All About Carpets & Rugs

Buyers Guide

What to consider When Selecting a Rug

While there may be countless types of rugs available, not all of them will serve the needs of the individual consumer. There are various considerations that determine the type of rug to look for. Once these considerations are addressed, the choice becomes much more focused and selective, and much simpler.

What size is required by the room?

Many rug buyers think that the carpet should fill the room or most of it. This is not necessarily the way to go, unless the primary concern is acoustic sound absorption. If the floors are attractive, a certain amount flooring should remain exposed around the edge of the room. One or more carpets can also be used to establish different spaces or areas within a larger room, say a living area and a dining area within a continuous space. Furniture placement also matters. Furniture can be put over a larger carpet if it has an allover repeat design, or if it has no borders. Alternatively, furniture can be grouped around a smaller rug, or overlapping slightly onto it. In that case a smaller rug would work well in a larger room. These are all decisions that should be made before beginning to think about the style of carpet that might be desirable or appropriate.

What Style or Design is Right for the Room?

Determining the style or design for the rug depends on various factors, but personal taste is a primary issue. Some buyers will like certain types of design and certain colors rather than others. This is subjective or personal, and one can only determine this by putting some time into looking at rugs. Some of us like traditional designs whether these are bold tribal patterns or precise, refined city designs. Others prefer modernist simplicity with simple geometry and no borders. Some of us like rugs with color, others prefer rugs neutral tones that allow the paintings, drapes, and upholstery to provide color in the room. It often proves easier to chose a rug first and to work the mass produced fabrics and the choice of the paintings around it, but rugs with reserved color can be integrated most easily into existing décor. Allover designs also appear to lend themselves more readily to room décor than a piece with a centralized or medallion composition, but this too depends on one's taste.

What Designers Look for in a Rug?

Interior decorators or designers offer clients a certain guarantee that the décor of one's home will be achieve an impressive standard – that it will be appropriate, tasteful, and well integrated both within individual rooms or spaces, and as a larger whole. To a certain extent designers determine and then follow current trends in taste, as well as their own preferences, but they should also be able to elicit the tastes and preferences of their clients and to work this into their plans. While it is difficult to generalize, designers tend to favor rugs with soft or neutral coloration that serve as foil or backdrop for the room, tying it together rather than operating as the star or focus of the space. Accordingly they favor allover designs rather than central medallion compositions which are by definition focal. Designers are often concerned with room-sized carpets, although they utilize scatter sizes as accent rugs. But they tend to favor city or workshop rugs with refined technique and design. They also look for rugs in excellent condition. If clients are happy to rely on the judgment of a designer, that is fine. But clients who are to any extent rug lovers or enthusiasts would do well to communicate their preferences to their designers.

What Collectors Look for in a Rug?

Rug collectors are a breed apart. While they generally have a virtually professional familiarity with rug types, designs, etc, and well-developed critical judgment in evaluating the quality and origin of rugs, they are motivated by a peculiar sensitivity to the personality of the weaver that resides in all good antique rugs - what may be termed the life of the rug. Collectors are deeply concerned with the cultural authenticity of rugs and strive for pieces that they judge to posses such authenticity. Most immediately this translates into searching out rugs that predate the process of commercial expansion that took place in the later nineteenth century, a process which collectors feel led to the production of rugs for western markets, pieces that were therefore inherently less authentic than those made for local consumption. Some collectors are sticklers for condition, but since they are frequently seeking out older, more authentic pieces, many collectors have learned to place less emphasis on condition if the piece has outstanding artistic merit. Collectors also prize rugs that are unusual and rare, for these too are deemed to reflect a greater cultural authenticity rather than catering to the marketplace. Some collectors are focused, concentrating on building a representative collection of a specific type or rug. Others have more eclectic taste, focusing purely on quality or rarity.

How to Decorate Different Rooms?

Tailoring a rug to room function is a bit more cut an dry than issues of taste.. Living rooms and dinning areas may require a certain level of formality, with refined, well-drawn designs and some restraint of color. Larger workshop or city  carpets tend to work well in such spaces.  Dens or family rooms are less formal, and accordingly rugs with bolder designs and colors may work well there, often smaller rugs. Tribal and village pieces are good den rugs. Bedrooms can require small or large rugs  depending on their size, with the bed overlapping a larger rug or several smaller rugs grouped around the bed. For a bedroom the colors could be warm but not vibrant. Rugs with thicker, cushioning pile are appropriate to family rooms and bedrooms. But in the end personal taste trumps all such considerations. The sooner what gets in touch with the issue of personal preference, the easier the process of choosing a rug becomes.