An area rug can make all the difference in a room
Beautiful floors shine with the addition of colour and texture
Is there any other feeling like pulling up a swath of old carpet to find beautiful wooden floors hidden beneath?
We moved into a new home about a year ago (I promise photos and a detailed account as soon as the dust clears) and I was thrilled that we had hardwood floors nearly throughout the house. They would need to be refinished — the two levels were stained different colours — but the work and dust and strong odours that go along with refinishing floors was definitely worth it
Besides being a gorgeous flooring choice, hardwood floors give us a wonderful, warm blank canvas to play with a great design staple in New Traditional interior design: rugs. It is my firm belief that a home isn’t complete without floor coverings. A rug can take a space from barren and chilly to warm and inviting.
Rugs complete a room by anchoring furniture to a specific area. With open floor plans being so commonplace in contemporary homes and modern re-designs, it is especially important to be able to create groupings of furniture that feel like their own separate spaces.
Placing a rug underneath your dining table or living room furniture gives your space a focal point. It’s also highly functional, protecting your floors when dining chairs are pulled in and out or when a living room armchair is repositioned.
Besides protecting your floor and keeping your feet from touching the cold wood, rugs bring texture and interest to your spaces. Whether you want to leave a large expanse of natural floor mostly uncovered or bring in the full rug experience — nothing wrong with either a little or a lot — there is always something to gain from a floor covering. Rugs introduce fantastic colour palettes to play with in your spaces. In fact, often rugs are so colourful and eye-catching that our designers plan entire rooms around them.
Don’t be afraid to layer your floor coverings. We are always looking for ways to add dimension to our rooms and floor coverings are a great place to start. One of our favourites is pairing a natural fibre rug ( jute or sisal) with a beautiful vintage covering — or trendy pattern or fun shape. The options are limitless.
Layering floor coverings helps address pressing issues such as “this looks boring” or “this rug is too small for my space now that I’ve moved but I love it.” Ordering a custom-sized sisal or jute rug to act as a base layer to your favourite rug is a fantastic way to add interest or fill an empty space.
There is a variety of ways to arrange your rugs once you find the ones you love. As a rule of thumb, we try to either have all furniture sitting on our floor covering, or at least the front legs of all furniture sitting withing the rug boundaries. This lets the floor covering do its job and anchor our furniture together.
However, there are always exceptions to every rule. For example, in bedrooms it is not uncommon to find two runners used in lieu of a traditional large rug.