Can a Rug Make a Room Look Bigger? Is Wall-to-Wall Ever OK? Your Carpet Questions, Answered

1. Can a rug make my small room look bigger?

Yes. Get the largest rug possible so it defines the room as one big, inviting space. Optimally, the visible perimeter of floor is no wider than 8 or 9 inches. Size tip: Designers consider a 9-foot-by-12-foot rug—which will fill a small living room and can visually anchor a queen-size bed in most bedrooms—the most versatile size to repurpose if you someday move to a new home. In a living room make sure the carpet is at least big enough that the front two legs of the sofa and armchairs in the main seating area can sit on it. And always match its shape to the shape of the room. “Don’t put a square rug in a rectangular room, because it will make everything look off-balance,” said rug consultant Elisabeth Poole Parker, a former vice president at Christie’s New York and international head of the auction house’s carpet department.

2. Any advice on runners?

Patterns hide stains in high-traffic areas like entryways, staircases and the kitchen (where they add color to an aisle between prep island and sink). Give a runner breathing room without making it look like a skinny Band-Aid. Ideal margins in a hallway are 4 to 5 inches, says antique-rug seller Georgia Hoyler, of Passerine in Washington, D.C. “Tape it out on the floor before you buy to be sure it will feel proportional.” On stairs, 3 to 4 inches suffices, as in the space above designed by Liz Caan, of Newton, Mass. Multiple runners in a single room, or throughout a home, are easy to mix and match if you choose rugs with the same color palette and patterns similar in scale and shape, says Kate Marker, an interior designer in Barrington, Ill.

3. Did Aladdin have a flying carpet?

No. Disney invented it. In the Arabian Nights stories, Aladdin had a magic lamp. (The magic carpet belonged to Prince Hussain, a character in a different tale.) “But in the film, Disney juiced up the romantic angle of the story with an escape on a magic carpet,” said Jack Zipes, a professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota.

4. Can cheap rugs look expensive? How?

Here are three ways.

A.Buy an inexpensive, neutral room-size rug made of a natural fiber such as sisal (which costs as little as $1.50 a square foot), then center a pricier, but smaller, rug on top of it. “The space will be defined by the larger sisal rug, so the rug on top doesn’t need to be big enough to sit under the furniture to look amazing,” said Nadia Watts, an interior designer in Denver who frequently employs this strategy if clients bring along a favorite rug when they move to a new home.

B. Another technique: Find a vintage carpet with a beautiful patina going cheap due to rips or stains and cut it down to create a runner or a foot-of-the-bed rug. A rug installer can bind the rug’s perimeter with a selvage stitch to prevent threads from unraveling.

C. If your layout includes a long, narrow room, commonly found in brownstones and other row houses, search for a vintage or antique rug in what is known as a gallery size. Frequently woven during decades and centuries past, their quirky dimensions (5 feet by 10 feet or 8 feet by 17 feet, for example) make these rugs harder to sell and therefore inexpensive to buy relative to their size, says Jason Nazmiyal, an antique-rug dealer in Manhattan.

5. Etsy sells a bazillion rugs and a lot of them look great on my screen. How do I avoid getting ripped off when buying a carpet I haven’t seen IRL from someone I don’t know?

Start by sleuthing before you shop. Research rug types and styles to zero in on what you like, and then do enough window shopping online to train your eye to recognize the difference between a good and a bad example when you see it. Now you’re ready for Etsy, where you will continue to behave like Sherlock Holmes.

• Research the seller. Comb through customer reviews for red flags.
• Pose questions. For instance, if a rug is described as “vintage,” (which Etsy defines as at least 20 years old) ask the seller to pinpoint the decade or year the rug was made.
• Ask for more pictures. You want photos taken in natural light, to give you a real sense of color; close-up photos of any damage, uneven wear or alterations; and even photos of the backside. “Ask a seller to flip it over and take a photo, so you can see the knots and whether the fringe is an actual part of the rug—which would confirm it’s hand knotted—or something applied afterward,” said Bailey Ward, an interior designer in Atlanta.

6. Materials matter. May I have a cheat sheet, please?

WOOL

Considered the gold standard for rugs, this natural fibre appears in tufted and flatweave rugs in virtually any colour or design. Soft underfoot and stain-resistant, wool can last a lifetime (or longer—some antique wool rugs are hundreds of years old).

SISAL

Woven from agave-plant fibres, sisal is a neutral tan colour that works well as a quiet backdrop for colourful, patterned furnishings. “It has a casual look that is a very nice contrast in a formal living room,” said interior designer Ward.

SILK

A delicate luxury fibre with a beautiful sheen, silk belongs in a low-traffic bedroom. “Like a silk blouse, a silk rug should be dry cleaned” to avoid damaged fibres, says Scott Johnston, owner of Carpet Care of the Carolinas in Raleigh, N.C.

POLYPROPYLENE

Made from recycled plastics, this durable material comes in any colour or pattern and is easy to clean, stain-resistant and a good choice for outdoor rugs. However, tufted polypropylene rugs “just don’t bounce back after cleaning,” said Johnston.

COTTON

A fluffy fibre, cotton has an airy look but requires frequent cleaning because it quickly exhibits any and all signs of dirt and wear. For that reason, the most practical cotton rugs are those small enough to fit into a laundry machine.

7. Rug pads are like the orthotics of rugs. What’s the best kind?

“Without a thick protective pad, you’ll grind grit into the rug and wear down its foundation,” warned carpet-care expert Johnston. The best are at least 1/4-inch thick with a layer of felt atop a nonskid rubber backing, he says. Feel free to use one of those cheap, 1/8-inch thick, waffle-weave rubber things they sell at hardware stores if you have a tight fit beneath a door. In such cases, “even a thin pad is better than no pad—think of it like a sock keeping your shoe from causing a blister,” said antique-rug seller Hoyler.

8. Are rugs in the kitchen totally ick?

Don’t assume a kitchen rug is unsanitary, said Manhattan interior designer Sasha Bikoff, who has an antique French Aubusson in her own kitchen (between the island and the sink where it provides a cushioned surface for anyone doing the dishes). Wool rugs are super durable and don’t absorb liquid quickly, so it’s easy to wipe spills. “So live a little bit,” she said, adding that a patterned rug “is a cozy way to add pattern and color” to a room where stainless steel and cold stone surfaces would otherwise dominate the décor.

9. Is wall-to-wall carpet ever not cheesy?

Yes, it can be quite chic in a bedroom, where it can turn a room into a sanctuary. “We use it because it feels cozy, and it brings a softness to a space,” said interior designer Watts. Perhaps for that reason, “for the most part, today wall-to-wall carpet has been primarily relegated to bedrooms,” said Jamie Welborn, a senior vice president at flooring manufacturer Mohawk Industries. Make that a lot of bedrooms: Wall-to-wall carpeting still covers 35% of the square footage in American homes, Welborn says.

10. Nearly every town has a rug store that’s been going out of business for 10 years. Why?

Because they have no intention of actually going out of business. They’re trying to lure customers who assume they are desperate merchants offering rock-bottom prices. “Rugs are a product category that people buy rarely, so these stores are not trying to build a loyal customer base,” said Katrijn Gielens, professor of marketing at the University of North Carolina. In reality? Prices may be marked up.