Rug in middle of the floor or under sofa?

We went to Cadrys this week to look at their Florence Broadhurst patterned rugs for our timber-floored living room (4.6x3.6m). The rugs were were great - until we got to the price!

The sales rep informed us that the rug should be big enough go under the sofa (as they do) but we feel that this would ruin the rug (from the pressure of the sofa legs) and create uneven wear patterns. We also feel that the rug is going to be a feature of the room (which has a timber floor) not a floor covering - otherwise we'd have carpeted the room anyway. We also plan to have a coffee table in front of the sofa and wondered if we should take the rug to the outer edge of the table.

A quick flick through the property section of the SMH showed that 50% of rugs were under the sofa and 50% to the edge of the sofa - which would you go for?

Hi Pewit,

I had never heard of that brand of rugs, and just had a gander at the site. Wow! Magnificent rugs, and some really beautiful designs there. You have good taste!

BUT......

Would you buy a beautiful work of art, like an oil painting, throw it on the floor and trample all over it? No?

I suggest you don't do that with these rugs either. They have silk in them, which is a very sensitive fibre. It makes cleaning the rugs a very specialised job, and requires a great deal of care. The last silk rug I cleaned was about 1.2m x 1.8m, and cost $15,000. I charged $300 to clean it. Without going into all the details why, a valuable rug such as this will cost a lot to clean properly, so prevention is the word. Best to use it as a decorative wall feature or maybe on the floor in a formal area that isn't normally walked on.

Ash.

Actually they don't all have silk in them - most are tufted wool.

I'd agree about foot traffic if we had kids, dogs, dirt etc to worry about but we don't as we're in a unit on the 8th floor.

We currently have a rug in our lounge room and it finishes before the lounge so it doesn't go under the lounge at all, there is a little room between where the rug ends and where the lounge starts so your feet are mostly on the floor when sitting.

Anyway we went looking at rugs when we got ours and they are sooooo expensive and personally I didn't like the patterns. We ended up getting some carpet offcuts and having them cut to size and bound on the edges, so much cheaper. We got a 2.2m by 3.2m rug just perfect for our lounge room. We bought the offcut for $180 (I think it was the end of the roll) and had 3 rugs made including the big one.

HTH

Edited to add - our lounge has legs (IYKWIM) so you can actually see under the lounge, I do think this style of lounge with a gap under would probably be ok for rugs to go under but I think if you can't see under the lounge then you wouldn't put the rug under there.

Pewit,
Maybe there's something I missed? I looked through all the range of that site, and they are all described as wool & silk, woven rugs. I would expect if they have tufted wool rugs, as well, they would be much less expensive, and cost less to have cleaned .

And Jilly, I'm SO NOT like you. I just love texture and patterns in floor-coverings! Especially like the Siam range in these rugs!

Ash.

OK those rugs are rather nice. Personally like the floral ones. Haven't seen anthing like that in WA. Not that I have really looked very hard as I don't get to the city much.

Next questions - what sizes? How much and do you think I could get them sent over to WA?

If you are interested in seeing some nice contemporary rugs (or traditional style) you might find some to your liking at Jenny Jones Rugs in Claremont (WA). Keep in mind... high quality woven rugs take extraordinary time to make by hand, and often the prices reflect the works of art that they are! Machine woven or tufted rugs are not as expensive though, and can still be of a good quality.

I generally am quick to caution people who are contemplating buying certain expensive rugs though, as they can be difficult or costly to get properly cleaned. In some parts of the world, there are sophisticated rug cleaning plants, with special machinery and facilities to effectively clean rugs. These plants can cost millions of $$$. There are few such plants in Australia, as the investment in plant equipment takes many years to give a return.

Incidentally, I know of a famous 'rug nut' that everyone knows as 'Dusty'. He runs a business called 'Luv-a-Rug' in Canada, where he cleans around 400 rugs a month, and he runs a forum called the 'Rug Hub'. Dusty is as passionate about rugs as one can be about anything! He's presently touring through Iran, and filling up all his friends' Facebook walls with pictures of his travels of the rug centres of the world.

Ash.

I have an expensive wool rug that I have under the couches for the fact that if I don't it moves around on the floorboards. I think the better the quality the tuffer it is. I can easily get the dents out with my vacuum.