Laying down an area rug is a great way to bring warmth, color and personality to any room in the home, especially those with hard floors that can benefit from a little softening. For this reason, a runner rug can make a great addition to your kitchen — yes, your kitchen — as long as you approach it the right way, and you’re OK with staying on top of any spills and splatters.
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A little bit of extra cushioning under the feet can make a big difference if you spend a lot of time standing in one spot chopping, stirring or even just chatting.
Of course, you’ll want to be prepared to react quickly to any drips, crumbs and splatters, so make sure you know how to deal with various food stains. There are other methods of handling spills as well, such as going with a flat-weave versus a shag rug and sticking to darker color palettes like red.
If you’re looking to add a splash of color to your kitchen, sometimes the options can be quite limited. Painting the cabinets a bold color can feel risky (especially for those highly concerned with resale value). And if you’re renting? Say goodbye to your damage deposit if you paint those white or wood cabinets fuchsia.
Instead, look to a slim runner rug as a design-savvy way to add a dose of vibrant color in whatever daring hue you choose.
The best part: You can always roll the rug up and tuck it away if you want to change your look for the season, creating summer and winter looks that feel dramatically different.
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Look for a few accessories that pull from the primary color in your rug and — ta-da — you’ve got a colorful kitchen you can live with.
Designers know that an important element to consider in any decor is pattern. Whether dramatic or subtle, a dose of pattern adds important energy and personality to a room, even without introducing any color.
In a transitional- or cottage-inspired home, look to rugs with a geometric pattern in a tone-on-tone palette to add some life while preserving a serene atmosphere.
For more traditional or eclectic appeal, look to complex ornamental patterns in time-tested palettes to add a sense of sophistication and maturity.
Look for a flat, dense weave. While a luxurious shag rug can be beautiful, it’s the kind of rug that’s hard enough to keep clean in a living room, let alone a kitchen. In a space where spills, crumbs and a lot of wear and tear are inevitable, your best bet is a tight, flat weave.
Look for a carpet that has short, dense fibers, which will essentially lock out soil and hold up to use.
One way to examine the density of a rug is to pick it up and bend it on the diagonal. If the rows of fibers are loosely spaced, the channels in between them will be revealed when bent, and these channels are where dirt can take up residence.
Polyester resists water well, making it a great choice for a short rug near the sink. However, polyester absorbs oils, meaning you’ll want to keep a polyester rug a good distance from a bubbling pot of spaghetti sauce.
Nylon doesn’t have as much trouble with oil as polyester does, but it has a bit of a tendency to fade in the sun. A nylon rug can work well tucked behind an island, where direct sunlight won’t hit it. Or you can embrace the fact that the color will change over time (more on that in a bit).
Synthetic rugs tend to be less of an investment than natural-fiber rugs, so they’re good if you’re looking for a price point that won’t be too painful when it’s time to replace the rug.
Keep in mind that a rug that resists water won’t save the floor below from major spills or cause dirt to vanish, so you’ll still want to react quickly to messes and give the rug regular gentle cleanings.
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Wool is perhaps the best overall material for a rug, being naturally hardy, comfortable and good at repelling soil. It also dyes well, allowing for rich hues. However, these properties come with a higher price tag than most synthetics.
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While it’s important to carefully consider the material of the rug, there are a few other strategic ways to extend the life of a rug in the kitchen.
Besides beautifying your home, bringing some pattern into your rug also helps disguise wear and tear, as well as the occasional small discoloration. This is especially true of rugs with a complex pattern that includes a variety of shapes on a smaller scale, as they can camouflage stains to some degree no matter the color.
You know what they say: If you can’t beat, ’em, join ’em. Two of the biggest culprits in kitchen stains are tomato sauce and red wine. If you have a bad spill (especially one that isn’t immediately detected), you may find a permanent red spot that can be cleaned but never fully erased. A rug that already focuses on shades of red is much less likely than a more subdued hue to show these vivid stains, so if you like these rich foods, consider brick reds or another dark color.
Rugs that are either true vintage or re-create the look with prefaded or -worn areas take the preciousness and fussiness out of the equation, starting you off with a look that’s already perfectly imperfect, so a little wear and tear won’t ruin anything.
Lastly, let’s talk about how to choose a rug’s size and placement. Luckily, it’s a lot harder to go wrong in a kitchen than in some other spaces, especially if you choose a runner that’s significantly longer than it is wide.
For more modern spaces or a very formal home, having the rug crisply line up with elements will give a tailored look, but in a more transitional or casual space there are really no rules on length.
To float in the middle widthwise between cabinets, the rug should fill about two-thirds to four-fifths of the space — usually meaning the rug is about 2½ to 3½ feet wide.
Having a rug sit a bit away from the counters will keep many drips and crumbs from actually reaching the rug — assuming they fall off the counter and aren’t flung.
As you can see here, this rug looks natural in scale, even though it’s far from being as wide as the island. If a rug seems a bit small once you get it home, consider tucking it up to one area as a visual fix.
Want to cover a large area? Don’t be afraid to combine several rugs in the same room or adjacent spaces. Choosing two rugs that pick up on similar palettes and shapes will help them connect, but they don’t necessarily have to be exactly the same to be beautiful together.
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Kitchens tend to have a lot of hard surfaces (cabinetry, counters, appliances and hardware), and they can benefit from the softness of rugs.
If your kitchen seems a little too much like a workspace, a soft, tactile rug can help it feel more like a welcoming part of the home, especially if you have rugs or carpeting in adjacent rooms.