Top 10 Tips Before Buying Area Rugs
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| Carpet Runner we can custom cut to length and edge the ends! |
So you want to buy floor mats and rugs? Before venturing out to purchase a new floor rug or carpet runner rug, consider the following basic facts and figures to make your shopping for area rugs an enjoyable experience.
Buy Area Rugs or Hall Runners Online or From a Store?
Buying area floor rugs can be an overwhelming task with such a large selection and locations to choose from. I have suggested the following points to be the most helpful based on more than 14years experience of helping our customers.
Determining the Size, Colour and Type Before you Buy Area Rugs
Once you have determined where you are going to place your floor rug (under pool table or dining table, next to couch or maybe an outdoor rug in the patio) consider the following:
1. What Size Area Rug to Buy? Will a Large Floor Rug Fit?
- Place a bed sheet in the chosen rug location and fold up to the desired size, this gives you a visual of how the floor rug will fit. Move the sheet around to find the best position, e.g. away from your lounge or against your lounge. (Tip: Leave your floor rug at least 40cm away from your couch to help minimise wear). Measure the smallest up to the largest size area rug you can accommodate, this gives you a size range to work with. Trying to use a sheet may not work for all situations” like for a hallway runner”, then use some measuring tapes or bathroom mats or towels.
2. Oriental Rugs or Modern Rugs?? Maybe Shaggy Rugs
- Decide what design style rug would suit the area, maybe wool rugs or a sisal rug. If your home and furniture are new and modern, then a modern rug or contemporary floor rug should be considered. But don’t rule out a Persian area rug as these can also add great style to a modern home. Something else to consider is choosing a rug with no design, something simple, tip: as a general rule if your lounge and curtains have quite a busy pattern, go with a fairly simple design floor rug. Many shag area rugs are plain but not always practical so put some thought into it.
3. Red Carpet Rug or Brown Shag rug! What Should I buy? Hmm??
- Determining the colours of your area rug would be the next step. If your room is mainly in neutral tones, then you really can choose almost anything, like a black shag rug, if that takes your fancy. If the area has feature coloured walls, then I would suggest a floor rug with at least one similar tone to match. With a room not yet decorated, I would recommend finding a rug of your liking first, then select at least one of the hues in this floor rug as your feature colour to bring the room together. Remember, light coloured area rugs make a room feel larger, dark deep colours like a Burgandy shag rug creates the impression of cosiness.
Shaggy Rugs e.g. of a picture we have on our website
4. Modern Floor Rugs and Oriental Design Rugs in the Same Area, What Suits?
- If your room is an open plan living space or you can see other carpet area rugs from that position, I would recommend that all the rugs be matching with the same design and colour. On the other hand for e.g. having two different Persian design rugs but having a similar colour tone would also be fine. Having different pile types is another thing to be aware of. E.g. placing a shag rug and a Persian rug in the same room can still work providing they have similar tones, but may change the effect.
5. Area Rug Quality; What Suits and Will it Perform Well?
- Having a cheap shag rug in a high walk through room, will it cope? So think! is the floor rug going to be situated in a high traffic position or quiet location? These questions are quite important in determining the pile type, density and fibre of any floor rugs, be it a modern area rug or a Persian style rug. For high traffic areas, floor rugs with a short to medium pile height in a plush or twist with a medium to thick density of 500,000 points per square meter and above would be sufficient. TIP: Remember to rotate your carpet rugs regularly to help distribute the wear more evenly.
6. Cheap Rugs, or Quality Rugs for on top of My Carpet? What type of Rug for My Floor?
- The floor type on which the area rug is to be placed upon is another piece of the puzzle to consider. If it’s a carpeted or hard floor surface then slippage may be a problem, however, if you use heavier/thicker and large area rugs then movement will be minimised. Remember cheap floor rugs are usually thin and light and will most likely move around on carpets and hard floors. Solution! Buy a rubber anti slip rug underlay and place it under the area floor rug for hard floors, and to stop rugs moving on carpet, buy a rug underlay non-slip rug pad and put it under your rug, this will solve these problems. If noise is a factor in your household, then the thicker and taller the pile of the floor rug the better the sound absorption. E.g. Shag pile rugs will absorb more noise than most other types of rugs like cotton rugs.
7. Is it an Easy to Clean Floor Rug or Hard to Clean Floor Rug?
- Another factor in choosing your carpet area rugs is how easy it will be for cleaning and Maintenance. The type of fibres used in the construction of an area rug plays an important role in the cleaning methods applied. If the floor rug you are looking at buying is synthetic, then the one thing to look out for is whether it’s a heat-set. These are by far the easiest fibres for cleaning and vacuuming. The heat-set polyester followed by the heat-set polypropylene rugs are the best for cleaning spills etc. with others like the acrylics rugs a long way behind. Wool or natural fibre rugs can vary depending on the quality of materials used.
Buy Rugs Online or Buy Rugs From a Rug Store?
8. Pre- Shopping Before Buying Area Rugs
- Okay now were getting down to the part of the actual rug shopping. So now you have a few choices, firstly we recommend pre-shopping on an online rug store, this will save you time and money not having to drive around to different rug shops just to see if they have area rugs for sale that you like. On this “note”, I would suggest to bear in mind that some pictures of rugs and mats online are not always true to life, this is due to different colour settings on personal computers. Also you need to check if the online rug store is in Australia and located within driving distance (if you are going to buy your floor rug in-store), plus if the rug shop has a large range of floor rugs online, this gives you a good indication of what range is actually available from that rug store, all this can be very helpful before heading out to the Rug shop.
9. What to Check Before You Buy Rugs Online?
- Things to look out for if you want to buy rugs online are; is it an Australian owned and operated business (should be in the “about us”) with a physical rug store location (not a fly by night business). The rug website should have a SSL security certificate or something similar (this is for insurance cover for online theft). Also check to make sure if you buy a rug online your credit card details are not stored in their rug website! If they mention free shipping Australia wide, check with them first about this, as many only deliver to the major CBD and charge more for all other areas. Check that they have a valid email and phone contact details and check their terms and conditions for warranties etc. Last but not least, make sure they provide a good detailed description about the rugs for sale on their online rug store (if there is only minimal information they probably don’t really know much about what they are selling).
- Once you have decided where to buy area rugs from, remember to bring along your measurements and any of these items (of course it depends on where the area rug is to be placed); a cushion from your lounge, a tile or sample of the carpet or piece of vinyl or just a sample of colour you are trying to match (it could be anything like a shirt or a throw, even a picture). Be sure to check prices in more than one rug store and check their returns policy, be sure to ask the sales person about the qualities and whether the rug would perform well in the area chosen. Remember we are there to help you make a good informed decision.
I hope this was helpful in your quest to find that perfect living room rug or childrens rug for that matter!
Author: "Neville Barnes"
Scattermats Rug Warehouse
www.scattermats.com.auemail: sales@scattermats.com.au
Ph: 08 94183567
