Rugs/carpets
In this room, the arrangement of furniture follows the ‘two’ rule –there are only two legs of the sofa on the rug to anchor it in the room. The success of this look is achieved by how the scale of the sofa complements the size of the rug. Visually, both pieces are balanced, which is important to consider when attempting the ‘two’ rule, because if you place two legs of an over-scaled sofa on a smaller rug, the sofa will appear to be ‘eating’ the rug.
When placing furniture on rectangular or square rugs, there is a simple rule that designers follow to ensure the furniture feels well located and anchored to the rug and space. It’s the ‘four-two-none’ rule. Either you have four legs on the rug, two legs, or none. Never put three legs on the carpet, and never one – as it can look as if the piece of furniture is ‘falling’ off the rug. This room has successfully employed the ‘none’ rule. Although the rug is a good size, the furniture sits around its border, not touching it. Consequently, the rug does not feel lost in the room but looks artfully framed.
Furniture arrangement for rectangular or square rugs By far the most common shape of rug is the rectangle or square, for the obvious reason they fit the shape of most rooms. Before arranging your furniture, it’s important to get the right size rug for the room. A very small rug in a large room will look lost while an overly large rug will poorly imitate wall-to-wall carpet.
A combination of different shaped rugs that are layered, such as the three in this room, can create confusion when trying to arrange furniture around or on top of them. Smaller pieces of furniture should be placed in the centre of individual rugs – ie the ‘four’ rule – and larger pieces, such as a sofa, can follow the ‘two’ rule. Such layered rugs are perfect for rooms where the furniture can be less formal, such as in a TV room or kids’ playroom.
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