7 Dining Rooms to Help Decide: Rug v No Rug

Emily Andrews Photography
I love the simplicity of this room. A rug here would take away from the minimalistic feeling and distract from the oversized frame. I can just imagine having a meal on this walnut table. Less really is more.

Photographer: Amy Bartlam
Design: Veneer Design
On the other hand, I love how cozy the rug makes this room. A similar walnut table looks very different with a faded rug. I especially love the long buffet and mirror above to tie in this great dining room.

Style Me Pretty
Photographer: Amy Bartlam
Design: Veneer Design
This dining room is serious inspiration. Who knew a striped rug could work in a dining room? I love the way the black and white tie in with the leather chairs. This is such a great, simplistic meets country look.

Design: Nicole Franzen
I need this much natural light in my dining room. Love the black chairs and reclaimed wooden table. With the oversized light fixture, banana leaf plant, buffet and artwork, a rug in this dining room would take away rather than add.

Amber Interior Design
This wall puts white walls to shame. And this rug just feels so cozy. I can just imagine Thanksgiving dinner here. Especially with these chairs.

Laura Resen Photography
But every time I think I’ve decided on a dining room with a rug, I see how simple and perfect without rugs they can look. I love how long this dining room table is. There might just be five chairs, but this table can fit many more.

Emily Henderson Design
The view isn’t the only great thing about this room. I seriously want these chairs in my life. This dining room wouldn’t be complete without that rug.
SHOP DINING ROOM RUGS
What do you think? Rug or no rug?
xo
I love the look of no rug. Clean, simple, your eye is drawn to other elements of the room. However, after years of dealing with those felt pads that fall off and leave adhesive all over the floor, I may be tempted. ( She says after scrubbing said adhesive off of floor on her hands and knees yesterday.)
In each photo without a rug, I feel like the room looks incomplete. I used to be very into the stark look of bare floors, but now, I feel like every nearly every dining room needs one. I think it’s something about all of the table and chair legs looking like they are going to slide around or something.
There are minimal rugs that would keep the look serene, yet finished. I don’t feel this way about kitchens for whatever reason…
But in some of those photos, I want to remove the end chairs, because they look like they are falling off the “island.” A dining room rug needs to be large enough to accommodate all of the chair when they are pulled away from the table…and that means a pretty big rug in may cases.
Personally, I have found Flor tiles to be the perfect solution to the DR rug question. They are often patterned, very easy to vacuum crumbs, and can even be washed in a sink if a real spill happens. And their modular design makes customizing the size really easy.
Although it’s a pain to clean a rug that is under the dining room table, I agree rooms looks unfinished and somewhat cold to me in the absence of a rug.