For homes with wooden or tiled floors, area rugs can serve as colorful accents that bring a home’s floor to life and add a new element to your interior design strategy. In fact, area rugs are one of the favorite tools of professional interior designers. Here are a few tips on how to use area rugs in your home.

Size and General Tips

It’s important to get the measurements right before you even begin to search for the nicest area rug in San Diego. Take a tape measure and determine what size rug you’ll need for each room. A good rule of thumb is that a rug should be about 24 inches (2 ft) shorter than the shortest wall in the room.
Now, do area rugs work for wall to wall carpeting? The answer is yes, despite what anyone might tell you. Just make sure the contrast between the carpeting and the rug is good.

The Living Room

Living rooms are the place where homeowners and guests gather round and talk. Area rugs are great for creating an atmosphere of conversation and togetherness. Pick a color and design that matches your furniture layout. If you have a small living room, a single large area rug will suffice. If you have a larger living room with different areas, two or more rugs are best to create a cozy feeling. For an area rug to cozily define a conversational grouping, it should leave no more than two feet of bare floor extending behind the furniture. All the furniture pieces should have at least their front legs on the area rug itself.

Bedrooms

Area rugs protect your feet from cold wood floors and make your bedroom feel warmer and more welcoming. They also help create a focal point, which usually points to the bed (the center piece of any bedroom). The rug should be under, minimum, a third of the bed. It should extend 30 to 36 inches from the side of the bed.

Hallways and Stairs

Hallways and stairways are two of the most high-traffic areas of any house, and are rugs and runner carpets can help protect the floor from wear and tear and also give these areas some spice. Rule of thumb: pick a rug that lets approximately six inches flooring show on all sides.

Dining Rooms

Area rugs can turn a cold dining room into a warm and welcoming place to sit down and eat. Pick an area rug big enough to fit all the table pieces and chairs. There should be plenty of rug space left around the furniture. A good rule is to add at least 40 to 48 inches the measurements of your table and have that be the size of your dining room rug.