With so many sizes, shapes, textures, colours and patterns, choosing the most appropriate area rug to decorate a space can easily become an art in and of itself. The safe route is to use a rug that contains a colour you
want to accentuate in the specific room, as it will bind the space together and make it warm and inviting. But does it end there? Most interior designers agree that there are no set rules but only guidelines to follow.
When you stage a home, you are trying to recreate a living space that is well defined and appeals to the taste of as many people as possible. That means that you need to launch your rug game into the A league.
Get a measuring tape
As you are measuring a space you want to decorate, remember that the larger the rug, the bigger the room will seem. On the other hand, if you want to show off more of that polished hardwood or natural stone flooring, go with a smaller size rug. Choosing a rug too small, however, will create the chopped up look, and the room won’t only appear smaller but also out of focus.
Furniture first, rug second
A good strategy is to set up the furnishings in the room first and then use an area rug to tie everything together. On the ground level, the long side of the rug needs to run along the length of a couch or a loveseat. It doesn’t matter if one pair of sofa legs are on and the other off the rug. The same applies to chairs, side tables, etc. Grouping items Another smart way of using an area rug is to group several items of furniture, creating a corner for itself. These furniture nooks add some contrast and character to the room. Having a small rug floating in the middle of a fully decorated and grouped room is a bad idea even in a real home, let alone when staging one for sale. Having a runner rug along a hallway, though, is always welcome.
Style meets style
Needless to say, your area rug has to match the style and finish of the room. Having a contemporary print rug in a room with traditional or cottage-style furnishing and light fixtures works just as bad as matching a beautiful Persian style rug with a Scandinavian room setup. If you’ve run out of ideas, check out the designer rug selection by DecoRug and transform a simple room into an expensive-looking one with unmatched elegance and grace.
For extra warmth
Homes that have tile, slate, light wood or even dark coloured, heavy wood flooring look incredibly attractive; still, they need some contrast to grab a buyer’s attention. This is why professional home stagers never miss to add some warmth to the floor. For example, a light colour rug will look best on the darker floor and can make the room look bigger than it is. Stone or hardwood floors can easily take a bolder rug texture as well, such as sisal, needlepoint or faux fur.
Rugs for high traffic
High traffic areas are always more likely to see more falls and spills than other areas in the house. It would be wise to use indoor/outdoor rugs in the busy areas since they are easier to clean than plush and shaggy rugs, which will be better off in bedrooms. Alternatively, you can consider floor carpet tiles. They come in 19.7-inch squares and many different patterns , clouds and textures, so you can go with a clean look or create a custom checkerboard rug. They are made of nylon fibres, which makes them easy to clean and virtually indestructible.
Divide large space
Experienced interior designers have extensively use rugs to divide large living spaces, so each area becomes identified in its purpose. Since many condos and modern townhomes have an open floor plan, where a living and dining areas sharing the same space, buyers need to see where one space ends and another begins. If you border the living area with a rug, the dining area might as well go without one. If you leave such a combination floor plan without dividing rugs, it will look like a disorganized maze of furniture ready for moving.
Never split visual plane
This is a relatively common mistake, which usually occurs in doorways or paths through the room. If the large dining room rug obstructs the walkway around the chairs so that when you walk one foot is on the rug and the other on the bare floor, you better replace the rug with a smaller one.
A smartly used area rug can make a space much more interesting and stylish; it can also define the area, group furniture, or make an area more welcoming. On the other hand, if used improperly, even the best rug designs can ruin the staged home décor.