How To Measure For An Area Rug

Hallway and foyer area rugs.

How to measure for an area rug.

Living room area rug placement size. Just make sure to follow this rule of thumb. Maintain at least 18 inches of bare floor all the way around to frame the room s layout and create pathways. Leave 8 inches of space if the room is smaller.

Outline area rug area with masking tape. No deduction needed on that measurement. This will allow the front legs of sofas and chairs to be on the rug and anchor the seating area. The area rug should be a minimum of six inches and no more than two feet away from the wall.

Before going shopping understand what size you ll need length and width. Masking tape is a terrific way to picture the area rug proportions. You want a little bit of leeway between the wall and your rug. Usually anywhere from 12 inches up to 24 inches.

To visualize how an area rug will look in your space use masking tape to create a border on the floor. For larger areas a bit more of the floor can show. When you take into consideration the different uses shapes and design preferences however other factors weigh in as well. Think of a rug as an anchor for the room rather than a platform.

Measure the floor space that was the inspiration for the rug shape. When you use a measuring tape to figure out the rug size you lose perspective of how the rug will look in your room as you are just reading the tape measure. This means that the ideal rug pad for a rug will be 2 shorter and narrower than the rug. Loloi explains that the ideal size for a queen bed is an 8 by 10 while a king would look better with a 9 by 12 rug and that same size works for two twin beds in a kids room.

Give yourself a 2 inch margin of error to avoid picking the wrong area rug size. When it comes to rug placement in your living room you don t want your rug to go right to the wall à la carpeting. Add an allowance for the furniture to these dimensions for the basic rug size. A good rule of thumb for choosing the right size rug pad is to leave 1 of rug overhang on all sides of the rug pad.

The front feet of any piece of furniture should. Keep in mind that rug pads can easily be cut to size. For areas of the home that have no furniture such as hallways and foyers rug size is determined based on how much floor space to leave exposed around the edges of the room. For example the perfect rug pad for a 5 x 8 rug is 4 10 x 7 10.