Rugs by Colour, Size, Room, Shape and Style
A rug is one of the few things in a room you choose twice: once for how it looks and once for how it lives. Colour and pattern are the easy half. Size, shape and pile are what decide whether the rug still looks right two years in. The whole range splits six ways, and most people start with one of the first two.
| Start with | What it splits by | Best when |
|---|---|---|
| Colour | Fourteen colours, from grey and cream through to navy and multicoloured | The room is already decorated and the rug has to sit with it |
| Size | Small and extra large, with everything between in the filter | You know the floor you need to cover |
| Room | Living room, bedroom and outdoor | You want the size, shape and pile already narrowed for you |
| Shape | Round and runner, with rectangular as the default | The floor is long and narrow, or the room is short of straight lines |
| Style | Vintage, traditional, modern, floral, boho and geometric | You know the look before you know the colour |
| Feature | Washable and deep pile | Something specific has to be true of the rug |
Choosing Rugs by Colour
Colour is where most people start, and it is the tag we are strictest about, because a rug filed under the wrong colour is a rug nobody finds. The colour listed is the ground — the shade covering the most area — rather than the brightest thing in the pattern. Fourteen colours have a page, and the neutrals do most of the work: grey, cream, beige and white between them cover more of the range than every other colour together.
One warning about screens. A rug photographed in daylight on a pale floor and the same rug in a lamplit room are not the same colour, and wool shifts more than synthetic fibre does. If the room is already decorated and the rug has to match something, order a shade darker rather than a shade lighter — a slightly deep colour reads as deliberate and a slightly pale one reads as a mistake.
Choosing Rugs by Size and Shape
Size is the thing that goes wrong most often, and it goes wrong in one direction: too small. A living room rug wants to reach far enough that the front legs of the sofa and the chairs stand on it. A bedroom rug wants to emerge past the foot and both sides of the bed. If a rug falls between two sizes, take the larger one.
Shape follows the floor rather than the taste. A corridor or a galley kitchen takes a runner and nothing else works in it. A round rug wants open floor on every side, which makes it right for a bay or a bedside and wrong pushed against a wall. Everything else is rectangular, which is roughly seven rugs in ten.
Wool, Polypropylene and What Each One Does
Material is a filter here rather than a collection, but it changes more than the tag suggests. Wool springs back after furniture has stood on it, holds colour without going flat in daylight, and repels a spill for long enough to blot it. Wool and viscose blends add a sheen that moves as you walk past. Polypropylene takes sun and rain without fading, dries fast, and is the only fibre that belongs outdoors. Polyester and recycled yarn sit between the two on price.
None of it is visible in a photograph, which is the honest argument for the Enniskillen showroom on this one page more than any other: a rug is the only thing in a house you buy to stand on, and standing on it takes ten seconds.
Designer Rugs
Alongside the six ways of splitting the range there is one collection that cuts across all of them. Designer rugs gathers the pieces that come from a named design house — William Morris, Laura Ashley, Orla Kiely, Harlequin and others — where the pattern was drawn for the house rather than by a mill. They appear in the colour, size and shape pages too, because a designer rug is still a green rug or a round one.
Rugs FAQs
What size rug should I buy?
Larger than you think. Measure the seating rather than the room and make sure the front legs of the sofa and the chairs land on the rug. Between two sizes, go up.
Which rugs can be washed?
Only the ones stated as machine washable by the maker, and they are rectangular rather than long and narrow. Easy clean, wipeable and stain resistant all describe a surface that resists a spill, not a rug that survives a wash.
Do rugs need an underlay?
Every rug here has a backing, which on carpet is usually enough. On wood, tile or vinyl it is not: a backing stops the rug fraying, not sliding. An underlay is sold separately and is worth it on any hard floor.
Can any rug go outside?
No. Only the polypropylene designs, and even those are weather-tolerant rather than waterproof. A wool rug left on a patio holds damp in the backing and goes musty long before it looks worn.
How do I stop a rug curling at the corners?
Lay it flat with the curl facing up for a day or two, or roll it the opposite way and leave it overnight. Furniture on two corners holds it while it settles, and an underlay stops it happening again.