How to Choose Rug Sizes

Look at the furniture in the room where you would like to put an area rug. Take note of how many pieces of furniture or accessories (frames, clocks, mirrors) are "masculine," meaning square or rectangular with sharp edges. Take note of how many pieces of furniture or accessories in the room are "feminine," meaning round or oval in shape. Decide if you would like your rug to be feminine or masculine based on other pieces in the room. For example, if you have a feminine coffee table but masculine couches and chairs, you should feel free to go either way with the area rug. If all of your furniture is masculine, however, you may decide to add a feminine touch to the room with a round area rug or keep it completely masculine with a rectangular rug. Femininity can always be added with patterns and colors of rugs and fabrics, so don't feel pressured to go one way or the other.

If size is more important than pattern for the design of your room and you haven't chosen a pattern yet, proceed to Step 3. If you have chosen the pattern and it's a bold pattern, such as big, pink roses covering its entirety, you may want to go with a smaller rug size because a bold pattern may overwhelm the design of the room.

After selecting your furniture layout, measure the area of the room between the furniture, meaning the front of the couch to the front of the couch across the room or from the front of the couch to the entertainment center, and so on. Add 2 inches to each side to create a balanced feel. For example, if you have a couch on both sides of a room, you'd measure from couch to couch and add 4 inches. Then you'd measure the other way, chair to entertainment center and add 4 inches to that measurement. If you only have furniture on one side of the room and a wall on the other, do not measure all the way to the wall. Pretend you have another couch there and measure to where that would be or use a perpendicular piece of furniture as the mark of where you should stop measuring.

For a dining room rug, plan to put an area rug directly underneath the dining table. Measure the length and width of the tabletop. An area rug for a dining room table should be one of two sizes: either only a few inches larger on each side than the length and width of the tabletop (enough so the front legs of the chairs sit on the rug only when they are pushed in) or the size of the complete table set with the chairs pulled out enough for an adult male to be seated. The chairs should not get caught on the edge of the rug when someone is trying to push in the chair.

Measure from the beginning of the hallway to the end and measure the width of the hallway if you're choosing a size for a runner rug. Do not measure wall to wall. Instead, leave 2 or 3 inches of space in between the rug edge and the wall.