Wise Design How To: Size A Rug

Just like hanging a print on the wall, a rug can radically change the style of your room. It's a small yet impactful addition to a room that can instantly change the way a space feels, sounds and functions.

NW Hillside House project

Unlike some other areas of the home (how to deal with shoes will be in an upcoming post!), we tend to follow a fairly simple rule with rug sizing: bigger often equals better. A bigger rug helps a space feel larger. A bigger rug is cozier. A bigger rug helps your furniture groups feel united. A bigger rug offers floor space for relaxing, hanging out, playing with the dog.

Laurelhurst Park Home project

For our example, we have a simple living room layout below: a sofa and two chairs with a coffee table in between. There's a lovely fireplace in this room with built-ins on either side and two cased openings leading to other spaces. We're not worried about watching TV in here or tight circulation. It's a small, sweet conversation or reading room with the fire as the focal point.

Rugs come in all sizes but for the most part, rugs for your home will be in sizes 6x9, 8x10, 9x12 or 10x14. Vintage rugs tend to be sized irregularly. There are smaller rugs (of course) but for this exercise, we'll keep 6x9 as our smallest size.

6x9 Rug in Living Room

Here's our living room example with a 6x9 rug. You can see that the front feet of the chairs and the sofa are on the rug. This helps unite all your furnishings, having everything touch the rug. That being said, you're a hot minute away from having the sofas or the chairs slide off the rug, especially if your fresh-out-of-school 7-year-old takes a flying leap onto the furniture.

There's not a lot of room to sit on or even see the rug. The room feels a little odd, a little small and uncomfortable.

8x10 Rug in Living Room

Ok! This is a little bit better! An 8x10 rug allows for unification of the sofa & chairs but this time, it joins in on the grouping. It has as much presence in the room as the other pieces. There's room to sit on the rug in front of the fire. All pieces feel like they are firmly anchored. No one is worried about furnishings 'falling' off the rug. If you inherited or already have an 8x10 rug, we would support it being used in this room's layout. This size rug would also work if you had fireplace hearth tile (we want the rug to stop short of any hearth tile) or if you had really beautiful floors that you wanted to see & show off.

9x12 Rug in Living Room

We like the 8x10 but we love the 9x12. The 9x12 does everything the 8x10 offers and more. It unites, anchors, has a presence, clears the hearth tile, shows off the floors and offers so much room to spread out and relax. This room is simply furnished but what if you wanted to bring in some side tables and reading lamps? The 9x12 can handle it. The room feels bigger with the 9x12. Here's a side-by-side example of the 6x9 on the left with the 9x12 on the right:

The furniture placement is exactly the same but one room feels comfortable while the other one just feels...off. When you can't quite put your finger on what it is about a room that's bugging you, sometimes it's as simple as the rug size should be larger.

However, let's look at an example of what's TOO big:

10x14 Rug in Living Room

Too large of rugs can be tripping hazards, especially in corners. To navigate through this room, the corners of the rug extend out so far that we would be concerned about circulation. The chairs being fully on the rug while the sofa still being half on and half off feels strange. The furnishings start to look a little small in the room. The hearth would be covered, the floor harder to see. Larger rugs are more expensive so that also should be taken into consideration. It's just not necessary and takes away more than what it provides.

So how do you figure this out in person before you purchase?

Our friend, the painter's tape! Use painter's tape to tape out dimensions of the rug in your space before purchasing. Even though some rug companies may let you return, laying out a rug is an absolute pain. It's much easier to tape out a perimeter of a rug (before you purchase!) with a measuring tape assisting than it is to move all furniture in and out of a space.

Richmond Bungalow project

Don't forget to always use a rug pad with your rugs too! The thicker the pad, the plusher the experience but also the tippier the furniture for those pieces half on and half off a rug. Shims or felt pads on back legs of furniture help with this and/or maybe you buy a slightly less thick pad.

Last comment about rugs: don't let anyone shame you for what you love. If you have a smaller or larger than ideal size rug that's your absolute favorite, that's all that matters. You feeling comfortable and loving your space is more important than any design "rule."