Here’s the situation. You have a gorgeous rug that a family member lovingly carted back from Morocco. It looks fantastic in your living room. Everything centers on it. It is the centerpiece of your home.
Then you move.
Suddenly, the rug is too small for your public rooms – living, dining, family. What do you do?
You put it on top of a larger sisal or seagrass area rug. This creates a border around the rug, extending its edges. It tricks the eye into thinking the rug is larger than it is.
If this rug had been placed on top of wall-to-wall carpet, it still would look too small, because you haven’t created a border for it. You need to see floor.
Here’s how to do this successfully:
– Frame the smaller rug by making the seagrass rug proportionally larger. In other words, if you have an 8 x 10′ rug, the seagrass could be 9 x 11′, but not 9 x 14′. (You may have to have a rug custom cut. It will be worth it.)
– The larger the room, the wider the seagrass “border,” but don’t make the underlying rug bigger than about 20″ on each side. You don’t want to lose the relationship between the top rug and the sisal. A 12-16″ border should be good.
– If the top rug has a simple pattern, choose an underlying rug with a small weave.
– If the top rug has an intricate pattern, as shown in these pictures, choose an underlying rug with a larger weave. The noticeable texture complements the busy Moroccan rug beautifully.
Rug saved, room beautified. Or should I say, bossified.
Many thanks to the friends who let me photograph their family room while we were all horsing around in it.
