Almost every rug that looks wrong in a photograph is the right rug in the wrong size. There are three rules and they cover nearly every room.

Sitting rooms: front legs on, at minimum

The rug should be large enough that the front legs of every sofa and armchair in the grouping sit on it. That visually ties the furniture into one island and makes the room read as intentional.

A rug small enough to float between the pieces does the opposite — it fragments the seating group and makes the whole room look smaller than it is. If the budget forces a choice, a larger rug in a cheaper construction beats a small rug in an expensive one.

Dining rooms: add sixty centimetres on every side

Measure the table, then add at least 60cm beyond every edge. That is the distance a chair travels when somebody pushes back to stand up, and it is what keeps the back legs on the rug instead of catching on the edge.

This is also the room where a flatweave earns its place: no pile means chairs slide instead of snagging, and it is thin enough that nobody trips on the border.

Halls and landings: full length, made to measure

A runner that stops half a metre short of the end of a hall is noticed every single time somebody walks down it. This is the single most common reason people come to us, and it is the easiest thing to fix — measure the run and have it made.

Leave roughly the same margin of floor on each side, typically 10 to 20cm, so the runner is centred rather than crowding one skirting board.

Bedrooms: think about where your feet land

The useful rug in a bedroom is the one that is underfoot when you get out of bed. Either run a large rug under the lower two-thirds of the bed so it extends past both sides, or use two runners along the sides.

A rug that sits entirely under the bed is a rug nobody ever stands on, which rather defeats the purpose.