Plush puzzle pieces

If you have even an inkling of doubt that the rug might be too small — and you have the square feet to spare — you should go up a size like you would with a nice pair of Italian loafers. Give yourself some breathing room and consider how your furniture will sit atop or within the dimensions of the rug. Man's best friend in this case is a tape measure and a roll of blue painter's tape.

In a living room, you don't want the sofa to dwarf your rug. For a traditional sofa (non-sectional) you want at least 18 to 24 inches of rug on either side of the couch to anchor it.

Picture this: you can either put the front legs of the sofa on the rug or the whole sofa on the rug. For those with a more free-spirited floor plan where the sofa isn't placed up against a wall, you'll want to position the sofa further onto the rug and size up for good measure. It's helpful to place the rug in conversation with something that feels proportional in the layout of the room whether that's a chaise lounge in the corner or an oversized lantern hanging from the ceiling.

Moving into the bedroom, it's all about being where your feet are. If you're looking for a rug to go under the bed with its edges fanning out into the room, you'll want around two to three feet of rug on either side of the bed in order to cover your spatial bases. If you have a Queen bed (don't forget to consider the frame) an 8x10 rug is a good place to start. For a King, you'll need at least 9x12.

Then of course, there's always the crowd favorite: the puzzle piece approach where in place of one large area rug, you play with an arrangement of two or three smaller, runner-sized rugs and configure them around the foot and on either side of the bed. This opens up a world of stylistic cross-pollination where you can mix and match different, yet complimentary designs. This works for communal spaces as well, nearly perfected in the living room below inside Georgia O'Keefe's former desert home.

For a dining room, you want to consider the travel paths of furniture more than ever, understanding that chairs will need to scooch out comfortably from the table while not falling outside of the rug's perimeter. If the latter does happen, your guests will take the rug with them every time they push in their chair; an amusing party trick but not so suave.

For spaces that might be better suited for a lighter touch, a runner that stretches alongside the length of the table is a clever way to add texture without consuming too much of your floorspace.