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How to buy rugs on Etsy: the styles, shops and sellers to look for
Choosing the right rug is one of the most important decisions you can make for a room in terms of steering its overall aesthetic. Rugs have such a powerful impact on an interior that a bad one can ruin an otherwise beautiful space and a great one will trick your eye into thinking you’ve redecorated, leaving you feeling invigorated about a space you were tired of seeing. Rugs are also a renter’s best friend, they’re the easiest way to cover a landlord’s questionable flooring choice, they’ll make a sparsely furnished home feel cosy (especially as winter sets in and cold floors are as appealing as toothache) and they’ll set the decorative tone in one tactile swoop.
Etsy might not be the first place you think to head to source your dream rug, but the online shop is an absolute treasure trove, particularly for vintage pieces, imported rugs or handmade ones from small independent retailers. Before hurtling headfirst into Etsy’s overwhelming selection of rugs, let us start with the basics and determine which style, colour and size of rug is best suited to your home. Read on for our tried-and-tested advice...
How to choose the right rug size for your space
If you’re shopping on Etsy for an area rug for a living room or bedroom, the worst thing you can do is buy a mean little matchbox of a rug that floats aimlessly in the centre of the room. You want to anchor your furniture and define the area by making sure your sofa, coffee table and armchairs sit on top of the rug or at least make sure their front legs do. This will add the most impact to your room and pull everything in your scheme together, it will also make a small room appear bigger. Just don’t go too close to the walls, leave a ‘border’ around the edge of 30-40cm. For most living rooms, this will mean a rug size of 200x300cm, occasionally even larger if it’s a very big space.
You can also use two separate area rugs to define different functions within an open-plan room, i.e living and dining. If you do happen to fall hook, line and sinker for a smaller rug, you can still make it work by layering it on top of a much larger seagrass or jute rug. The great thing about Etsy’s search functionality is you can filter by shape and also by type, so choose ‘area’ and ‘rectangle’ and you’ll be narrowing down the carpet mountain to a smaller, more relevant selection.
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Which style and colour is best?
Think about how much pattern and colour you have in your room already. Do you need a large flatweave rug in a block colour (designer Beata Heuman uses these a lot) to pull everything together and emphasise one of the tones in a pattern or print that you’ve used? Contemporary flatweave or cut pile wool rugs with bold shapes and patterns can be really affordable and versatile too. They look especially good when used as a base layer for the room, picking out the colour of the walls, a piece of art or an upholstered footstool or sofa. Think about the shape of the rug too - of course, a rectangular one is often the easiest go-to, but perhaps a round or irregular-shaped rug could be used to soften a room, or contrast with its architecture.
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A busy rug such as a striped kilim, a woven pattern in a short cut pile or a colourful and shaggy Moroccan design will add impact to a space that otherwise feels like it’s missing a finishing touch.
Opulent Indian or Turkish botanical designs can be such a blessing for those renting, as they provide a rich base of colour and pattern to a plain room, and are ideal for covering up shabby floorboards or naff linoleum in a room that you can't redecorate. Ditto Tibetan tiger rugs, the smaller sizes of which add a fun, vibrant touch to rooms short on floor space.
How else to use a rug?
Etsy is a brilliant place to find inexpensive vintage rugs. Look for vintage embroidered Turkish and Indian rugs, Tuareg mats or colourful vintage Moroccan rugs, which are particularly good in a child’s room. Think beyond the floor too - some of these vintage pieces are a great way to solve the age-old problem of how to fill a huge empty space on a wall, and can be used as tapestries or wall hangings. Certain vintage Swedish rugs can be really beautiful pieces to hang on walls as they’re often a little small for large living rooms.
Another way you could use a vintage kilim or embroidered rug that is too small or just not right for the floor is to cover a footstool, headboard or bench in it, or even have a pair of throw cushions or a draught-excluder made. If you love the rug, you’ll find a way to make it work – just think of it as fabric rather than flooring. A lightweight (freshly cleaned) rug could also be used as a decorative bedspread.
What else to consider?
A great rug should ideally be made from natural fibres to avoid that shiny synthetic look. Though don't discriminate against recycled plastic rugs which can look remarkably wool-like: they’re ideal for kitchens or bathrooms where they might get a lot of wear and need to be washed. These are the rooms where there is a lot of moisture in the air, so you don't want to spend a lot on a precious rug that may end up getting smelly and mouldy, or suffer food spillages or muddy footprints. Cotton flatweave rugs are handy for hallways and kitchens as you can wash them when they’re looking grubby (but use a good underlay to keep them flat and in place).
If you’re placing a colourful rug in a particularly sunny spot, consider whether it might be unevenly faded by the sun. For this reason, lighter colours, cream Berber rugs or something simple like a seagrass square rug won’t be as easily spoiled by sun-bleaching. Luckily, Etsy excels in Berber or Beni Ourain rugs, so you’ll find some wonderful options on there.
Finally, avoid long pile rugs in kitchens, hallways and dining areas, keep those to the parts of your home that won’t have food eaten in them or shoes on. Rugs underneath a dining table aren’t a complete no-no but it’s a bit of a danger zone, so don’t choose a wool rug in a solid colour, instead go for a busy pattern in a short pile or, even better, a jute rug that costs less to replace if it gets ruined and doesn’t show crumbs or the occasional splatter too easily. Just make sure it’s big enough to fit underneath both the table and the chairs when they’re pulled out to avoid a crumpled edge.
In terms of sellers, it’s important to check a seller’s feedback as there are some excellent honest and authentic rug sellers on Etsy and there are some who reproduce Moroccan rugs cheaply and badly, so make sure to do a quick search into the seller’s background and see where they are sourcing their rugs from. Are their other customers happy? You also need to account for import taxes being added to rugs being shipped directly from sellers overseas.
