What size rug should I get?
If okorder / .. Rugs are a great way to define living areas within large rooms to make them appear cozy. For instance, a sofa, two chairs and a coffee table could be comfortably arranged atop an 8x10 rug. Then, off in a corner, a reading area with a leather armchair, ottoman, bookshelves and lamp table can be offset by a complementary 5x7 or 4x6 rug. When deciding whether to use two rugs in a room setting, it is best to vary the scale of the pattern and alter the design. The rugs don't have to be identical, but they should match either in color tone or feeling. If your den has a dominant focal point such as a fireplace, it's best to choose a rug with an all-over pattern so it doesn't compete with or distract from the focal point.
That depends on what else you have in there and how much of the tile flooring you want to cover. If you want to completely cover the room with the rug, get a 16x16. If you want to see some of the tile, get something more like a 14x14 to 12x12 (depending on whether you want a 1-foot tile border or 2-foot). But, let's say you have a basic set-up with a sofa against one wall and a coffee table in front of it, and an entertainment center against the opposite wall. And, you want the rug for accent, not necessarily to cover up the tile. The area rug would start just about at the front edge of the sofa, maybe a few inches away from it. It sould be centered side to side with the sofa, and come out far enough to extend a couple feet beyond the coffee table. In this case, you would be looking at somewhere between a 5x8 to a 6x9 area rug, with the coffee table pretty much centered over the rug. These are pretty standard sizes, because that's generally how people use them as an accent.
It would be good to have the tile showing around the wall edges by at least a couple of feet for contrast. Area rugs come in all sorts of even and odd sizes--having said that, start looking at places like Home Depot and Lowes because they carry large size area rugs. You will probably be looking for a 12 x 14. You can get actual carpet remnants and have the edges machine bound if you don't want a particular pattern.
