Bedroom Rug: Wool Underfoot When You Get Up

Allow about two feet of rug on each side you step out from. Under a full or queen bed, an 8 × 10 ft rug laid crossways leaves between 30 and 33 inches a side. Under a king it leaves about 22 inches, which works, though 9 × 12 ft is more generous and takes a bench at the foot.

Beside the bed, a rug of 2 ft 6 in to 3 ft 6 in by 5 to 6 ft is enough. With a bed on legs, the rug runs well underneath. With a platform or divan base that reaches the floor, it can begin at the edge of the base, so that no wool disappears where nobody walks.

If the room allows it, one large rug under the bed is the arrangement that looks most finished. Lay it crosswise, starting just in front of the nightstands, so that it shows on both sides and beyond the foot. Under a queen bed an 8 × 10 ft rug leaves about 30 inches of wool on each side. Under a king, 9 × 12 ft gives the same margin and enough at the foot for a bench.

The test is the border. You want at least 24 inches of rug to step onto beside the bed, and 8 to 12 inches of bare floor between rug and wall. If the room cannot give both, two runners or one smaller rug at the foot will look better than a big rug squeezed in. A large bedroom rug is also the place for the deepest pile: nothing but bare feet crosses it, so it keeps its loft for years. Of our rugs, sixty-four measure 86 sq ft or more.

The bedroom is the least walked-on room in the house, and people are nearly always barefoot in it. That makes it the best place for a thick, deep-piled rug, which elsewhere needs more looking after. A Beni Ourain or a dense Beni Mrirt keeps its fullness here for years, and you feel it every day at the moment it matters.

Only the doors need watching. If the bedroom door or a hinged wardrobe door has to pass over the rug, measure the gap beneath it. Where the gap is small, use a lower pile at that spot, an Azilal for instance, or set the rug just outside the swing of the door. Sliding wardrobe doors cause no trouble.

Quiet tones nearly always win in a bedroom: ivory, cream, sand, taupe. A pale rug picks up the bedlinen and brightens the room in the morning. Berber rugs with an undyed ground have a further advantage. Their drawing, where there is one, consists of a few dark lines and never tires the eye.

That does not mean giving up colour. A blush pink, a terracotta or a sage green on the floor warms an all-white bedroom without disturbing its calm, provided the rest stays simple. The most vivid multicoloured pieces are at their best as a small rug beside the bed, where they are a cheerful accent and not the whole floor.

The smallest rugs we have are about 3 ft 2 in to 3 ft 7 in wide and 4 ft 7 in to 5 ft 3 in long. Nearly all are Azilal, colourful and modest in pile, a little wider than a traditional bedside mat. Our runners, 2 ft 4 in to 3 ft 3 in wide and roughly 10 to 13 ft long, are longer than a bed: they sit well at the foot, or along one side in a large room.

For a single rug under the bed, look at the pieces of 6 ft 6 in × 10 ft and larger. Every rug is knotted by hand and has its own measurements, given on its page. Delivery is free worldwide, duties and taxes included.