The shape of a rug can be uninteresting and is fairly standardised. If you have a rug on your floor right now, it is likely a rectangular, which tends to be the most common shape for rugs, as it’s versatile and unobtrusive. In fact, you probably haven’t seen a square rug unless you were looking for one. The reason you have seen more rectangular rugs, rather than other shapes, is because they are the most versatile type of rug. They fit into just about any room, since most rooms are also made in a rectangular shape. If the rug matches the shape of the room, then it generally doesn’t stand out much. You don’t have to do much thinking, or decorating, to make your rug fit, however, that also means the rug will blend in. It will likely be less noticeable than if you had a rug of a different shape. It can also lend itself to a blocky sort of interior design. If your bookshelves, couches, tables, and appliances are all rectangular, another rectangular item just contributes to blockiness. There are ways to break up the monotony, however.
Breaking the Monotony
If the design of your rooms seems a bit too bland for your liking a simply way to change that is by changing the shape of your rugs. For example, round rugs stand out more than you might think. So many interior design items are square or rectangular, that anything with rounded edges is going to be significantly noticeable. A round rug draws attention to itself. Since it is already drawing attention to itself, the rug is a great way to augment a design principle. If you want to, for example, contrast the colour of the floor with the colour of the wall, a round rug in the colour of the wall is a great way to do that. It creates a great contrast that will get your walls noticed, and make the interior of the room seem to ‘pop’ when you look at it. That’s how many interior designers make their colour palette come to life. Extra-large circular rugs can be used for more than just breaking monotony, though.
Fitting in a Room
So, rectangular rugs are chosen by many design experts for many situations because most rooms are built as a rectangle or as a square. However, there are some conditions in which a rectangle isn’t actually the best choice. If your room is not rectangular, you might need a circular rug to fit the space without leaving awkward gaps. For example, many rooms that serve as additions to a home, or basement rooms, have asymmetrical designs. One wall is often built at an angle to accommodate some other design element. To fit a rectangular rug in that space, you would have to either cut your rug or leave an odd amount of empty floor space. If you put a circular rug in instead, it will look much less awkward. The round shape does not create the sharp contrasts in shape that a rectangular rug would, therefore, you can more easily blend it into a non-standard room shape.
If you are looking for a way to draw attention to the floor, or to offset the design colours, consider using a round rug to create a bit of flare.