The Missing Piece
Have you ever looked at a room in your home and thought it just needs a little something? You realize that thing is a rug, but then discover that you are surprisingly overwhelmed by the task of making a selection. Even more startling of a discovery is that when you find a rug you might like it occurs to you that you are not too sure it’s going to fit in the desired space. What size is my room? What size is the rug? Is there math now involved in this? Finding the perfect rug for your cozy home doesn’t have to be as overwhelming as it feels and here’s just how to do it.
Is There Really Math Involved?
When math comes into the mix I’m usually ready to check out and avoid the subject, but when it came to the interior decorating of my home I really wanted a rug and it won the battle of math versus home decor.
When we built our home we chose to have all hardwood and tile floors. I’m not a huge fan of carpet especially being a person with allergies. I can also be a clean freak so quite frankly the idea of crud building up in carpet over the years grosses me out! The idea of a rug; however, seemed cozy, easier to clean, and replaceable if truly necessary. Plus, if you have kids and find yourself on the floor (A LOT) it’s nice to have a soft place to sit.
So, I set out on my journey of finding rugs for several places in my home, and let’s just say in the process I learned a lot! To prevent you from having to feel as lost in the process as I did initially I’ll share with you what I’ve learned and what has worked for me.
Let’s Start With The Basics
First of all, figure out what room or space in your home you would like to get a rug for. Once you know what area of your home you are working with make sure you know the size of the room. Let’s say for example we will work through a scenario where we have a 10×10 room.
The next question you have to ask yourself is what is the purpose of the rug? Do you want it to cover most of the floor, be an accent rug, or sit in front of a specific piece of furniture to draw attention to that area of the room? If you are decorating your baby’s nursery for instance, you may want an accent rug right in front of the crib, or perhaps in your living room, you want a rug to sit under your coffee table. If the rug is for the dining room you might want the rug to fit perfectly under the table or in your bedroom the rug would be best if centered under the bed.
Let’s Simplify the Math
Now that you have the size of your room and know what type of rug you want then comes the math. Using our example, if you have a 10×10 room you would want a rug anywhere from around a 4×6 up to an 8×8. An 8×8 rug would give the room full coverage with just a few inches of space between the rug and the wall.
If you opt for a rug that is a size 5×7 this will sit center in the room with a little more space from the walls. The furniture pieces against the walls in the room will sit around the rug with maybe a few edges of the furniture sitting on the edge of the rug (depending on the size of the furniture pieces). Anything smaller, like a 4×6 rug, will be purely an accent rug that you would place under or directly in front of a specific furniture piece.
If you are looking for an accent rug, such as using it in front of your baby’s crib, you will want it to be about the same length as the crib, if you are using it under your coffee table you will want a rug slightly larger than the table.
The math portion doesn’t have to be scary. If you don’t have a 10×10 room like in our example then use the same measurements but reduce or enlarge by the size of your room. If you have an 8×8 room then a 6×6 rug would cover the whole room, a 12×12 room would require a 10×10 rug to cover the floor. You can see that it becomes a lot easier to sort out sizes when you have a base starting point in size comparisons.
Let’s Discuss Decor
The next thing you’ll want to figure out is color and style. Your rugs throughout your home don’t have to be matchy-matchy unless you just really want that. I like my rooms to feel cohesive and have similarities throughout the home but I like each room to have its own little flair. For instance, in my home I use green as a pop of color throughout my whole house, and while this means that green is great to use in decor pieces that doesn’t mean you need that color in every rug in your home.
The perfect example of this is to look at my living room versus my daughter’s bedroom.
The Living Room
In our living room, we have green built-in cabinets but the rest of the room is very neutral with brown hardwood floors and slightly off-white walls. The green cabinets could feel very random and disjointed in the room on their own without other accents of green. The kitchen has green cabinets and green is used throughout the home but when you are just in the living room you don’t see that so while there is cohesion to the home as a whole the living room on its own needed to be cohesive as well.
I didn’t necessarily want to commit to a green chair or couch and that felt too heavy-handed anyway. Pictures on the wall could have green in them but that probably then wouldn’t be enough green. A rug seemed like the perfect solution to this dilemma of where to add my pop of color. With that being said, I knew that I didn’t want a solid green rug because again that felt like it would be too much green so I set out to look at rugs with only green accents in them.
