Top tips on choosing a rug for your home
Whether you want a deep pile to wiggle your toes in, a flat weave to sit neatly under furniture, one that is pet friendly and easy to clean or a bespoke design unique to you then these tips should help with your decision making.
There is so much choice here's some tips on choosing a rug, I would recommend that you try and see the rug so that you get a true idea of the colours or you can shop online as there is a huge amount of rug stores, just check out the returns policy and delivery charges first before your order.
It's easy to spend hours trawling through the huge amount of choice that’s available so it's a good idea to think about whether you want plain or patterned, one colour, two colours or multi coloured. Then decide on the weave, woven, short or fluffy. Have some fun, what would happen if you choose something completely different and you stepped out of your comfort zone?
Here are a few of my favourite rugs that I have seen recently:
Look in any interior magazine and you will sew this style of rug.
This luxurious Berber rug measures 230cm x 160cm. This striking rug has been painstakingly handwoven by Kenza, a Moroccan Beni Ourain tribeswoman. The same techniques have been employed by these remarkable craftspeople for hundreds of years and have been passed down through the generations.
A Moroccan Berber rug 100% natural unbleached wool handwoven in the Atlas Mountains as sold by citycows.co.uk Perfect for happy toes and extremely stylish.
Scandinavian elegance.
Beautiful blue woven rugs like these are a traditional design inspired by classic Scandinavian patterns. This rug is hand woven in 100% high quality New Zealand wool for a soft feel that will last a lifetime. It is woven straight through so you can use both sides of the rug, should you need to.
Mucky boots and paws are no problem with this rug.
100% polypropylene rugs with great cleaning credentials and now great choices of designs are available online, remember to keep the pile short.
Bottles as soft as chenille?
And finally for anyone who has a garden room and loves the idea of recycling all those discarded plastic bottles that are dominating the headlines about landfill, have a look at these amazing rugs which have been made from those offending plastic bottles!
Not only do they look and feel like chenille but they have some pretty impressive credentials too; They are stain resistant. Machine washable. Moth resistant. UV stable. Water and mould resistant and can be used outside.
For safety and to lengthen the life of your rug always remember to use a non slip underlay (this is more for indoor rugs) They are not easy to fit as they are sticky and fiddly but once they are stuck down with your rug on top, you will be pleased that you made the effort.
When it comes to choosing the shape of your rug most of the time we are governed by the space it has to fit into or the furniture around it. Rectangular rugs are the most popular, although round rugs work very well as a statement under a round table for example.
Then there are random shaped rugs, these can be very useful when there is an odd space between furniture, drawing your eye away from the odd space and to the rug instead.
This is a great example of an unusual shape rug.
Finally it’s all about the size, if you have a small space don’t over fill it with a rug and keep to a size that is slightly larger than your coffee table.
In larger rooms allow the rug to fit under the feet of your sofa and chairs. If you are using a rug in the dining room make it 60cm bigger than the dining table.
If you are really not sure on the size, choose your rug first and then make a template out of card or paper to see exactly how the size will work with your space.
And if you really can’t make up your mind and need some help, call in the experts ;-)
At Fusion Interior Design in Surrey we've over 25 years experience in the interiors industry and are also interior designers in Sussex and South West London.
t: 020 8786 0520
Thanks for reading,
Wishing you all the best,