Red and Black Rugs

How a Red and Black Rug Can Highlight Your Room Decor

A red and black rug can highlight your room’s decor by accentuating your room’s color palette, establishing the mood, and reinforcing the style. When you find ways to connect your rug to the rest of the decor through these three areas, you create a room where each piece has a chance to shine as a part of the grander scheme.

Decorating With a Red and Black Rug

Black and red are two very distinct colors, and you may be picturing red and black rugs being bold and dramatic. While that’s certainly an option, red and black rugs actually come in a variety of cols or palettes and designs. The intensity of those colors, how they’re balanced, and the pattern they appear within all impact the tone of the rug, so as you shop for your perfect rug, rest assured that you can find one that’s just right for you.

Choosing Which Red and Black Rug is Right for You

As you look for your perfect red and black area rug, consider these key areas. 

Position: First, determine your room’s ideal layout and where your rug will sit within that. Each home and room are unique, so take these general ideas as guidelines to get you started. 

Living Room: To ground your main seating area, center a large red and black rug within that. Place the rug in front of the seats, under their front legs, or further beneath them. If you have another area of the living room you want to establish, use a smaller red and black rug to set up a reading nook, social corner, or miscellaneous space. 

Dining Room: The most straightforward way to set up your dining room is to center a rug directly beneath the table. Be sure to leave about two to three feet of excess on each side of the table for the chairs. 

Bedroom: If your bed is centered in the room, you can create a focal point with that and highlight it even more by placing a rug all the way under the bed, under the bottom two-thirds of it, or closer to the foot of the bed. Alternatively, if your bed is off to one side or against a wall, center a rug in the middle of the bedroom. 

Kitchen: 2x3 and 3x5 kitchen rugs are ideal in front of a sink or stovetop. Otherwise, use a runner rug in a galley kitchen or kitchen with an island to establish both a comfortable pathway and standing spot.

Bathroom: Similar to kitchens, you can place a runner rug anywhere you want to establish a path, but you can also set it in front of a double vanity to unify that space. 2x3 and 3x5 rugs are also ideal in front of a sink, tub, or shower. 

Outdoors: No need to limit your style to inside your home; you can decorate your porch, patio, or deck with a red and black outdoor rug. Check out similar indoor spaces for layout ideas. 

Size/Shape: Once your layout is set, finalize the size and shape of the rug. Small sizes have been listed above, but for medium to large spaces, look at 5x7, 5x8, 8x10, and 9x12 rugs. When determining what size is best for your room, be sure that the rug is to scale with the furniture and the wall (meaning, it won’t look too large or too small in the space). Also consider what shape works best in your room and that layout. The standard options of rectangular, round, and runner are good go-to’s, but you may benefit from looking at square, oval, or other shapes. 

Pattern: The pattern of your rug is a big defining factor of the rug’s style. Fortunately, red and black rugs come in all sorts of designs, so whether you’re looking for something traditional, vintage, oriental, modern, or something else, you have your pick. For guidance, look at your existing decor for shapes/imagery that you can carry throughout the room and into the rug.

Color: As stated earlier, red and black area rugs come in varying shades and intensities. Rugs that use bright colors may make more of an artistic, modern statement while faded and distressed tones will evoke a sense of vintage wear and tear. Aside from that, consider the other colors that may be incorporated in the rug’s pattern. Look for a rug color palette that uses similar colors to the rest of the room and also sets the same tone.

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