About Area Rugs

Function

• Area rugs can serve many different functions and purposes in your home, some decorative and some practical. On a purely practical level, area rugs cushion and protect hard wood or stone floors. They help insulate a room and protect your feet from cold floors. An area rug helps absorb sound in a room, and can be used to hide an unattractive or damaged floor. Area rugs and carpets are also used to protect high traffic areas of a floor from damage. The smallest area rugs are scatter rugs and throw rugs, which may be used beside the bed in a bedroom to protect your feet from the cold floor, or in a room entry way to trap dirt and keep it from being tracked onto a fine floor or carpet.

  Within a decorative scheme, area rugs add color and texture to your room designs. They can help define and separate functional areas of a room by setting them off, as well as serving to tie different elements of room design together. A well-chosen area rug can help set the overall tone of a room with its color or style, emphasize specific colors in the rest of your design scheme or serve as a neutral background against which your furniture and decorative accents shine. The limits of using area rugs in decoration are set only by the available materials and your imagination.

Types

• There are many different types and styles of area rugs. Some are defined by their function--kitchen slice rugs, for instance, are semi-circular rugs that are designed to cushion your feet while you stand at the kitchen sink, and hall runners are specifically designed to protect the high traffic areas of a hallway floor. Most people define area rugs by style, though. The most popular styles of rugs include:

  Persian rugs are best known for their bright colors and designs. Persian area rug patterns include floral, geometric and pictorial. Experts in Persian rugs can usually tell where a rug was made because of the tribal and regional influences that become part of the pattern of the rug.

  Oriental rugs are made in China, India, Iran and Romania. They may be woven by hand or by machine, and feature complex traditional patterns and rich colors. The most expensive Oriental rugs are made of silk, though most are made of wool or synthetic fibers.

  Contemporary rugs are not tied to any geographic area, may be woven by hand or machine, and may be made of any material. They tend to be modern in design, and are sometimes referred to as "art for the floor". Patterns are often abstract with bright colors.

  Transitional rugs are rugs whose design falls between the traditional Oriental/Persian school and the anything goes Contemporary school. They tend to be among the most popular styles of rugs on the market, and include solids, stripes and geometric patterns.

  Flokati area rugs have been handmade in Greece for centuries. The thick wool rugs feature pile that is a luxurious 3-4 inches deep.

  Braided area rugs were originally made in Colonial America as a way to turn old rags and clothing into functional rugs for the home. Braided rag rugs have become a mainstay of Colonial style decorating and come in many different colors, sizes and shapes.

  Canvas rugs and dhurries are flat, woven area rugs often imported from India and the Middle East. They tend to impart a casual, clean feeling to a room's design.

Size

• While area rugs can technically be made in any size--and custom area rugs often are--there are commonly accepted standard sizes. "Room size" area rugs may be eight feet by 10 feet or 11 feet by 14 feet. It's not quite as common to find seven-by-nine-foot area rugs, though it's not an unusual size for Oriental and Persian carpets. Six-by-eight-foot rugs are commonly used under furniture groupings and to define conversational and functional areas in room design. A four-by-six-foot area rug may be used under a coffee table in a living room or as a design accent elsewhere in a room. Hall runners are typically 2 1/2 to three feet wide and six to 20 feet long. Braided rugs are generally found in four-foot, six-foot, eight-foot and 12-foot diameter round designs, or as ovals in the typical rug sizes. Scatter rugs and throw rugs are typically two by three feet.

Benefits

• Area rugs add beauty to a room, and help define its overall style. An Oriental or Persian rug is a valuable investment whose value will increase over time. Area rugs are versatile and can be used in many different ways within a room setting. They can be one of the easiest and least expensive ways to update or change the look and feel of your room. One of the most important and often overlooked benefits of area rugs is that they are portable, so you can take them with you when you move. In addition, when used with a proper rug pad, area rugs can protect your family from fall injuries by cushioning the floor and by preventing furniture from moving. They also can be used to protect your floors from damage caused by foot traffic and moving furniture.

Warning

• Area rugs, like any carpet, should be cleaned often, especially in families where a family member has allergies to dust or dust mites. They should always be used with a proper rug pad or secured in some way to prevent slipping and falling.

Considerations

• When choosing an area rug for a room, interior designers usually consider the overall effect they want to accomplish in the room. Area rugs can be chosen to address specific problems or design goals. For instance, you can warm up a large room that feels impersonal and cold by adding a room size area rug in a warm, complementary color. A light colored area rug can make a dark room seem brighter and a small room seem larger. A sofa, chair and coffee table grouped around or on a small area rug can create a comfortable conversational space in a larger room. A hall runner or small area rugs can even help define the traffic pattern in a room, routing people toward or around furniture groupings and entryways.