fitting the rug to the space

Rules of thumb are still useful: Keep edges of a room-size rug about 12" away from perimeter walls, up to 18" in a larger room. A living-room rug should be big enough that at least the front legs of chairs sit on it. • Then ask: What is the rug’s function? Will it tie together a seating area, or underpin the dining table? In those cases, bigger is usually better. You don’t want a large gap between the sofa and the rug, or for chairs to get caught on the edge of the rug when diners push back from the table. Other rugs are themselves “display art,” or being used in an alcove or just to fill the space between twin beds. These may be smaller. • Two rugs in a room can separate areas, or they can function as one larger rug when placed edge to edge. A custom rug may be needed in an odd-shaped room.

I was forever buying rugs too small for the space. To avoid the asymmetry created by a corner fireplace, for example, I bought a rectangular rug that sat in the center of the room, with furniture around but not on it. The room looked unanchored and small. Finally I realized I needed a custom carpet: large enough, but with a corner cut back for the hearth. I did better on another occasion. An office library needed a very long, especially wide runner, but there seemed to be no such thing. We bought several identical, machine-made, 4' x 6' oriental-style carpets and had them stitched together. Voila! Beware, though: a too-big rug can actually make a sparsely furnished room look smaller.

For a bedroom, the carpet should extend beyond the bed at least 12 to 18 inches on each side, and end in front of the nightstands. An alternative is a smaller rug placed at the foot of the bed and slightly wider than it. Round rugs do wonders in odd (curved, octagonal, bay window) spaces, or to define a vignette by anchoring a piece of furniture or two.