Colorful area rugs add pizzazz to rooms with neutral-toned furniture.

Area rugs can muffle noise and cover blemishes while
adding character, color and style to your home.

Have you ever stopped to wonder how many hours and dollars you’ve spent dressing up your home’s walls? You ogle over artwork and affix fluted pilasters. You coordinate paint colors and add onlays, sconces, crown molding, and mirrors.

And then you look down.

Your floor is your home’s “fifth wall.” Yet, amid the home décor hubbub, it’s easy to shove floor coverings underfoot. “The floor is probably the most underrated fashion component of any room. That’s because people look down last,” says Phil Koufidakis, president of Baker Brothers, which has seven Valley showrooms.

Enter area rugs. The right area rug can add panache to any room, providing colorful and stylish “art that you walk on.” Area rugs offer practical touches, too, so read on to find out what Valley designers and flooring pros have to say about how and why to use them.

Function + Flair
Area rugs serve many purposes, not the least of which is adding a little pizzazz to your room. Area designers and flooring pros like well-placed area rugs to accomplish some or all of these components:

• Style. “First and foremost, the area rug works great as an accent,” Koufidakis says. “Not only can you make a fashion statement, but ultimately you can make your own fashion statement. No two rugs and no two rooms are exactly alike.”

• Color. People tend to go neutral with sofas and carpeting, so an area rug can liven up the room. “An area rug is the element that pulls everything together. It’s like the icing on the cake,” says Kathleen Strand, owner of Strand Interiors in Scottsdale.

• Noise Reduction. With stone, hardwood and ceramic flooring being strong options right now, area rugs can reduce noise. “Many of our customers are replacing carpet with hard surface flooring,” says Jeff Frye, general manager of Modern Flooring Concepts in Scottsdale. “What you’ll notice immediately is the noise level changes. An area rug will make that sound level more comfortable.”

Rugs help define a room or space, add a pop of color, and reduce noise level when placed on hard surface flooring.

• Livability. Area rugs also create a more inviting atmosphere to walk, play or sit upon. Strand suggests wool for a cozy texture. “It has a soft feel to it, and wool wears very well,” she says.

• Definition. Today, open floor plans are very popular, and area rugs can help define conversation spaces and traffic flow.

• A cover-up for blemishes. From covering traffic patterns or stains in your carpet to hiding chips in ceramic tile, well-placed area rugs can cover unsightly blemishes at a fraction of the cost of re-flooring.

A Range of Rugs
From polypropylene machine-made rugs to handmade wool/silk blends imported from Iran, there is a rug for every room and every budget. A basic breakdown of rug styles may help you determine what’s best for you.

• Hand-knotted. Often made of wool or a combination of silk and wool, hand-knotted rugs are just that: Each tuft is tied by hand. “You can fold it, crush it, stack it, and 200 years later it will be a rug the same as it is today because there is no glue in it. It won’t dry out or fall apart,” Frye says.

Of course, such custom, fine quality will cost you. Strand estimates that nice hand-knotted rugs begin in the $8,000 range and can hit the $50,000 mark. “The good news is, that rug is not going to lose its value. If you buy one and sell it later, you will never get less than what you paid for it,” she says.

• Hand-tufted. Hand-tufted rugs are made using a hand-held rug looper, and the main advantages are price and quality of appearance. “If I have a client that can’t afford hand-knotted, the hand-tufted rugs are a great option. You can get a nice one for $1,500 or $2,000 and still have a really great look,” Strand says.

Since glue or latex is applied to the rug’s backing, Frye says that over time durability can be a disadvantage. “The glue will eventually dry out and become brittle. The rug someday will fall apart,” he says.

• Machine-made. If you are on a tight budget or you like to frequently and affordably change the look of your room, machine-made area rugs may be a good choice. First, they start in the $3 per foot range, making a 9-by-12-foot living room rug a possibility for just over $300. Second, there are no surprises with machine-made rugs. “If you looked at one and order another size, it will look exactly the same,” Strand says. The downside? They can look cheap.

Often made of nylon, polyester or polypropylene, machine-made rugs do, however, keep up with trends because of the sheer speed of production. “The industry has gotten so quick, it’s almost ahead of the fabric cycle,” says Ingrid Harazim, co-owner of World of Rugs, which has five Valley locations. “They can knock these products out pretty quickly. The trends you see coming through the furniture stores – the rugs are right there with them.”

While fine, hand-knotted Persian rugs tend toward the traditional, Harazim says that both machine-made and hand-tufted rugs offer the assortment of shags, natural tones and contemporary geometric looks that are in right now.

Finally, if you can’t find the perfect rug, you might be able to make it. A low-cost option – especially if you’re looking for a certain color or unconventional size – is to buy carpet and have the edges bound. “You’ll get exactly what you want for a more economical price per square foot,” Frye says.

Traditional hand-knotted Persian rugs like this one are high quality but often pricey.

House Rules
Experts say it’s best to build a room around your area rug, furnishing your room from the floor up. However, if you are shopping for a rug to complement furniture, flooring and fabrics that are already in place, there are a few tips and tricks you can try while shopping.

• Take pictures. Photographing your room from different angles may help you imagine how various area rugs might tie your theme together.

• Get paint, carpet and fabric samples. Grab what you can – even if it means pillows from the sofa or leftover ceramic tiles – to check for compatibility.

• Tell your salesperson or interior designer what you want to accomplish in the room. Do you like rustic? Traditional? Contemporary? “Think about what you want to do,” Harazim says. “Do you want to change the mood? Are you switching out lamps and accessories to make it more modern?”

• Take measurements. Depending on the size of the room, experts suggest thatexposing anywhere from 12 inches to four feet of hard surface or carpeting around an area rug can create an attractive border. Larger “borders” will make smaller rooms look larger. An exception is the hallway, where leaving six inches of surface on either side of a runner is sufficient.

Rugs As Fashion
When you’re shopping for area rugs, realize that price and selection are broader today then ever before, so stick to your taste and your budget.

If you’re conservative, this doesn’t mean you have to buy something boring. Neither does it mean you should let a salesperson talk you into something totally out of character.

“Rugs are not tricky or mysterious. It’s like anything else you buy for your home: You’ve got to buy something you like,” Harazim says. “Rugs are fashion. It’s like throwing a scarf on and thinking, ‘Wow, I have a whole new outfit.’”

You can always change your mind later. “If you paint the walls a bold color, man you’ve got bold. But if you buy a bold area rug, you can roll it up and put it away until bold comes back in again,” Koufidakis says.

RESOURCES

Baker Bros.
Seven Valley locations
602-431-1200
bakerbrothers.com

Modern Flooring Concepts
8271 E. Gelding Drive, Scottsdale
480-294-6100
modernflooringconcepts.com

Strand Interior Design
7117 E. Third St., Scottsdale
480-970-1706
strandinteriordesign.com

World of Rugs
Five Valley locations
480-419-6119
worldofrugsaz.com