The 06 Best Area Rugs for Lofts and Living Rooms

Design — Home — Aug 14.2022

Sometimes you need a rug to cover up unsightly floors, to keep the downstairs neighbors from hearing your footsteps, or to give your space a homey feel without spending a lot of money. We spent over 60 hours researching hundreds of area rugs, interviewing experts, and testing rugs with panelists. Then we put our paws on our favorites in the house (and let a cat do its best to destroy them) for several more hours. From the 42 carpets we examined, we found 16 to be the best in their respective categories. We have choices for flat-woven, low-pile and high-pile rugs that will suit a range of functional purposes and decorating styles. In this article, there are the best area rugs and their review.

Flatweaves

Flatweave is one of the best area rugs when we discuss the rugs. Flatweaves rugs have no pile – meaning no fibers that stick out. Generally, a decent flat weave won’t cost as much as a standard rug with a pile and will be easier to keep looking good year after year. Flatweaves won’t trap dirt like carpets with the pile, and they’re easy to vacuum or clean with a damp cloth. Some, such as cotton rag rugs, can even be cleaned in the washing machine. You can remove most stains after being cleaned.

Safavieh Rag Rug

Rag rugs are an excellent choice for kitchens, as they are machine washable, and because of their rustic look, they still look good with a few loose threads or frayed spots. We love Safaviya’s handmade rag rugs, which are less expensive than other rugs we’ve seen, feel comfortable to walk on, and come in a wide range of colors and sizes. Safavieh Rag Rug has the best area rugs. A design of different colored threads (or rags) means that most small stains will blend easily. This rug is easy to flip or toss in the wash—though the larger 8-by-10 version may require a trip. Laundromats to use their large capacity washers. At least, if you screw it up, it’s cheap to replace (it’s the least expensive of the kitchen options we looked at). One of our editors has a multicolored version of this rug from 2015, and it’s held up well—only a few yarns have frayed a bit.

Nodus Rug

 Nodes have the best area rugs, and we design hand-woven and hand-tufted rugs. We have worked with renowned architects on a custom design basis. Our niche is luxury, art and design rugs. So check out our custom-designed special designer collections on our website. We also have hand-tufted and limited edition rugs.

Why you should trust Nodus

Our recommended carpets were those that our testers felt the best underfoot. While we each had specific style preferences, we agreed that some rugs have patterns and designs that are well executed—and that others look like lousy print jobs. A few of our picks were better in the stain and cat claw tests (we just put our favorites through the wringer). In this guide, we note the best area rugs and how each one performed in our tests, which rooms they’ll be best in, and how much shipping will cost when you buy a rug online.

Revival Hart Jute Rug

The Heart Jute rug from Revival is a great natural fiber option to use under a dining table, as a runner in a hallway, or layered with other rugs in a living room for a more cushioned feel. We love how soft the jute feels underfoot and barely sags, unlike thick and messy jute rugs. The heart jute rug is flexible and finely woven, giving it a more delicate, flatter appearance.

In addition to the natural, unblemished tan color known for jute, the rug also comes in eight other colors. Like a flat weave, a heart jute rug doesn’t provide much cushioning (something you can adjust with a rug pad of your choice). We tested the 5-by-8-foot size under the dining room table and in the kitchen, and it was easy to vacuum and light enough to shake out when it needed a deep clean. You can also clean it with some water, but jute is very sensitive to water and moisture, so avoid getting it too wet.

Hook & Loom Flatweave Eco Cotton Rugs

Our testers rated these flatweave rugs as favorites for their exciting designs. They come in a wide array of colors and patterns (solid, striped, geometric), offering the most variety we’ve seen in one line. Although their feel is a far cry from the plush texture of a pile rug, these rugs are softer than most flatweaves we’ve tested. For our testers, the weave was tighter and felt less bumpy underfoot than the multicolored rug rugs we tried.

These flatweaves will hold up well against the effects of time. That makes it the best area rugs. They’ve been put through the wringer in kitchens and bathrooms since 2016, and they’ve passed with flying colors and bedrooms, and they show less dirt than other polyester-cotton blend competitors (like the Lisa Wagner rug on Chic Polyester rugs like to catch grime and pet hair. The small geometric patterns found in these rugs do an excellent job of hiding marks and stains, as Jessica Probes, author of Home Decor Cheat Sheets, Essentials for Staying Stylish, tells us. You can machine wash them, so they’re perfect for where they’re likely to fall (think kitchen or dining room), although you’ll need to take the larger sizes to the laundromat.

IKEA Hovslund

IKEA’s Hovslund pattern is similar to the Persian Area Rugs 3028 Moroccan Trellis but is easier to clean and less prone to stains. So it is also the best rugs. However, it’s not that soft either. Gray is a great neutral color for a rug, according to our design experts: it hides dirt and is a bit more interesting than khaki or white. The white pattern on the Hovslund adds a bit of dimension without being too distracting. So these are the best rugs.

Nodus creates prestigious rugs.
Bring luxury into your home!
>>> CONTACT US! <<<

Nodus has reinvented the luxury rug. It was in fact the first brand to propose the concept of the rug as a work of contemporary art.
Nodus has always created exclusive products that furnish the most beautiful homes in the world. Do you want to make your home inimitable as a work of art?
Bring a hand knotted rug of the highest quality and design into the spaces of your daily life! Give your family and the people you love the beauty of a dream masterpiece! Every piece of Nodus is designed by famous Designers, making it recognisable and prestigious. In this way, each rug is unique: you will not find another one like it. Like all beautiful and unrepeatable things, one piece in the Nodus collection sets you apart and speaks to others about your taste and elegance. CONTACT US!