Your guide to selecting the RIGHT area rug

Your room has all the elements it’s supposed to have:
beautiful furniture, wonderful tile or wood flooring (thanks Y’s Way!), built-in shelving and a 70-inch TV (okay maybe we’re getting carried away). But the echo of the room, and the nagging feeling that’s something’s missing, reinforces the fact that the room is incomplete. You need an area rug. Not just any area rug, but the RIGHT area rug.

Luckily, choosing the right area rug is not as abstract as it sounds. You don’t have to be an artist or an interior designer to find the right rug for your room. Just some these simple guidelines:

• Size. Everyone has a different theory about the size of a rug. In general, the size of your rug depends on your intended use: will you be putting most of your furniture on it (like in a dining room)? Do you need a rug to fit your office furniture on? Do you just need a small rug to anchor a room and put a coffee table on? Do you want a large comfortable rug for watching TV on or putting under your bed? Would you like a long, narrow rug for putting next to a bed for stepping on? Evaluate your needs, and size your rug accordingly.

• Color & pattern. Utilize one of two strategies for choosing the color of your rug: select the area rug first or last when decorating. If you want a carpet with a pattern or color, choose it first and coordinate your furniture, wall color and flooring around the rug. If you choose the carpet last, think about the items in your room and how the rug fits in with your décor. Do you need color in your neutral room? Try to find a rug that has coordinating colors that pull out the color of the furniture or wall, and pulls everything together.

• Shape. The most common area rug shape is a rectangle. But if you are centering your decorating around the rug, feel free to think out the box. Would a round rug complement your round coffee table? Would a long narrow runner be more appropriate?

• Traffic. Area rugs do need to be cleaned and you want your rugs to last with little wear, so keep room traffic in mind. Is the rug in a main hallway? Your living room? Or in a bedroom? A high pile rug, or shag rug, is better for low traffic areas, while a low pile rug is more suitable for high traffic areas, such as your living room.

When laying the rug in your room, make sure to consult your local flooring professionals about underlayment or padding for your area rug to prevent damaging your tile or wood floor. If necessary, they can suggest a product that works. Most products can easily be customized to fit under your rug.

If you have a specific idea about what your ideal area rug would look like, or you can’t find a rug in the right size for your room, consider ordering a custom-made rug at any Y’s Way Flooring location. More affordable than you think, this option gives you the opportunity to create the rug you want in the size that fits your home—and eliminates that nagging feeling that something’s missing from your home.