Rug Zealot

A great rug can transform a room...make it mod, hip, urban, Moroccan, French, or colorful. 

There are some rug rules though, that you must follow in order to correctly place a rug and define an area of your room.

SIZE
The size of your rug should be based upon the size of the room and the scale of the furniture.  Using a large rug, that goes wall to wall, in a small space with small furniture, will only tend to make the room look smaller.  By the same token, using a rug that is too small looks simply silly.  The key is to make sure the rug at least meets the edge of your furnishings that surround it.  If you are going to place furniture on the rug, either two legs or all legs should fit onto the rug.  There should still be plenty of room to walk around the furniture comfortably. 

For dining rooms, the rug should meet the furniture surrounding it...if not, your table and all chairs should fit onto the rug, with room enough to move the chair in order to sit without having to move the chair off the rug. 
In a really small dining room, it is often best to go sans rug. 

PLACEMENT

Use rugs to define mutliple spaces in one room.  Group furniture in conversational, reading, televison watching, groups, then anchor the center of each group with a rug. 

COLOR and PATTERN

Using more than one rug in a room is fine, if the patterns or colors are similar.  Two red rugs, one with stripes, the other with chevrons is fine, likewise, using two abstract pattern rugs in complimentary or similar colors is also fine.  It is even fun to pair a large scale design with a smaller scale design.  Play with color and patterns until you find a grouping you love.
For single rugs, in a neutral room a rug with either a distinctive graphic or in bright colors will make the room pop.  In a colorful room, often a black or white rug serves as good contrast. 

MATERIAL

Now, I love a fluffy, high pile wool rug, but depending on the traffic in your room, that might not be best.  For dining areas, jute, low pile, and indoor/outdoor rugs often work well.  In a living room, a higher pile and more luxurious carpet can often be used.  Keep kitchen rugs in natural materials, and bathroom rugs scaled to the size of the room and in highly absorbent materials. 

Here are some of my fave rugs, happy rug finding!