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| Rule 1: Front legs on the rug, back legs off. Here is a gorgeous room where the front legs sit on the rug while others are off. This approach really does work in most situations; the rug connects the various furniture pieces together while extending far enough into the room to create a sense of good proportion. Private Comment
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| Rule 2: Some front legs on. Before moving onto examples where all the legs are placed on the rug, let's look at a hybrid of the two approaches. Here only the front legs of the sofa sit on the rug while the placement of the chairs leave all four legs firmly on the rug. This proves to be more effective here than if only the front legs of the chairs fit onto the rug, because of the size of the room and the contrasting tone of the rug against the flooring. Private Comment
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| Rule 3: All legs on the rug. One tip is to determine the furniture placement prior to selecting what size rug to use, which leads to the next rule: A room generally looks more pulled together if all the furniture legs are planted firmly on the rug. Private Comment
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| Rule 6: Just a few inches of floor around the rug. Here is a successful application of the rule to run the rug up to within inches of the wall around the entire room. While a traditional approach, it feels modern here due to the decor decisions. Private Comment
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| Here is another wonderful example of this approach and how the rug defines the room design. Private Comment
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| Rule 7: Extend the rug 12-18 inches around a bed. For an area rug to look balanced under a bed, it should be large enough to extend beyond the sides of the bed at least 18 inches for a king or queen bed and at least 12 inches for a full or twin bed. Depending upon the size of the room there can be more rug extension around the bed, but not less, which would make the rug look insignificant being covered mostly by the bed. Private Comment
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| However, a smaller rug can also be very effective placed at the foot of a bed, bringing in just a little layer of interest and pattern. Here the rug width should extend beyond the width of the bed to feel balanced. Private Comment
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| Rule 8: Extend the rug 24 inches around a table. It is much easier to maneuver dining chairs if there is at least 24 inches of rug extending from the edge of the table on all sides. This rule allows the back legs of the chairs to be on the rug, even when being used. This can be a hard design goal to achieve due to the typical proportion of tables to area rugs. Private Comment
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| Rule 10: Combine rugs. In making rug decisions for a room, another approach would be to bring in multiple area rugs. This can be very effective when the room is large with more than one seating arrangement. Private Comment
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