The Right Rug for the Right Room

Where to Begin: Blank Canvas Approach 

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1. Designing Around a Rug (Blank Canvas Approach)

2. Complementing Existing Decor (Furnished Room Approach/ Article coming soon!)

Choosing the right rug can make a big impact on the look and feel of any room. The right rug brings harmony, balances space, and enhances comfort. Here’s a guide on selecting the best rug size based on room dimensions, furniture layout, and rug placement to ensure a cohesive, beautiful look.

Sometimes we ask ourselves how do we even begin choosing rugs for the room. Do I start with the furniture, do I start with the colors of the wall or do I start with the rug.

From designers and curators we have created a simplified guide based on the room to guide you on this journey.

1. Designing Around a Rug (Blank Canvas Approach)

Often times we find ourselves with a daunting mission of “where do I begin”.

Lets start by creating a Design Board!

Steps to Follow:

• Choose the Rug First
• Develop a Color Palette
• Consider Patterns and Texture
• Plan the Layout
• Execution and Commitment

Here's a sample design board you can use:

Let's start with a blank canvas room, unfurnished, un-styled, with a clean white coat on the walls and a spacious living room size with a few windows and wooden floor panels.

Choose The Rug First

Nowadays, with a certain amount of love and care you can curate and deliver a room with high value with very little investment. The value is in the story telling. 

• Here are a few options to think about

Persian Rugs

Brings character and personality. these rugs are truly strong pieces that are capable of controlling or enhancing a rooms energy.

Indian Rugs

Are easier to style due to more modern designs. These rugs are used toward modern and futuristic concepts 

Minimalist Rugs

Used to bring smaller design concepts togethers. Ties things in/unifies the room.

Modern Rugs

Brings character and personality to a room. Easier to style yet has potential to strongly influence design.

Vintage Rugs

Brings character and personality to a room. more of a stand alone piece, rooms designed around vintage rugs communicate age and history as a design concept.

Traditional Rugs

Brings character and personality to a room. origin, time, age, color, and patterns are more prominent and require not combative design elements.

Solid Color Rugs

Used to "fill-in" a room. These are easier to style with and don't add much of a "center-focus". Used as a complimentary piece to elevate other room details.

 

Develop a Color Palette

Our base: All white walls and brown wooden floor panels

• White brings a sense of openness, brightness, and cleanliness, making spaces feel larger and more inviting. Wood brown adds warmth, natural texture, and an earthy element that grounds the space. Together, they balance each other—white prevents the brown from making the room feel too heavy, while wood tones add depth and character to prevent the white from feeling too sterile

Other Common Colors:

Black and White

• The boldness of black introduces depth and drama, while white balances it with brightness and a sense of openness. This combination accentuates architectural features and provides a dynamic backdrop for furniture and artwork

Greys and White

• The cool, neutral tones of grey flooring ground the space, offering a subtle elegance, while white walls amplify natural light, making the room feel more spacious. This combination serves as a versatile canvas that complements a wide range of furniture styles and color accents.

 Red brick and White

• The rich, earthy tones and textures of red brick add warmth and character, evoking a cozy, lived-in feel. White walls provide a crisp contrast that brightens the space and highlights the brick's natural beauty. This pairing is perfect for creating an industrial loft aesthetic or adding a touch of farmhouse charm

 

Porcelain and other luxurious palettes

• Light hues like porcelain, ivory, and pale pastels reflect natural light, enhancing the room's brightness and making it appear more spacious. This palette creates a soft and airy atmosphere, ideal for minimalist, coastal, or classic interior designs. It provides a neutral backdrop that accentuates textures and subtle color variations in furnishings and accessories.

Consider Patterns and Textures

Next important thing is to discuss patterns, textures, and the colors we choose for the overall design of the room.

 Layout the patterns and colors of the rug, room, floorboards, walls, and the adjacent rooms. This is also a good point to discover what type of light and light fixtures will be illuminating this room and rug. Now we discuss about furniture and other pieces and how they will complement or shift the momentum of the room. 

Fill in the design board above. Organize all the colors, textures, patterns, adjacent rooms, buzzwords, and any other design concept that you're using to guide this project. Next add a written portion and begin to write on the purpose of this room. What will people do here? How does this room impact the rest of the home? What makes this room different than others?

This your design board. This is the inspiration. This is the story.

Ask any designer and you'll be surprised at what they say. Normally they will start explaining inspirations and motivations behind the room. The room is given life, a story is constructed, and a main character, “the rug”, is depicted as the hero of the room. This is where the rugs value, the colors, textures, patterns , quality and convenience of a styled room will sell to a client.

Execution and Commitment

The fun part is planning a room. The hard part is the heavy lifting and manual labor of moving furniture, painting walls, and general prep to design a room.

When everything is set and in place according to our design board, it can be very tempting to switch a few things around. It can be so tempting that you may not even follow any of the layout plans we made.

Try to stick to the end vision of our design board. Get to the point where everything has a home and been placed into its correct place.