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Art Deco Rugs and Runners
We've picked our top ten Geometric, Zigzag / Chevron, and Animal themed Art Deco rugs in the posts below. As with all the products we review the rugs are new and are from mainstream online retailers.
This makes buying from the comfort of your home as simple and straight forward as possible. Delivery, and, if necessary, returns are simple and hassle-free too.
We've also put together a guide to help you choose the right rug for your room. We cover the development of the Art Deco rug, the different rug materials available and, how to add a rug to your room.
The section on how to add a rug to your room includes how to select the correct size and positioning for your rug. You can also visit our page on 'How to create a modern Art Deco look' for tips and advice on how to design your entire room.
Art Deco rugs in luxury hotels and famous places to visit
Development of the Art Deco rug
Rugs made before the original Art Deco era did not suit the modern interior designs of the new style. The traditional floral designs of old were at odds with the bold new look.
As a result, geometric shapes and abstract motifs replaced floral patterns. Also, a mix of bold and subdued blocks of colour helped create an interesting contrast.
Original Art Deco rugs had a luxury feel that was free from excessive embellishment. Designs were daring and contemporary and still look fresh and modern today.
During this time, rugs advanced from pleasant background pieces to main focal points. Art Deco rugs had become the room's central statement piece.
With that in mind, it makes sense to buy a rug or runner you love first and build the rest of your Art Deco interior around it. The right rug will have a stylish and timeless appearance that will look great in your home for years to come.
When it comes to rugs, geometric patterns are a classic symbol of Art Deco design. Zigzag and chevron rugs have uniform angular patterns that fit the style well. They suit other styles too making them a safer bet if you have several different styles in your home.
Animal themed rugs hark back to the big game hunting era that coincided with the dawn of Art Deco. Again, they are a safe bet if you have several styles in your home. Plainer animal skin rugs are a good option if strong patterns are elsewhere in your room. Whereas animal-themed rugs, a Zebra pattern, for example, create a strong focal point.
Different rug materials
There are lots of different materials used to produce rugs. Here, we cover the materials used to make the rugs in our top ten picks.
Wool - The most popular rug material and for good reason, it has a lot of excellent properties. It's durable, dyes with ease, repels liquids, and creates a thicker crush-resistant rug.
It's also hypoallergenic, fire-resistant, and feels soft and luxurious to touch. Natural and renewable, it's no wonder it's the material synthetic rugs try to mimic.
Acrylic - With a similar texture to wool, acrylic rugs are generally less expensive. It has excellent stain and damage resistance and it holds its colour well.
There are some potential downsides with low-quality acrylic rugs. They can have poor fire resistance, suffer from static, and are prone to pilling. Having said that treatments prevent these issues on the majority of acrylic rugs.
On the subject of quality, acrylic rugs can vary a lot. Low-cost rugs can feel cheap and aren't especially hard-wearing. Higher-end rugs are hard-wearing and stain-resistant. They often feature vibrant designs thanks to the excellent colour fastness.
Polypropylene - A very common material due to its similar feel to wool at a lower cost. It's also hard-wearing, stain-resistant and washable. You sometimes find polypropylene rugs advertised for outdoor use.
Its main drawback is that it doesn't bounce back as well as wool. They can have problems with flame-resistance, static, and sun-fade if left untreated. But, as with Acrylic rugs, they're almost always treated theses days. Cheaper polypropylene rugs can have a waxy feel compared with wool.
Polyester - Soft to touch, easy to clean, hypoallergenic, and hard-wearing. It also takes colour well, it's washable, quick-drying and is usually lower cost than wool. The downside is that it doesn't resist flattening all that well and can look tired a lot quicker than a wool rug will.
Sheepskin - All the benefits of wool but with almost no shedding. There's no shedding because the wool is, of course, attached to the leather. As with wool, it's strong, water and flame resistant, hypoallergenic and antibacterial. Most important of all it's lovely and soft to touch and is completely natural.
Cowhide - Rugs made from cowhide are usually quite large and are very durable. Being the natural skin of a cow, they shouldn't shed much and each rug will have a unique shape.
The only minor downside is they can show signs of the cow's life, a scratch that's healed and left a scar for example. Having said that, it shouldn't be an issue on higher quality hides.
How to add a rug to your room
One of the main benefits of an area rug is its ability to unify the look of your room. If the rug is too small then it can have the opposite effect.
The photos of Eltham Palace and The Chatwal Hotel above show furniture on rugs. The Burgh Island photo shows a carpet with only a coffee table on it. To us, it seems clear that the room in question looks more unified with furniture placed on the rug. That's no slur on The Burgh Island Hotel by the way, which we found to be a fantastic place to stay.
Lounge - To unify the furniture in your living room ensure as much as your seating area as possible is on your rug. In a perfect world, it would be all your seating, but a good compromise is to include the front-legs only.
Dining Room - Again, it's a case of trying to ensure your dining room table and chairs are on the rug. You want to be able to pull your chairs back and still have them on the rug. If that isn't possible then try to choose a rug that all your dining room furniture can fit on when not in use.
Bedroom - There's three options here. The first is to have a rug large enough to fit your bed and bedside tables. Option two is to have the bottom end of the bed sitting on the rug, but not the bedside tables or head end of the bed. The final option is to have a rug or runner either side of the bed that doesn't have the bed or bedside tables on them.