Add personality, luxury, and warmth to your home with the clever use of colour and texture in accessories such as rugs, cushions and throws. These items can quickly transform a plain space, or soften a strongly patterned sofa or chair, and quickly add individuality, often for a limited cost. It’s so easy to create a fresh, new look if you feel like a change.

Rugs

Rugs can add warmth, colour, texture and comfort to the home. Designer rugs are available in all manner of materials, textures, colours and sizes. Choosing the right one for your space will depend on the layout of the room, the desired function of the space and the occupants who will use the area.

Adding a new rug to a room can completely change the look and feel of the space, adding a vibrant layer to the overall interior scheme and creating the feeling of an updated space without changing other elements of the decor.

Decor rugs - those designed more for aesthetic value than function - cover a vast range of materials from the pared back to the excessively detailed. The style of rug you choose will help to define the overall design of the room so it’s important to understand the options.

Rugs are generally made either of natural fibres such as wool or jute, or synthetic fibres such as nylon. The type of pile chosen also makes a significant difference in terms of the desired aesthetic with flatweave rugs typically offering a greater amount of detail compared to shag pile rugs, for example, which have long, cut piles and are typically overtly textured floor rugs.

Modern rugs are a great way to update the decor in a home. Whether it’s a vibrantly coloured rug or its pared back in tone but luxuriously soft, the rug you choose will provide an instant additional layer of textural depth to space.

Hallway runners are another popular type of rug, especially in older houses with wooden floors. Hallway runners are a great way to add warmth to a typically less used, colder area of the home and simultaneously introduce design details to the hallway to link it to the other areas of the house.

Outdoor Rugs

Rugs designed for the outdoors are continuing to grow in popularity, especially in New Zealand where the desire to spend as much time as possible outdoors is prevalent. Outdoor rugs are, like their name suggests, designed specifically for outdoor use and are typically made with specialised materials that allow them to thrive in various environmental conditions. Adding a rug to an outdoor space can help to create a feeling of liveability and tie an alfresco area to the interior design scheme.

How to choose an outdoor rug

The addition of a rug to an outdoor area can change the entire look and feel of the space. A rug underfoot links alfresco areas with the comforts of the indoors, and can provide the perfect element to set off the existing decor or to create a new, alluring outdoor space to enjoy.

Of late, the line between indoors and out has been blurred, as homeowners and designers specify items made for outdoor use with indoor comfort in mind. Creating comfortable spaces outside, as well as outdoor rooms and sheltered areas is often a cost efficient way to add additional areas to a home without extending the building’s footprint. 

It’s with this in mind that the popularity of outdoor rugs continues to soar. Adding a rug to an outdoor area is also a quick and easy way to invite a new comfort into the outdoors, and as a way to unite various elements of existing outdoor furniture and finishings.

Differentiating between outdoor mats and rugs and those for indoor use

The most important consideration when choosing an outdoor rug is material. Is the rug designed specifically for outdoor use? If it’s not, the chances are it will degrade quickly if used outside, so it’s important to ensure any rug chosen for use outdoors is designed for that purpose.

Materiality is generally split into two main categories: natural and synthetic materials - with a grey area incorporating options that are various blends of natural and synthetic fibres.

Synthetic fibres

Synthetic materials have a range of benefits, especially for outdoor mats and rugs. In many cases, synthetic fibres are considered durable, and resistant to a range of issues such as mildew, fading and mould. Most synthetic outdoor rugs are manufactured with nylon, polyester or polypropylene and are often UV-treated to resist colour fading over long periods of time when left in the elements. Synthetic fibres can be knotted, tufted, braided or looped just as natural fibres and can also be made into flatweave rugs, and shag rugs.

Natural fibres

The use of natural fibres for outdoor rugs can create a luxurious feel underfoot while utilising what are often thought of as more sustainable textiles. However, many natural fibres are more likely to fade when left in the elements and may absorb water, unlike synthetic options. This can make outdoor rugs made with natural fibres more susceptible to mildew and mould. Despite this, an outdoor rug made with materials such as bamboo, hemp, seagrass or jute can offer a unique and bespoke aesthetic to an outdoor space. A natural dhurrie rug, for example, can offer a bespoke look and feel and connect both furniture and tie together the natural elements of the outdoors offering a standout visual presence.