and white planter, the weave of the black accent chair, the baskets on the wall and the whole bunch of plants… all these add to the bright pattern and colours of the rug to make the space  more full of life.

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(4) Coloured Rug With Coloured Furniture:

This, according to me, is the most difficult to pull off right. You might have too much of one colour, or too many colours, colours clashing with each other, too many patterns and too many different styles and a room that ends up looking more like chaos than anything else.

So I suggest you try this out only if you have a really good sense of colour and are confident of using it.

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Because if you get it right, the result is only stunning! Sarah’s living room below is all the proof you need!

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Try Different Things!

Once you’ve got your basics, don’t be afraid to get adventurous with your living room rugs. Try using more than one rug, or rugs of different shapes and styles.

(1) Runners:

You have an odd length of space where a regular sized rug doesn’t work? Runners look great in these. See how the runner below ties in all the furniture along the length of that wall.

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We had this odd no-man’s land kind of area between our living and dining spaces. We added the runner to help define it, demarcate the two spaces and add some warmth and colour to that large expanse of cold marble floor.

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(2) Use Multiple Rugs:

In a larger space, using multiple rugs helps to define the different areas. Take, for example, the living room below. One rug grounds the main living area while another marks the reading corner. It helps demarcate the two areas visually and add warmth and texture to the floor.

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In my living room too, we have one rug ground the main seating area while the runner separates it from the dining space like I showed you above. I am still looking for a third rug to go under the smaller seating area.

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(3) Layer Your Living Room Rugs:

You could also use multiple rugs in the same area by layering them. This can be done very simply, using a smaller rug on a large one. In this case you would usually use a plain base with a patterned rug above it, or vice versa.

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Or you can take two similar sized rugs and place them side by side, overlapping the main body.

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Or take an irregularly shaped rug and layer it on top of a regular rectangle.

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And you can layer your multiple rugs, multiple times!

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When layering, be careful of how you’re mixing patterns. A plain rug layered with a pattern is a safe bet. Use a common colour to tie them in. Or a neutral rug with a coloured one.

There are endless ways in which you can mix, match and team up your living room rugs and furniture to make yourself a space you love. Taking tips from this post should help you start. I hope you’ll find these guidelines useful.

Any questions you have in mind? Any tips of your own? Do write in and share with us the comments below.

And if you’d like to move on to bedroom rugs next, here is all that you need to know about bedroom rugs!

Until next time,