How To Buy A Rug For Dining Room

10 Tips for Finding the Perfect Dining Room Rug

Dining room rugs come in many different sizes and styles. Here are some tips for choosing the right one for your home

Laura Gaskill

27 October, 2014

Houzz Contributor. I cover decorating ideas, Houzz tours & the monthly home maintenance checklist. My favorite pieces to write center around the emotional aspects of home and savoring life's simple pleasures. Decluttering course + discount for Houzzers: https://www.lauragaskill.com/welcome-houzzers

Finding a dining room rug that is both practical and stylish is no easy feat. Fluffy pile can permanently trap every crumb from the table. Too-small rugs can trip up chairs. But a good rug can bring colour, texture, warmth and style to the dining room, making the hunt well worth the effort. Read on for 10 tips for choosing the just-right rug for this hard-working room.

Err on the side of too big
A dining room rug should have at least 60cm of extra room on all sides of the dining table to allow enough space for guests to pull out chairs without tripping over the rug. An even wider border is ideal. To be sure you are getting the correct size rug, measure your dining table, add 60cm or more on each side and mark the area directly on the floor with masking tape. If the marked areas falls well inside any additional dining room furniture (buffet, bar cart), consider going bigger.

Pick a flat weave or short-pile rug
Because spills are inevitable, and the ease with which you can pull a chair back is important, flat-weave or short-pile rugs are the practical choice in the dining room. Keep the shag rugs, Moroccan carpets and other thick, fluffy rugs in the living room, where they will require less cleaning and maintenance.

Use the rug as a jumping-off point for decorating
If the rug is one of your first purchases for the dining room, you can use it to set the tone for the space and develop a colour scheme. Pull the lightest or background colour from the rug to use as a wall colour, and bring in a bolder hue from the rug as an accent in the room, on chair cushions or in artwork.

Explore 10 things a rug can do for you

Choose easy-clean materials
Generally, pure natural fibres, such as cotton and wool, are the simplest to clean at home, and synthetic blends are the most difficult. The exception are indoor-outdoor and stain-resistant rugs that are made to withstand scrubbing.

Try carpet tiles
These interlocking carpet squares can be configured in whatever size and shape you need, and come in a wide range of hues, patterns and textures. What makes them a smart choice for the dining room? If a stain sets into one square, you can replace it without buying a whole new rug.

See 10 ways to mix and match your dining room style

Feel before you buy a natural fibre rug
With an affordable price tag, great texture and classic look, natural fibre rugs – including sisal, jute and seagrass – have a lot going for them. But where natural fibres, such as cotton and wool, tend to be easy to clean, these natural materials can prove trickier. The key lies in the texture of the rug – the finer and smoother it is, the easier it will be to clean. On the other hand, it can be nearly impossible to remove ground-in food from really nubby natural fibre rugs. Consider yourself warned!

Match rug shape to room shape
Have a square dining room? Try a square or round rug. Rectangular room? Use a rectangular rug. Echoing the shape of the room with your rug brings a pleasing feeling of order to a space.

Match rug shape to table shape. Round dining tables look great with round or square rugs. Rectangular and oval dining tables work well with rectangular rugs. Square dining tables tend to work best with square rugs, though a round rug could work for a more playful feel.

Avoid light hues
Unless you use your dining room more as a work space than for dinner parties, it's probably best to avoid white and light-coloured rugs in this space (as beautiful as they look). Of course, white is not the only rug colour to watch out for. Any pale hue is going to show dirt and spots sooner than deeper, richer colours.

Look at the larger space
When choosing a colour and pattern for your dining room rug, look at it as a piece in the larger puzzle of your space. What colour are your dining chairs and table, light fixtures, flooring and walls? If you have an open floor plan, what other rugs are you already using in the space? The rug you ultimately choose should fit naturally with these other pieces.

TELL US…

Do you have a rug in the dining room, or do you prefer a bare floor? Share your thoughts in the Comments below.