It’s often said your floor is the largest shelf in your house. It’s up to you to make sure that shelf is properly outfitted. No matter your flooring, an area rug is a great way to protect your floors, highlight and define spaces in your home, and add a little flair. However, to really find an area rug that fits your space and style of your home perfectly, you’ll want to consider a custom area rug. With the right flooring experts, custom area rugs can be customized with the type of carpet style you’re looking for and accurately sized for the space.
Can a Carpet Store Make an Area Rug?
Some, but not all, carpet stores can make area rugs, while others might just have standard styles and sizes in stock. However, if you choose the right carpet and flooring store, they’ll most likely have the ability to create a custom size area rug that fits your style and space.
Can Area Rugs be Cut to Size?
You can get area rugs that are cut to size if you find the right flooring store. As mentioned above, some, but not all, flooring stores offer custom size area rugs.
For example, Floor Concepts in the greater Pittsburgh area offers a variety of carpet and hard surface flooring products, including custom area rugs. We can cut any roll of carpet in our inventory to your desired size for a custom area rug, and we also do the rug binding and serging all in store for you.
But, what type of area rug is right for your home? Here are four factors to consider when choosing an area rug.
4 Factors to Consider When Choosing an Area Rug
Size Matters
Let’s face it—size always matters when you’re furnishing your home. Area rugs are no different. Too often an area rug is chosen that is too small for the space. There are a couple different factors to determine the right size rug for your room. Generally, there should be 10 to 20” of bare floor between the edges of the rug and the walls. This range can be altered depending on the actual size of your room (8 to 24”). The area rug should be placed in the center of the floor so the area between the floor and the wall is the same on all sides.
But, this can all change if your home is an open-concept space. Custom area rugs highlight a space—consider this when choosing the size. If you’re still unsure, err on the side of a larger rather than smaller area rug.
Here are a couple other tips for…
Your Living Room: For a traditional style, measure the seating area and then select the rug that is the next size up. This creates unity and allows all your furniture legs to rest on the rug. For a modern style, choose a smaller rug that will allow only your front furniture legs to rest on the rug. Or, even more modern, the rug can fit inside the space with no furniture legs resting on the rug.
Your Dining Areas: Measure the length and width of the table and select a rug that is 2’ larger on all sides. This allows enough room for your chairs to sit comfortably on the rug.
Your bedrooms: Area rugs should extend at least 2’ on each side of the bed.
Your entryway: Look for an area rug that is wider than your doorway.
Read our Ultimate Area Rug Size Guide for more detailed info on finding the right size area rug to fit your space.
Color & Pattern
The color and/or pattern of your area rug will set the tone for the entire room—it’s really the foundation of a room. Consider the room’s furnishings and wall color. If your furniture in the room is already patterned, choosing a rug in neutral color is a good choice so it doesn’t compete with the furniture. Likewise, if your furniture is solid colors, you can opt for a rug with a pattern to add a little flair to your space.
Custom area rugs are the foundation of a room, but you can choose for them to stand out or blend in. Always consider the whole room, from the furniture to the wall color to the ceiling fan when deciding on the style of the area rug.
Your lifestyle may also dictate the color or pattern you settle on. Choose darker colors or patterns that can disguise stains if you have a busier lifestyle or if the rug will see a lot of foot traffic.
At Floor Concepts, you don’t have to settle for just any standard area rug. You can hand select the exact color and style that you’re looking for from our carpet inventory.
Pile, Lifestyle, & Maintenance
There are three types of pile: low, medium, and high. What you choose should be based on your lifestyle and how much work you are willing to put in to maintain the rug. Generally, low-pile rugs are the sturdiest. They’re best for a room that will see a lot of traffic, potentially from kiddos and/or fur babies. High-piles rugs feel more luxurious underfoot and have an inviting and cozy feel. Use these in rooms that don’t have a lot of foot traffic.
All area rugs should be cleaned and rotated regularly. Low-pile rugs are the easiest to spot clean and vacuum, while high-pile rugs are the most difficult to clean. Sometimes, high-pile rugs may need to be cleaned professionally. Ask our carpet experts about what fits your lifestyle best, and they can help you decide on the type of pile you may need.
Variety
Chances are you need an area rug for more than one room in your home. Let us be the first to put this rumor to rest: your rugs do not have to match in size, color, or pattern. Regarding size, it is most important to appropriately fit your custom area rugs to each room rather than selecting rugs that are all the same size. Area rugs are not one size fits all. Your rooms are different sizes, which usually dictates the size of the rug.
Regarding rug color and pattern, make sure you select rugs that complement the room and each other. Ideally, your home should tell a story from one room to the next. Think of each room like a chapter in a novel. It is singular in the fact that it is separated into a chapter, but works toward the larger whole of the story (your room in this analogy). Everything does not have to be the same style, but everything should flow together.
Think custom area rugs are out of reach? Think again. As we mentioned, Floor Concepts can cut any carpet roll in our inventory and create your perfect custom area rug. You’ll have many top carpet brands to choose from. We even do the binding and serging in store before sending it home with you to protect the rug’s edges and extend its life.
How Much Does It Cost to Have a Rug Cut and Bound?
The cost of cutting and binding your custom area rug will be factored into the total price of your area rug purchase. Since we cut, bind, and serge your custom area rug in-store, the process will cost you a fraction of the price compared to other specialty retailers.
We also have a large selection of carpet remnants—the balance of a roll of carpet available at discounted prices—that can also be converted into a custom area rug (large or small).
Floor Concepts is here for every phase of your flooring purchase. After all, we’ve been proudly serving the greater Pittsburgh area for the last 50 years. Contact us at 724-935-4600 or stop into our Wexford, PA store to transform your floors today!
