Modern life is full of things that demand our attention. Oftentimes, we’re so busy rushing from one thing to the next, that we simply fail to notice the finer details in the world around us. For instance, when was the last time you consciously noticed the rug placement in a living room? However, it’s often the small details that make all the difference — especially with interior design and home décor!
There’s a lot of confusion about how to place a rug in a living room, bedroom, or dining room. This is partially because rug placement is one of those seemingly small details that people rarely dwell on. Rug shoppers regularly ask us questions about how to place area rugs in various rooms — and we feel compelled to address those questions because we want you to be fully satisfied with your new area rug!
Here at Woodstock Furniture & Mattress Outlet, our resident rug experts have over a lifetime of experience in the rug industry and are among the foremost authorities on rugs in North America. In fact, sourcing and selling rugs is their dedicated all-day, every-day job. In this article, we’ll share their insights and wisdom.
Once you’ve finished this rug placement guide, you’ll better know how to place a rug in a bedroom, dining room, living room, or elsewhere in your home!
3 Key Rug Placement Rules for Any Room
Before we get into rug placement tips for specific rooms, there are 3 general rules for how to place rugs regardless of room:
- The 18-inch rule - Regardless of which room you’re dealing with, your area rug should never be closer than 18 inches to your walls or baseboards.
- Don’t overpower the room by covering too much floor.
- Don’t diminish the rug by leaving too much surrounding floor exposed.
For rules 2 and 3, think of it this way — your rug is a framed picture or painting, the room is the frame, and the space between them is the mat. You don’t want a tiny picture swallowed whole by a huge frame and mat. But neither do you want your picture to fill the entire frame with no mat surrounding it. The various parts should complement each other.
While the common saying, “rules are made to be broken” can apply to a degree, these rules should be kept unless you have good reason to bend them. For instance, in an oddly-shaped room, it may be difficult to keep 18 inches away from all the baseboards. Or if you have a very large room broken up into different areas, you may find yourself using multiple rugs or leaving a little more floor exposed than you would otherwise.
Living Room Rug Placement | How to Place a Rug in a Living Room
The most common rug placement questions shoppers ask our experts are about how to place a rug in a living room, family room or den. This uncertainty is mostly due to the large size of the room. Most people simply don’t know what to do with all that space!
Another point of confusion is that there are just so many ways to decorate and furnish a living room. Do you have an oversize sectional sofa, or just a loveseat and a couple chairs? Do you arrange your living room furniture against a wall, or free floating in the middle of the room? The good news is that regardless of what furniture you have or how it’s arranged, the same living room rug placement principles apply.
In addition to the 3 rules above, the most important thing to remember when placing a rug in a living room is to always, always, always make sure the front feet of the sofa, sectional, loveseat, etc. sit on the area rug. This helps center your rug on your seating area and make it the room’s focal point. Generally, a good size for this living room rug would start at around 8’ x 11’. However, you can go larger or smaller depending on room size and how much you’d like to highlight your floors.
Finally, in particularly large family rooms with open floor plans, it is possible to have multiple rugs. For instance, if the backside of a floating sofa or sectional creates a de facto “hallway” through the room, you can place a runner there. Or an additional rug if you have multiple seating areas. Just remember, if you have more than one rug in your living room, the colors should complement each other, but they should never be the exact same matching design.
Bedroom Rug Placement | How to Place a Rug in a Bedroom
Many rug shoppers ask us similar questions about how to place rugs in a bedroom. Bedroom rug placement usually revolves around a few factors – room size, bed size, and bed position. Most of our customers who ask about this are considering rugs for the master bedroom, so let’s start there.
For both king and queen size beds, the most popular way to place a rug in a master bedroom is with the length of the rug centered under the width of the bed. The edge of the rug that’s towards the headboard (and usually the wall) should go up to, but not under, your nightstands or bedside tables. This way, you are able to get in and out of bed on either side and step onto the rug. Depending on bed and room size, the right size rug for this rug placement would be a 9’ x 13’, 8’ x 11’ or 8’ x 10’.
Alternatively, if you’ve got a queen size and bed and less free space to work with, you can place a smaller rug (such as a 5’ x 8’ or 6’ x 9’) centered on the footboard length-wise. If your bed isn’t centered in the room and you want to be a bit more adventurous, you can also place a rug diagonally under the bed instead.
Often, with smaller bedrooms with twin or full-size beds, the beds are caddy-cornered or against a wall on one side. For these layouts with twins and full-size beds, we recommend placing a single 4’ x 6’ or 5’ x 8’ rug length-wise on the side where you get in and out of bed.
Dining Room Rug Placement | How to Place a Rug in a Dining Room
Of the different spaces in your home, how to place a rug in a dining room is easily the most straight-forward. This is because dining room layouts are virtually the same everywhere. Every single dining room has one central feature – the dining table!
There’s really only one place for a dining room rug to go, and that’s with the length of the rug centered under the dining table. As always, remember the 3 universal rug placement rules when selecting a rug. However, dining room rug placement is one of the few instances where you may end up bending the rules a bit. That’s because how well your rug works with your dining table and chairs is ultimately just as important as how well it works with the room itself.
The single most important consideration when placing a rug in a dining room, is that the feet of the dining chairs should stay all the way on the rug, even when guests are seated at the table. So, make sure that you choose a wide enough rug for your dining room!
The only possible exceptions here are your host and hostess chairs on either end of your dining table. If you’ve got a leaf in your dining table for extra guests, it’s possible that these end chairs will hang partially off of the rug when in this configuration. Not every dining room can accommodate a long enough rug to prevent this, so don’t sweat it!
How to Place Rugs in Bathrooms, Foyers & Hallways
It’s time for the bonus round! Here are a few more quick rug placement tips for other areas in your home.
Here at Woodstock Furniture & Mattress Outlet, we love runners and carry a bunch of them in various shapes and sizes. However, runners also represent one of the most common décor mistakes we encounter on a regular basis. Always remember, long runners are meant for hallways – not foyers or entryways.
Speaking of foyers, if yours is on the smaller side, we recommend a simple 2’ x 3’ or 2′ x 4′ rug placed just inside the door instead of an interior door mat. However, if your foyer is larger and has a chandelier, don’t miss the opportunity to create a great first impression when welcoming guests into your home! If you do have a chandelier, we recommend placing a round rug directly beneath it.
As for bathrooms, placing a small 2’ x 3’ or 2’ x 4’ rug just in front of the sink is a nice touch if space allows. Obviously for master bathrooms or others with double vanities, you could place a longer accent runner that stretches in front of both sinks instead. For the interior space of a master bathroom, simply use the same 3 universal rug placement rules and you’ll do great!
What Size Rug Do You Need for Your Living Room, Bedroom or Dining Room?
Now that you’ve got a better idea about how to place rugs in your living room, bedroom, dining room and more, you’re ready to take the next step. In our experience, knowing how to place your rug really goes hand-in-hand with knowing the just right rug size for your room. Still unsure about what size rug you need? Be sure to check out our helpful rug size guide to find the perfect rug sizes for every room in your home!
If you have a rug already and are ready to place it, go give our tips a try. Otherwise, come pay us a visit at our rug gallery in Acworth! If you have any other rug-related questions, the rug experts at Woodstock Furniture & Mattress Outlet would love the chance to help you. See you soon!
