[AD] If you’re looking to increase the warmth, texture and underfoot comfort in your home, you can’t go wrong by adding large handmade rugs. Here’s a guide to some of the ways that you can use large rugs in your home interior.
Rugs offer the perfect solution for adding more warmth and comfort to your home, without having to completely change the existing flooring. If you’ve got wooden, laminate or stone tiled flooring it can look very attractive, but prove to be cold or noisy underfoot. Whilst you might be more than happy to walk around on a cool floor during the warm summer months, when it comes to waking up and walking on a cold floor in the winter, it might be a different matter entirely.
One of the benefits of using rugs is that they’re not a fixed form of décor. If you want a warm and cosy look in the winter, but a more minimalist looking room in the summer, then you can roll up a rug, store it and swap it for something more suitable for the season.
Large handmade rugs can be used to enhance your décor and interior design in numerous areas of your home. One of the joys of buying a handmade rug, rather than a machine made rug, is knowing that you’ve invested in a piece that has been carefully made using traditional techniques that have been passed down through the generations. The hand-knotted rug designs are often complex and intricate, and have involved years of practice to perfect. The designs themselves are linked with history and culture and a well made rug should provide years of life.
Using large rugs in your living room
Traditionally, rugs have been used in décor to create texture in front of a sofa or a feature under a coffee table. But large handmade rugs give you lots more possibilities.
One large rug can be used to cover a big amount of floor space in your living room. There are no set rules on how you need to arrange your furniture and whether it needs to be on or off the rug – it’s up to you. However, for a cohesive look, some designers recommend that at least the front legs of key pieces of living room furniture, such as your sofa or armchairs, should be on the rug.
This approach allows you to use your furniture as a framing effect, plus it gives the impression that the rug disappears beyond your furniture and can help make a room feel bigger.
If you have an open plan style living / dining area, a large rug can be used to help define the purpose of each space.
Ideas for using rugs in your dining room
In the same way that a rug can be used to create a cohesive design in your living room, so too can a similar effect be used in your dining room.
A rug is perfect for using under a dining table. Having an over-sized rug placed under your table looks best when you’ve got plenty of space to put the chairs on the rug too and still remain on the rug even when the chairs are pulled out and in use.
A rug can add a sense of elegance to your dining room, as well as help define the space. It can even work in other seating areas, such as underneath bar stools at a kitchen bar.
How to use large handmade rugs in your bedroom
Nothing beats stepping out of bed on a cold day and finding a warm, snugly rug underfoot! Rugs can be put by the side of the bed, at the end of the bed or even under the bed.
By placing the bed in the middle of the rug, with rug space still visible either side of the bed, it can create the illusion that your room is bigger than it actually is. If you’re using this crafty interior design technique, do try and get the bed in the middle if you can so you have the same amount of rug showing on either side of the bed for a more cohesive look.
This is also a good option if you don’t want the upheaval involved in replacing existing bedroom flooring – a large rug can cover a multitude of sins and give new life to your floor!
Top tips for decorating with large handmade rugs
- There are no rules at to how many rugs you can use. In fact, putting a smaller rug on top of a large rug is a popular design trend. It’s a good way of layering more texture onto your floor.
- Use large rugs to change your décor seasonally – try rich, warm rug colours in the winter months, and light, cool colours in the summer.
- For maximum effect, aim to buy the largest rug you can.
- Use a rug in complementary colour to your existing wall décor to create a well-rounded design.
- Or for a bold effect, choose a rug in a contrasting colour or pattern to the rest of your décor – it can create a real statement.
- For a completely different approach, rugs can always be hung on the wall too! This will add no end of texture and colour to your wall décor.
- Aim to centre your large rug and leave equal amounts of floor space at the sides.
- Don’t forget to check your rug and floor measurements before you buy.
- To get an idea of how a large rug might look in a room before you commit to buying, use masking tape to mark out the area on your floor that the rug will cover. You can then play around and see the different ways you could organise your furniture on or around the rug.
Have you used large rugs in your home? Share your experiences in the comments below. For more inspiration, check out our top tips for buying a rug.
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(Disclosure: Collaborative post in association with Rugs of London)
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