A rug ties pieces of furniture together. They place pattern on your floor, add texture to your decorating scheme and give visual cohesion to spaces in your room. And when it comes to area rugs, it’s hard to know where to start with so many choices surrounding us.

Rugs add warmth and visual energy to a room. They can define areas of large spaces, such as a living room from a dining area, or can pull together pieces of furniture into a conversation area.

The best-known rugs are Orientals and kelims, both of which tend to come in rich, dramatic colours, as well as dhurries (like kilims, but in pastel colours) and Chinese Orientals (more pastel and less detailed than regular Oriental rugs). Plain sisal (a woven straw-like material) and stencilled sisal are also very popular. Painted canvas is making an artistic statement in many homes.

If the rug is way too small for the room, use two or three smaller rugs but staying in the same style – all kilims or all Orientals, for example. When laying a patterned rug over wall-to-wall carpet, keep the carpet low-pile so that the rug won’t "crawl around".

A busy pattern should be taken into account when decorating a room.

Design tip
Angle rugs in the room, or furniture on the rugs. It lets you get away from a formula look, particularly in rooms that don’t have much interesting architecture. It breaks up the square.