This week, let’s start from the ground up. Needless to say, your rugs and/or carpeting say a lot about you. Are you traditional and oriental? Sassy and shaggy? Modern and minimalistic? Regardless of your personal style, there are some fundamentals to consider when selecting your floor’s fuzzy friend. We asked Dennis Kelley, manager of Stark Carpet, to give us some tips on buying rugs that will make you want to go barefoot:
- When decorating, plan from the floor up—the carpet or rug is the anchor for the room.
- Measure your spaces—know the size of each area you will be placing the rug in. If you’re doing wall-to-wall carpeting, many carpeting companies (such as Stark) will measure this for you, complimentary. A general rule of thumb is that the rug is two feet shorter than the smallest wall in the room.
- Understand how much you want to spend when shopping. Take into account that this is the base of the room and then determine what that’s worth to you. For example: handmade is more expensive than machine-made and wool is more expensive than cotton but will last longer.
- Educate yourself on which styles you like (floral, oriental, contemporary, etc.) and what type of surface you’re looking for. The surface is especially dependent on where you are placing the rug. In the entry where it will see tons of traffic or in the baby’s room where you’ll want something softer?
