7 Creative Ways of Decorating Your Living Room with Rugs

This guest post is from Steph Clarke who is part of the content & community outreach team at LandofRugs.com. Steph is obsessed with interior design trends and how new technology influences design.

Creating a gorgeous living room for your friends is on everyone’s wish list these days. There used to be a crowd of regular Joe’s devoid of the artistic nous needed to make their living room a design masterpiece.

But not so anymore. Pinterest and the flood of available gorgeous, inexpensive homewares have spurred a home styling fashion movement. But how do you set your home apart?

Here are 7 creative ways to use rugs in your living room to give it a unique flare as a point of difference.

1. Use a Long Runner Rug Under Your Barstools.

Barstools in and of themselves can be a work of art. They create a nice point of linear symmetry in the room and can add a color or texture pop as well. They’re usually found on top of either tile or hardwood/laminate where the kitchen transitions to the lounge.

Placing a long runner rug beneath your barstools can really warm up a hard floor. It can give a big blank floor space some character and connect it to the colours in your curtains and bench tops etc…. to make the kitchen and lounge flow seamlessly together. And before you say it, yes, your rug will get very dirty in this area. But I wouldn’t be so thoughtless to suggest it without knowing there are some great rug choices in materials very easy to keep clean.

2. Create a Feature Wall Rug

Do you have an ultra-neutral living room you’d like to pep up and breathe some life into? Consider a unique feature wall rug. It immediately brings texture and allure to a dull room.

Image Source: http://photos.hgtv.com/photo/rug-doubles-as-wall-hanging-in-eclectic-living-room

If you’re conservative, you don’t need to overdo it with bright, funky patterns and designs. I saw a gorgeous fawn colored rug on the wall of an already neutral living room that just brought the room to life. It was a fabulous shape with rich, varied textures and tassels. It seriously just transformed the room. Make the bold choice and go with a feature wall rug.

3. Cosy-up Your Dining Room Bench / Seats with Sheepskin

Before this home styling movement, sheepskin rugs used to remind me of my old fuddy-duddy grandparents. They’d put them anywhere and everywhere to warm up during the cold New Zealand winters.

Image Source: https://www.trendir.com/nordic-house-offers-relaxed-scandi-style-for-your-home/

In a cluttered little cottage and wearing the ugliest winter cardigans you’ve ever seen, I can tell you, the styling choice of those rugs was the last thing on their minds! But alas, the sheepskin rug has become one of the trendiest accessories for the living room today. A fun and unusual way to use them is on your dining room bench/chairs. Not only do they cosy-up a hard wooden or industrial look, they’re practical and add a bit of comfort under the bum.

4. Transition a Loud Artistic Wall Feature Fluidly into a Neutral Room

I don’t know what it is about art, but people just get so attached to it. They like what they like, and once they do, there’s no budging. I told my sister her wall canvas looked like someone had barfed all over the side of her wall; that only made her love it more!

If you just have to have your loud feature art up on the wall, that’s okay. But how do you do that and keep your contemporary neutral living room theme intact? Using a rug to transition the art more fluidly into your living room is a great solution (thank you me).

Find a rug with a neutral base colour that’s mildly patterned with the least loud color in the painting. Have it on the floor in close viewing range of the painting and Voilà! Your painting doesn’t seem like it’s in such stark contrast with the room anymore.

5. Create a Hanging Room Divider to a Study Nook

I think using a rug as a hanging room divider is an awesome idea. When I came up with it and went to look for pictures on the internet, there were very few available. So it’s either the coolest authentic idea you’re going to hear today, or my taste is horrible, and that’s why no one is doing it.

I’m pretty confident it’s just an awesomely unique idea though. In large rooms, a solid rug would work really well as a divider. You can use steel wire anchors that hang from the roof to attach it. Or another way is to have a long steel rod at the top (hinged at the wall) to hold the rug (like how the rug stores displayed them). In a smaller room, a lighter woven/tapestry style rug with some transparency to it would work better, so it doesn’t shrink the feel of your room.

6. Bring a Feature Armchair / Lounger to Life

There are so many incredible feature armchairs and loungers out in the marketplace. Most living rooms of a decent size have a feature chair in them these days.

I have a Replica Eames lounger that looks divine. When that chair is the most gorgeous thing in the room, how do you draw everyone’s eyes to it immediately? Yes, you’re catching on now, by pairing it with an equally amazing rug! And by amazing, I mean in a complementary way, not in a “take over and dominate the room” way.

High-quality cowhide rugs are a gorgeous choice for pairing with a modern feature chair. They’re not overly textured or bright colored to detract from the chair, but they’re interesting and shapely and just ooze style.

7. Create a Grand Entry to Your Living Area from the Entry Hall

One of my favorite features in a home’s design is a nice wide opening from the entry hall into the main living room. The design you choices you make here are like a proud introducer, inviting you into the most important room in the home.

Some minimalists would disagree with me entirely. But my ideal entryway would have a slim, sultry hall table centred by a large gorgeously framed mirror. Flowers and/plants to the sides and some table-top homewares that work in the colors of the room.

It would also have an amazing rug centred in the opening to the living room. I hope you can visualize it as well as I can. It’s just beautiful. The rug really is the centrepiece and leads you into the living room. Your choice of rug here should be bold but not overbearing.

Well, there you have it. Some great ideas for styling your home using rugs in a bit more of a unique way than most. Let these ideas spur on your own imagination and make your design choices your own.