Bedroom Rugs
When choosing a bedroom rug, keep in mind what you want to feel on your feet in the morning, your furniture placement, and your décor. Sam Presnell, owner of The Rug Gallery, discusses how to choose the best rug for your bedroom. Listen or read more to find out about bedroom rug options.
John Maher: Welcome to The Rug Gallery with Sam Presnell. The Rug Gallery is an oriental rug company and carpet store in Cincinnati, Ohio. I’m John Maher, and I’m here with the owner of The Rug Gallery Sam Presnell. Hi, Sam.
Sam Presnell: Hey, John.
John: Sam, today we’re talking about bedroom rugs. What kind of rugs are best suited for bedroom use?
Sam: You know this is a personal opinion. I prefer something nice and soft, so when you get out of bed you get something soft under your foot. I’m not a person who likes something hard or stiff or scratchy or anything like that. I assume a bedroom’s more of a relaxed, comfortable, soft feeling carpet. I would say, something that has a pile to it and has a nice cushion under your foot is what I would think is best-suited for a bedroom.
As you know everybody’s got their own opinions on what they think is the best. A lot of times people go for look as opposed to feel. I’m a person who’s I guess more feel-oriented, so I would say find something nice and soft.
Oriental Rugs for Bedrooms
John: So you could go with a wall-to-wall carpet in your bedroom, but a lot of people these days have hardwood floors. They like to show off those hardwood floors. Is an oriental rug suitable for bedroom use? If so, how would you orient that or place that in a bedroom?
Sam: Right. I’m a big fan of rugs, especially oriental rugs in bedrooms. I think it’s a little of a formal area. It fits really nice if used it as furniture and everything in a bedroom. I prefer one big rug. There’s several ways of doing it, and I’ll discuss that. My impression is to try to get it within 18 inches, 24 inches off the walls as best you can for the actual walls for the room. Try to get one big rug, if you can possibly in there.
That 24 inches will allow your end tables and your dressers and things like that to sit off of the rug and be more up to the edge of the rug. If it’s a little bigger and part of the front or front legs are on it, that’s okay with me, too. I think it looks quite nice. As long as you got a nice little frame to the rug. Also, I think a lot of people use multiple rugs in bedrooms. They’ll take what I call a short rugs or short runners maybe five, six, seven feet in length along the side of the bed. Maybe two and a half, three feet wide. Then for each side, then usually five by eight to six by nine, usually up to the foot of the bed, the open space. That’s also, I think looks really nice, too.
Wall-to-Wall Carpet in Bedrooms
John: That would just give you that opportunity, like you said to get out of bed and have a little bit of a runner there for you to put your feet on, have something a little bit soft. Then maybe that space at the foot of your bed for when you’re getting dressed or things like that.
Sam: Right. Also, I got to say that also when you said, broadloom for bedrooms, that’s part of the biggest area we do our carpet is, is bedrooms today. It’s one of the few spaces that we probably do more than we do any other thing with wall-to-wall carpet. Also, you can make a lot of area rugs. There’s a lot of patterned carpet and rugs with designs and colors in them that are out today available as well.
We can make those any size. We make it fit exactly the way you wanted in that bedroom. So, if it’s a little smaller or longer or you wanted 18 inches or 24 inches or you want to where the furniture placement is, we can make this sure that it hits perfectly for you there as well.
John: You could take what would be a wall-to-wall carpet, cut it a certain size, like you said, maybe a couple of feet off of the wall on either side, and then add a little border around that or something.
Sam: There’s lots of oriental rugs that are also made in broadloom as well, like Karastan does it, then few other manufacturers. You could definitely … you don’t have to be stuck with a plush carpet or anything like that. You could do something more of an oriental style as well.
What to Avoid in Bedroom Rugs
John: Are there any things that you should avoid in terms of using a rug in a bedroom?
Sam: Like I always say, everybody has their own opinion on what they think is right. In today’s world I think anything goes. I can’t really think of anything I would not recommend other than I’m not a big fan of scratchy rugs or stiff rugs or sisal or something natural fiber that just hurts when you walk on, as far as I’m concerned because you have bare feet. Especially because you’re getting out of bed, usually not wearing shoes or socks.
It’s one of those things where I think that would be something I would probably … you should think about a little bit.
Best Types of Rugs for Bedrooms
John: Right. That makes sense. Do you think that you tend to do a lot more of those the wall-to-wall carpet in bedrooms because in other parts of the house people are going to more of a hardwood type of style and not using wall-to-wall carpet?
Sam: That’s pretty much it for wall-to-wall carpet today, I have to say. Pretty much most of the houses, except for the bedrooms, are done in hard surface. I would say, yes, the bedrooms are really more of the carpet spaces today as far as what I call soft surface products.
How to Choose a Bedroom Rug
John: Right. Like you said, that’s where people want it to be nice and soft for themselves. Where would you find a good rug that would be suitable for bedroom use? Would just any type of oriental style rug work?
Sam: Yes. I think it depends on your furniture and what kind of style you want to create or what kind of bedspread you have on. I’m a big fan … if you have a bedspread, work around the bedspread. Usually it’s fairly expensive for a bedspread. It usually sets the pattern and color, so you need to maybe coordinate with that. If you can pick the rug fist, it’s much easier to do it that way.
There’s a lot more fabrics and bedspreads out there than there are rug choices, I think. I would say, either one you could do, but that’s your choice.
John: All right. That’s great advice and thanks again for talking with me today, Sam.
Sam: All right, John. My pleasure. Thank you.
John: For more information about Sam, The Rug Gallery and oriental rugs and carpets, visit RugGalleryCincy.com. That’s rug gallery C-I-N-C-Y dot com or call 513 793 9505. Make sure you catch the latest episodes by subscribing to this podcast on iTunes. If you could take the time to give us a review as well, we’d appreciate that. I’m John Maher, see you next time on The Rug Gallery.