How to Decorate with Braided Rugs

If you want to add a singular American craft to your home, braided rugs are ideal. Born in the farmhouses of New England, these area rugs served as brilliant accents, their multiple patterns and colors coming from fabric scraps and household rags. These days, braided rugs have evolved to incorporate different types of yarns and fibers, making them suitable for diverse indoor and outdoor spaces. You can decorate with braided rugs as an accent in a room, or invest in a larger, brighter rug to serve as the room's focal point.

Things You'll Need

• Braided rugs
• Rug pads
• Furniture
• Accessories

Instructions

1. Consider which areas of your home would most benefit from decorating with braided rugs. Braided rugs work well to protect hardwood floors, tile or carpeting in high-traffic areas. They can set apart a sitting area in an open floor plan or warm up a dark, forgotten corner. Small rugs work as doormats while larger rugs can fill most of the floor space in a room. You can use a single rug or several rugs of different sizes and colors to brighten your home decor.

2. Select rugs of appropriate sizes for your needs. In general, decorating with area rugs requires using pieces that cover all floor space used by the room's key furniture, or covering only the empty sections of rooms. Therefore, a dining area rug should completely cover the area surrounding the table as well as the chairs. In general, braided rugs should extend two to three feet beyond the table to allow people to push chairs in and out on the rug.

3. Use non-skid rug pads underneath braided rugs. On hardwood, ceramic and stone surfaces, braided rugs can prove hazardous without rug pads underneath. On carpeted or rough surfaces, you still need rug pads to protect your braided rugs from wear and tear. Rug pads make cleaning and maintenance easier as well.

4. Vary the look and texture of your braided rugs. You do not need to replicate vintage New England braided rugs in your home decor. Instead, check out contemporary options in braided rugs, such as those made with flat braids, horizontal braids or modular weaves. You can select rugs made with synthetic polypropylene fibers that allow them to stay outside year-round.

5. Extend the look of braided rugs with homey or rustic furnishings and accessories. Braided rugs serve as excellent accents in a cottage style, colonial, shabby chic, country, rustic or farmhouse-style home. You can also add a braided rug to the wall as art. Other elements that work well with braided rugs include patchwork quilts, hardwood floors, wooden benches, wrought iron hardware and rustic wooden furniture.

Tips & Warnings

• Rather than matching braided rugs, look for different patterns that share a common background color or detail.

• Avoid using tape to keep a braided rug from slipping. The adhesive can damage the braided rug or the floor underneath.

References

• Plow & Hearth Magazine: Braided Rugs