Cheat Sheet: Choosing the Right Rug Size
Choosing a good rug for your space is about finding the right combination of size, style, color, and material. All of those factors are important, but what I want to cover in this lesson is rug SIZE. It’s something I see people get wrong a lot - and the problem is that it’s usually too small. So in an effort to help you get your rug right the first time, I’ve got some guidelines for you on sizing. Of course, there will be exceptions to the guidelines I’m sharing here - for example, if you have a really odd-shaped room, you may have to go smaller than the ideal.
A well-sized area rug works wonders for a room - in both comfort and style. If there's a rug you absolutely love, but it only comes in a small size or the larger sizes are cost prohibitive, try layering that one on top of a larger, budget-friendly neutral one. I see this a lot with vintage and one-of-a-kind rugs. Natural fiber rugs like sisal or jute are a great base layer.
Living Room
In living rooms, the rug is the foundation for the conversation area you’re creating. Ideally either you have all four legs of your furniture sit on top of the rug (so that you have a "frame" around the seating arrangement), or you can place just the front legs on the rug. This positioning helps ground the space and gives everything an anchor.
Average Size Living Room: 8’x10’ or 9’x12’
Large Size Living Room: 9’x12’ or 10’x13’
Dining Room
A good rule of thumb in dining rooms is that you want to be able to slide your chair in and out without the back legs leaving the rug. This usually means you need 24-36” of rug extending from all sides of the table. There's nothing worse than "picking up" the edge of a rug with your chair legs when you're pulling in your chair at the dinner table, right?!
Below you’ll find some sample dining table sizes along with their ideal rug size to guide your search:
36”x72” Table: 8’x10’
36”x86” Table: 9’x12’
38”x92” Table: 9’x12’
48” Round Table: 8’ round, 8’ square, or 9’ square
60” Round Table: 9’ round or 9’ square
Bedroom
The goal here is to frame the bed and the nightstands, so be sure your rug is big enough to do that! The rug can either go under the head of the bed or you can place the edge of it just in front of your nightstands.
Twin: 5’x8’ up to 8’10’ depending on the size of the room and how much space you’d like to rug to occupy
Queen: 8’x10’, or 9’x12’
King: 8’x10’ or 9’x12’
A few final words…
As you place your rug in a room, ideally it’ll have a little bit of “breathing room” at the edges. Remember, an area rug shouldn’t look like wall-to-wall carpeting! Shoot to have 10-24” of floor showing between the edge of your rug and the adjacent wall. A good general rule is that the larger the room, the more breathing room it should have.
