Before buying a rug, be sure to measure your space carefully. Use a tape measure-twice, to be safe-as guessing can easily lead to mistakes. You want your rug to not only fit the space, but also make the most impact possible. Here are some helpful tips you can use throughout your home.

Dining Room

Leave enough room so that the rug extends beyond the back legs of a chair when someone is seated. Otherwise, your chairs may wobble on the uneven surface-not the most comfortable dining experience. An 240cm x 300cm (8′ x 10′) rug is the most common size for dining rooms, but be sure to measure your space and the area around the table with chairs pulled out.

Living & Family Rooms

Here, there’s really no right or wrong way to place your rug. It’s all about preference. The bigger the rug, the more it’ll pull the other elements of the room together. Use the coffee table, or center of the room, as the primary focal point and plan outward from there.

Bedroom

Rugs are a great way to add extra softness and soundproofing to the bedroom. Simply choose a rug the fits the width of your bed. Or, if you’re looking for something larger, find one that will cover the space beneath your nightstands, too.

Kitchen, Hallway & Foyer

Look for runners and round area rugs to fill the narrower spaces and nooks throughout your home. Remember to use a tape measure first, so that there are no surprises once you get your rug on the floor.

Rug information and glossary

We put in place a brief description on each of our online rugs, below will go some way to explaining common “rug jargon” you might find here.

Abrash: A graduated or transitional change in the colour of a rug – seen as darker or lighter striations of hue/value – due to differences in either the wool or dye batch.

All-over design: A term used to describe a rug without a central medallion but with a design repeated throughout the field.

Antique Finish/Wash: a chemical soaking process designed to simulate aging by modifying color saturation and intensityof the rug.

Arabesque: Ornate curving design featuring intertwined floral and vine figures – often seen in intricate workshop rugs such as those from Tabriz, Isfahan, Nain and Qum.

Boteh: A pear-shaped figure often used in oriental rug designs characteristic of the paisley pattern the boteh may represent a leaf, bush or a pinecone.

Cartouche: Oval-shaped ornament incorporated into the rug design containing a signature, date, or inscription

Carved Pile/(Map): Design or pattern cut or “embossed” into the pile of a rug – common in Chinese and Tibetan carpets.

Chain Stitch: A crochet stitch used in rug construction that consists of successive loops to lock the final weft in place at the end of a rug.

Flat-Weave: term describing any rug without (wool) pile: including Soumaks, Kilim, Verneh, Sozani, and Dhurrie. (Aubusson carpets, though flat, are excluded from this category due to factors such as their complexity)

Field: The part of a rug’s design surrounded by the border. The field may be blank or contain medallions or an over-all pattern.

Fringe:  Warps extending from the ends of a rug which are treated in several ways to prevent the wefts and knots from unraveling.

Gabeh:  A long-piled rug style with a simple colorful design – originally used as mattresses – that have attained recent popularity.

Gul: A medallion either octagonal or angular in shape used in Turkoman designs It is often repeated to form an all-over pattern in the field.

Handmade Rug: A rug that is either entirely handknitted (or hand tufted) and usually made of wool, and which may also include the addition of silk.

Herati: Design type found in Persian carpets featuring the repeated pattern of four pinecone or leaf-like figures woven around a diamond shape – an effect sometimes noted to resemble a fish-like motif.

Heriz: City on Iran-Azerbaijan border and name for the geometric medallion rugs popularized in the early 20th century. This design remains extremely popular in Europe and the U.S.A.

Hooked rug: A hooking device pushes and loops yarn through a canvas producing either a loop hook or latch hook rug (also the loops can be sheared to create an open pile).

Kazak: Referring to the Turkish-style rugs produced by the peoples of Kazakhstan and of that region.

Kilim: A flat-woven (pileless) carpet, often reversible, in which a design pattern is formed by colored