Medium Area Rugs — Up to 10 × 7 ft

Medium rugs — up to about 10 × 7 ft (300 × 200 cm)

The mid-format is the most-bought size in Europe, and for good reason: it fits a normal living room without swallowing it, and it is still large enough to hold a seating group together. It is also light enough for one person to roll up and carry, which matters more than people expect.

The sizes in this range

• 230 × 160 cm (approx. 8 × 5 ft) — a compact living room, or a bedroom laid across the foot of the bed
• 240 × 170 cm (approx. 8 × 6 ft) — home office, study, smaller sitting room
• 200 × 200 cm (approx. 7 × 7 ft square) — square rooms and round tables
• 300 × 200 cm (approx. 10 × 7 ft) — the standard living room size and the largest in this group

The dining table trap

A 300 × 200 cm rug is frequently bought for a dining room and is usually the wrong choice. A chair needs 60 to 70 cm to be pulled out and sat on. With a table 90 cm deep on a rug 200 cm wide, only 55 cm remains on each side — the back legs drop off the edge every time somebody sits down, and within a year the edge is damaged.

There are two honest ways round it. Either place the table across the rug with three chairs on each long side and none at the ends, which works well. Or accept that you need a larger format — our 8 × 10 ft rugs start at 250 × 300 cm and handle six seats properly.

Square rugs

A square format is worth considering more often than it is. It centres a square room, and under a round dining table it is the only shape that gives even clearance in every direction — a rectangle always leaves two sides short. The catch is that square rugs are woven far less often than rectangles, so the selection is small and the size you want may need to be made to measure.

An honest note on this size

The commonest disappointment in this range is buying at the bottom of it. A 230 × 160 cm rug in front of a three-seater sofa leaves the furniture floating and the room looking unfinished; as a minimum, the front legs of the seating should stand on the carpet. If your sofa is 220 cm wide, the rug needs to be wider than the sofa, not narrower.

For a home office: hand-knotted wool takes the weight of a desk chair better than most floor coverings, but castors do abrade a pile over time, and they open the slits in a flatweave. A clear chair mat over the rug under the chair area solves it and costs very little.

On sunlight — plant and mineral dyes are gentler than synthetics, but no textile is immune. Direct midday sun on the same strip of a rug year after year will lighten it. Turning the piece once or twice a year is what prevents an obvious line.

At a glance

• Dimensions: approximately 160 × 230 cm to 200 × 300 cm, plus square formats around 200 × 200 cm
• Area: roughly 3.7 to 6 m²
• Suits: living rooms up to about 25 m², bedrooms, studies, home offices
• Construction: hand-knotted or hand-woven flatweave
• Weight: light enough for one person to move
• Underfloor heating: suitable
• Documentation: written assessment of origin, material and knot count with every rug

Care

Vacuum in the direction of the pile with the rotating brush bar off the fringes; on a flatweave, reduce suction and switch the brush bar off altogether. Turn the rug end for end once or twice a year. Blot spills instead of rubbing, and use clear water rather than household cleaner on a fresh mark. Hand washing every five to ten years is the right interval for a rug in normal domestic use. Customers in Germany can use our rug cleaning service in Würzburg, including collection and return in the region; elsewhere we are glad to help you find a specialist nearby.

Related collections

Rugs by size · Small rugs · 6 × 9 and 7 × 10 ft rugs · 8 × 10 ft rugs · Living room rugs · Made-to-measure rugs