Design Tips for Carpet and Rugs

You might recognize this space!

Today we’re at the Midway Project and we’re talking about floors. It’s a topic we get a lot of questions about; questions about how to choose carpet and rugs, how far your rug should be from the wall, if you can layer a rug on wall-to-wall carpet, layer rugs together, and if all furniture legs need to be on the rug. We teamed up with the Carpet & Rug Institute to answer a few of your most frequently asked questions about carpet and rugs.

Go with low-pile wall-to-wall carpet

Let’s talk about carpet. I like to use wall-to-wall carpet in bedroom areas and cozy lounge spaces. For me a low-pile berber or a low-pile shag is the way to go, because they’re styles that span the test of time and they go with different styles of furniture. Another reason I like to use a low-pile carpet, is it makes it easy to layer a rug on top. I like to do this in the bedroom because it’s nice to anchor the space, ground the room, and add a little bit of color.

Carpet bedroom and lounge areas

Plus, if you have kids, wall-to- wall carpet makes it a great, healthy, cozy spot to run around on, and they can crawl and jump around with a soft place to land. Carpet also improves the acoustics of a room and reduces noise. I also love to wake up with soft carpet under my feet.  As a bonus, the Carpet & Rug Institute also let us know that it keeps allergens out of the air!

Anchor the space with a rug

On the first floor of the Midway House, there are hardwood floors everywhere and we needed to make the entry space feel inviting and warm. We used a rug to ground the space, and if we didn’t use a rug everything would feel like it was floating! The rug really helps designates a really great entry area.

Put two feet of furniture on the rug

“How many furniture legs do you put on a rug?”, is a question we get asked all the time! The traditional way is to put all four furniture legs on the rug but I prefer just to put the front two legs. If you don’t put any furniture legs on the rug it makes the room feel really disconnected.

 

Place rug 12-18 inches away from the wall

Let’s talk about spacing for a second. We follow a 12-18 inch rule. That allows us to make sure the rug fills the space but does not cover all the flooring underneath.

Add rugs to walkways

I love hardwood floor and tile, but it’s really important to me to have a home feel cozy, and we do that by using wall-to-wall carpet or layering rugs throughout the home. If a room has hardwoods or tile, add a rug – we’ll put a rug by the kitchen sink, we’ll do a runner down the hallway, we will put them in dining rooms, living rooms, and even a cute rug in the laundry room. On stairways, we’ll either buy an extra long runner or bind carpet to use as a stair runner.

When we’re designing houses it’s definitely about making them absolutely beautiful, but it’s just as important to make them feel comfortable too. Carpet and rugs make such a big difference in your home! Thank you to the Carpet and Rug Institute for partnering with us to bring you this post. For more information on carpet and rugs, check out www.beautyofcarpet.com or follow the #beautyofcarpet conversation on social media.

See more spaces with carpeting