What do you do when you have a very large room? Buy a large area rug of course! Many times though a large area rug is not so much a rug (as we normally think of them), it is more like an investment because they can cost many thousands of dollars depending on the quality and the size of the rug.
You should never invest thousands upon thousands of dollars without first doing research, and that’s why you are here today. You’ve come to the right place! I’ll walk you through the ins and outs of purchasing a large area rug, we’ll talk about prices and we’ll talk about styles and we’ll talk about nachos… well not nachos.
First off let’s talk dimensions: what is considered large when it comes area rugs? In my mind 9′ x 12′ is sort of the entry level, or low end of the large area rugs range. Anything larger than that is certainly considered a large area rug be it 10 x 14, 12 x 18, and on up. Does that mean that an 8′ x 11′ rug is not considered large? No, not necessarily… it might very well be considered large, I’m just trying to get a basic baseline here so that we’re all on the same page.
One thing to keep in mind before purchasing a larger rug is this; how are you are going to clean it over time? You may not think about this before hand but you should because you are going to be investing a lot of money to purchase it and you may very well have to invest a lot of money to care for it over time so you should know about these outlays before you set your initial budget. With a small area rug, they are easy to just toss in the washing machine. You can’t do this with a large area rug though.
Depending on the quality of the rug, you’ll clean it in different ways. Some rugs will need to be professionally cleaned. Often times this means rolling them up and driving them to the cleaners. Though sometimes you can have in-home cleaning under certain circumstances. It’s a good idea to ask the salesman about the cleaning requirements for your specific rug before you purchase it. If you buy online, be sure to look around on the webpage for cleaning instructions and if you can’t find instructions, e-mail the owner of the website and ask before you buy.
Another thing to keep in mind is storage. You may not always want to keep your rug out in a room. You may from time to time get tired of it or want to switch it out for another rug in which case you must store it. Storing them properly is important because if you don’t store them correctly you could damage them in any number of ways, and since large area rugs can be so expensive, it would be a real shame to ruin them just by storing them incorrectly. They will need to be protected from insects as well as humidity and other elements including possible flood damage (hint: keep them elevated off the floor one to two feet if possible).
Before storing, I like to vacuum them to make sure there’s no dust or dirt, I’ll often flip the rug over to vacuum the bottom side as well. If I’m going to store them for long periods of time, I like to have them cleaned professionally before hand. Next I spread an old sheet on the floor, make sure this sheet is larger than your rug by at least a foot or two. Place the rug on the sheet and then roll it up sheet and all. Next place this entire rolled up contraption inside a large plastic bag or plastic sheeting up some sort, then tie it together with pieces of rope.