Area rugs · runners · rounds

Most people buy a rug that is too small.

It is the most common mistake in the room, and it is arithmetic, not taste. Tell us the room and we will tell you the size, then show you every rug we carry in it.

Find the right rug for every roomSized from your furniture, shortlisted by color, look and budget.

What size do I need?

Room widthftRoom lengthft

You need a 10' × 14'

Ideal is 10.0' × 14.0', which leaves about 18" of floor showing, and reaches under the front legs of every seat.

33 rugs in that size

Also fits: 10' × 13' · 9' × 13' · 9' × 12'

Want the rug itself, not only the size? Try the Rug Finder: every room sized and shortlisted by color, look and budget.

In stock

Recently added

5′ × 7′ Tan Brown Geometric Indoor Outdoor Area Rug

$117.00

8′ × 10′ Beige And Ivory Indoor Outdoor Area Rug

$616.00

9′ × 12′ Tan Geometric Indoor Outdoor Area Rug

$346.00

8′ × 10′ Tan Geometric Indoor Outdoor Area Rug

$244.00

4′ × 6′ Blue Indoor Outdoor Area Rug

$81.00

3′ × 5′ Tan and Brown Geometric Indoor-Outdoor Area Rug

$58.00

6′ × 9′ Tan Brown Geometric Indoor Outdoor Area Rug

$173.00

9′ × 12′ Beige Abstract Power Loom Area Rug

$450.00

Correct

A 9′ × 12′ in a 12 × 15 room

The front legs of every seat land on the rug, so the furniture reads as one group.

A 9 by 12 foot rug under a sofa and two armchairs, with the front legs of every seat resting on the rug.

What usually gets bought

A 5′ × 8′ in the same room

Nothing touches it. The rug floats, the seating drifts, and the room reads unfinished.

The same room and the same camera, with a 5 by 8 foot rug under the coffee table only and every seat standing on bare floorboards.

Under a dining table, the rug must clear the edge by 24–36″ on every side.

Less than that and a chair drops off the edge when someone pushes back from the table. For a six-seat rectangular table that means a 9′ × 12′ at minimum, which is larger than almost everyone expects.

An area rug half fed into the open drum of an ordinary domestic front-loading washing machine, the rest of it resting on the laundry room floor.

Washable

Rugs made to be cleaned

Pets, children, and the spot by the back door. Some of these go in a domestic machine and some are made to be hosed down outside, which covers most of what a rug has to survive.

washable rugs on the site

The same three rules, on a floor

A dining table on a rug, with two chairs pulled out and all four legs of each still on the rug. — **Dining**Chairs pulled all the way out, still on the rug. That is what 24–36″ past the table buys you.

A queen bed on a rug that extends well past both sides and the foot of the bed. — **Bedroom**The rug reaches past the bed on three sides, so both feet land on it getting out.

A hall runner with an even strip of bare floorboard showing along both sides. — **Hallway**An even strip of floor down each side. A runner that touches the skirting reads as fitted carpet.

The rules, in full

There are only four, they have not changed in decades, and every one of them is a measurement.

Living room: All front legs on the rug. If the budget stretches, all four legs.
Dining room: 24–36″ past the table on every side, measured with the chairs pulled out.
Bedroom: 18–24″ past the bed on three sides. A queen wants 8′ × 10′, a king 9′ × 12′.
Hallway: 4–5″ of floor showing on each side of the runner.

Pile

The other half of the decision

Size settles where a rug goes. Pile settles how it lives there. A deep pile is warm underfoot and slow to vacuum; a flat weave takes a dining chair, a door that swings inward, and a wet dog. Straight down at a rug, from directly above, the two look almost identical. From the side they are not close.

Two rugs butted edge to edge under raking light: a deep shaggy ivory pile on the left, a tight flat blue-grey weave on the right, with the difference in height obvious at the seam.

A flat-woven outdoor rug on a weathered timber deck under flat overcast daylight, with two outdoor chairs and a side table standing on it.

Rugs that stay outside

Flat-woven, made to be rained on, and sized by the same rules as everything indoors. A deck is a room with worse weather.