How to place a rug with your furniture

You can buy the perfect rug and still get the room wrong if you place it badly. The good news is that placement follows a few simple rules, and once you know them a room falls into shape almost by itself.

The front-legs rule

In a living room, pull the rug under the front legs of your sofa and chairs. This anchors the furniture to the rug and reads as one considered group. Letting the rug float in the middle of the floor, with no furniture touching it, is the single most common mistake, and it makes everything look adrift.

Give it a margin

Leave an even band of bare floor showing around the rug, like a frame around a picture. Somewhere between 20 and 40 cm on each side usually looks right. A rug that runs wall to wall reads as carpet; a rug with a tidy margin reads as intentional.

Beds, dining and open plan

• Bedroom: lay a large rug under the bottom two-thirds of the bed so you step onto softness, or flank the bed with two runners.
• Dining: the rug should stay under all four chair legs even when a chair is pulled out. Add about 60 cm beyond the table on each side.
• Open plan: use rugs to zone the space — one to hold the living area, another to define the dining end.

A rug's job is to gather a room. Placed right, it makes the furniture look like it was chosen together, even when it wasn't.

If you're not sure what size does all this in your room, our sizing guide has the numbers, or bring your measurements into the showroom and we'll lay it out for real. Browse the rugs.