The rug I ultimately chose was off-white with a pale green design throughout the entire rug. It added just enough green to tie in with the cabinets but not so much that you felt like you were sitting in a jungle. The light tone of the rug looked nice against the dark wood floors and brightened up the room nicely. Add a couple of pillows with green accents to the couch and chair we have, maybe a blanket with a similar color palette and you have a cozy and put-together living room.
My Daughter’s Room
Let’s take a look at my daughter’s room for a different take on a rug. Her room came with a whole different set of concerns for a rug. Her room was very plain, a simple box of white walls and a dark floor. I knew her room needed curtains and a rug and it would completely makeover the space, but I had to get the right curtains and the correct rug for the space.
From day one for her room I had a theme of sage green (green again!) with neutrals of browns, creams, and whites, and a theme with lambs/sheep. Before we moved into our current home I had pieces I had used for her nursery like a basket for her diaper supplies, sheets for her crib, and a diaper pail that were all sage green. With these items scattered throughout the room, I knew I didn’t want to paint the walls green because that would just be too much but plain white walls felt so boring.
I decided after many weeks of mulling it over that curtains should have the power to break up the vanilla walls enough to make me happy with the space. I then set out with the project of searching for the perfect cute curtains for her room (a topic for another blog post for another day). Ultimately I chose to go with traditional tie-back sage green curtains; however, with the decision to go green with the curtains that meant that I didn’t want to get a green rug because that would again be way too much green.
Weighing Rug Options
Beyond just the decor purpose of the rug in her room, I had a few other things on my checklist for a rug this time. I wanted it to be pretty and bring a cozy element to the space but I also wanted it to be very soft and act as a good play area and that meant I also wanted it to be super easy to clean. I started turning my sights toward washable rugs but reviews were very scattered on some of the most well-known brands until I came across Lorena Canals.
Lorena Canals has some of the most beautiful and unique rugs I have seen in my personal opinion and I was immediately drawn to them. They have exceptional reviews too and seem to be one of the most washable-friendly rugs that boast this feature (and I can attest to this being true!). The only downside is the price. They aren’t cheap! I am a believer in the idea that you often get what you pay for; however, I was struggling with the cost. At the end of the day, I just couldn’t find anything comparable in look, feel, or reviews, especially when it came to the washability of the rugs.
I am not sponsored by Lorena Canals (oh how I wish I were ha!) but I can’t speak highly enough about their products. The price point makes sense, especially considering that all of the rugs are handmade. I also felt that if I found a rug that was neutral enough to be used throughout our home the price could be worth it to have a rug that we could keep and use for years to come in multiple areas of an ever-changing home.
The Verdict for the Perfect Rug for My Daughter’s Room
Despite the price tag, because it checked all my boxes (and I waited for a fantastic sale) I had found a rug that was perfect for my daughter’s room and went with the Lorena Canals choice. There was no green at all, instead, it was a very neutral rug but I liked that it wasn’t boring.
The rug had an overall off-white color with two lines of different shades of brown on each end of the rug. On all four corners of the rug, there were tassels to add even more fun character. It had great juxtaposition against the dark floors but wasn’t so white that it looked too much like the walls. It tied nicely into a few items in her room like the furniture pieces, and her laundry basket, and brought the warm tones of brown and cream out in her room balancing perfectly between them and the green. The rug really tied the whole room together and as a bonus, it’s super soft!
The Rug Breakdown
You can see how much thought went into the rugs in both the living room and my daughter’s room and how different the needs associated with the rugs were, but it doesn’t have to be complicated despite the moving parts and often the investment that rugs can be. Breaking it down into a few simple steps makes it so much less daunting.
That’s it! The rest is just scouring the internet or maybe local stores to find a rug that meets the criteria which is personally the most challenging part of the whole thing (now that I’ve removed the math portion of the scenario). The right rug is out there for you – just take your time and you will know when you’ve found the right rug for you and your home. (If you’re like me it will probably be the rug that you can’t stop thinking about and you end up comparing every other rug to it!).
Need More Decorating Inspiration?
If you are looking for more home decorating inspiration check out my blog post on How to Shop for a Cozy Home on a Budget and how to Give Your Home a Cozy Feel With These Five Easy Tips. Decorating your home can be so fun and fulfilling. Take your time and enjoy the process.
One last note, since it’s currently the Christmas season if you still have some shopping to do then take a look at my Christmas 2025 Holiday (Amazon) Gift Guide for quick and easy shopping even for the toughest people to buy for on your list. If you are looking for some fun activities for your winter season then enjoy this blog post and the free downloadable winter bucket list.
