How to Zone with Rugs, In Collaboration with Agnella by Brintons Carpets

Open plan living spaces are hugely popular, even after the lock-downs, clients are still requesting that large open kitchen/diner/living area where they can spend time with family, or entertain - albeit with more flexibility - like the option to close off certain areas.

Most of the time, these areas lead to the outdoors, so practical hard floors like engineered wood or tile is usually the chosen finish, but although practical, this can sometimes make a space feel cold, or like a huge expanse with floating furniture. This is where we’ve found that zoning with rugs can really help, they not only demarcate certain areas, but also add some comfort, softness and texture to a room.

So, for this blog post, we’ve teamed up with Brintons Carpets to bring you some quick zoning tips with rugs. Brintons is a British manufacturer of carpets, founded in 1783, and they have just launched a new range through Agnella, part of the Brintons group. The impressive range has so many different beautiful styles, but I chose the abstract Bran design from the Diamond Collection for this collaboration. The Bran is a super-soft, high pile rug full of subtle colour combinations, woven from the highest quality New Zealand wool.

Quick Tips For Zoning With Rugs

One Rug. Three Zones:

Living Area:

  • Make sure the rug is large enough to tuck under all the furniture in the zone

  • The front legs of the sofa should be placed on top of the rug

  • The rug should extend slightly beyond the width of the sofa

  • The front legs (at least) of any other chairs in the zone should also be placed on top of the rug

Dining Area

  • Make sure the rug is large enough to comfortably centre the table and all the chairs on

  • About 30-50cm all around when chairs are tucked under the table is a good guide

  • If you have a console, you can either get a rug large enough to tuck under the front legs, or leave a bit of the base flooring showing between the console and dining areas

Relaxing Area

  • Treat as a living area, either tuck the rug under the front legs of the sofa or have it very close or touching

  • If you have a coffee table, measure for a decent amount of rug to extend beyond it or any other surrounding chairs in the zone

  • If there is a path that is well used, to the outside, or kitchen, for example, make sure the rug ends before the pathway

Rugs will immediately transform a space, and are a fantastic way to experiment with texture and bolder colours or pattern choices.

Furniture placement and lighting can also help to zone and demarcate areas.
Pulling furniture way from the walls and turning the back of the sofa, for example, to other pieces, can also create an effective divider. Hanging pendant lights, or placing lamps in the different areas will also help to separate zones.

The Bran Diamond Collection rug in this post was gifted by Brintons, Agnella as part of this collaboration.

Tash South