Rugs by Room: Living Room, Bedroom and Outdoor Rugs

The room decides more than the pattern does. It sets the size, because a rug that stops short of the furniture makes a room look smaller than it is; it sets the shape, because a corridor takes one thing and a bay window takes another; and it sets the pile, because what feels right beside a bed is a nuisance under a dining chair. Five rooms cover most of it.

Living Room Rugs

The living room is where most rugs end up, and where most of them are bought too small. The rug should reach far enough that the front legs of the sofa and the chairs stand on it, which pulls the seating into one group. Anything smaller floats in the middle of the floor and reads as a mat with a coffee table on it.

Pile matters less here than size, though a medium pile takes daily traffic better than a deep one and hides the walking line between the door and the sofa. Wool recovers from furniture legs; a flat synthetic weave keeps the dents. Browse living room rugs.

Bedroom Rugs

A bedroom rug is judged with bare feet, which changes the priorities. Deep pile earns its keep here more than anywhere else, because nothing walks on it in shoes and the walking line barely exists. Two arrangements work: one rug large enough that it emerges past the foot and both sides of the bed, or a smaller rug on the side you get out of.

Pale colours last longer in a bedroom than they do downstairs, for the same reason. Browse bedroom rugs.

Kitchen and Hallway Rugs

Both rooms are long and narrow, and both want the same answer: a runner. A corridor takes a rug that leaves a hand's width of floor showing on each side, and a galley kitchen takes one that runs the length of the units rather than sitting square in the middle of the floor.

One thing to know before you look: the runners are not machine washable, and the washable designs are rectangular rather than long. If washing is the priority, the shape has to give; if the shape is the priority, the washing does. Browse runner rugs.

Dining Room Rugs

A rug under a dining table has one job that no other room asks for: the chairs have to stay on it when they are pushed back. That means roughly 60cm of rug beyond the edge of the table on every side, which is why dining is the room where people most often go up a size or two rather than down.

A flat or short pile is easier here. Chair legs drag, crumbs fall, and a deep pile makes both worse. There is no dining collection as such, because the rug you want is a large or extra large one in a short pile. Browse extra large rugs.

This is also the room where the floor underneath changes the answer most. The same rug reads warm on oak and cold on grey laminate, and no photograph shows that because the photograph comes with its own floor. Two or three laid out flat in the Enniskillen showroom settles it in a couple of minutes.

Outdoor Rugs

Outdoor rugs are polypropylene, which takes sun and rain without the colour going flat and dries far faster than wool. They suit a patio, a covered terrace, a balcony or a garden room. What they are not is waterproof: the fibre copes with weather, but a rug left lying in standing water through a winter will not come back. Lift it, hose it, dry it flat.

Nothing woven in wool should go outside, whatever the weather looks like that week. Browse outdoor rugs.

Common Questions About Rugs for Each Room

What size rug does a living room need?

Large enough that the front legs of the sofa and the chairs stand on it. If the seating is against three walls, that usually means one of the bigger sizes rather than a middle one, and the commonest mistake by a long way is going a size down.

Can a rug go under a dining table?

Yes, and it should extend well past the table edge so the chairs stay on the rug when they are pulled out. Choose a short pile over a deep one, because chair legs and deep pile do not get on.

Can an indoor rug be used outdoors?

Only the polypropylene ones. Wool and wool blends hold damp in the backing, and a wool rug left on a patio will go musty long before it looks worn.

Which room suits a deep pile rug?

A bedroom, first, and a sitting room where the rug is walked on barefoot as often as in shoes. Hallways and kitchens are the worst places for one: the pile flattens along the route people take and stays flat.