Thanks annie. I'm considering a rug for the living room but want a no legs on rug look. I was going to ask that question here but now you have posted the answer.

Interesting Annie. And I break the rules living in a smaller home. Rules wouldn't work for hallways, traffic areas, etc. My home would look like a sea of rugs. Which is most likely why I prefer the images showing furniture partially on the rug rather than all on a rug.

Use large rugs in my LR to define the living space. Furniture lands on the edges and have not measured from the walls, it is more of a comfort level as to the look. Would guess though that the rug falls into the 18" rule.....accidentally.
The BR measurements were a plus regarding placement under/around the bed.

No kitchen or bath info. The rules would be broken for work/use areas?

OT - Not using the standard bath rug which I have always considered too small and lacking in design. Plus the rubber backing either doesn't do the job or starts to wear off over a short time since I always felt the need to wash them often. Have wood floors throughout. To keep moisture off of the bath wood I use Yoga mats under rugs. Easily cut to size, even using more than one for a larger rug and no slipping around or moisture issues. They even stand up to washing. Can use any rug wanted in there.

What is your take on some of the rules for skirting around them?

Thanks Annie. This helps a lot.
In our last house our natural cherry floors took a terrible beating because I didn't have a rug under our bkfast room table. Even with pads on the legs of the chairs, the floor got all scraped up. I've been trying to find out how big I need the rug for our new build, given that I just bought a 54" round table. Dh has been refinishing it, taking off years of build up of Old English. It's down to the mahogany now and he's applying Watco oil finish - and it's gorgeous!
Anyway, using their formula of 24" around table it looks like I need an 8' square or round rug. It'll just fit in the space.

Will check out your link Annie, but just wanted tp say that technicolor's yoga mat idea is brilliant!

Annie, thanks so much for posting this. Geesh I used several rules. No wonder I think it looks not quite right. I wanted to use multiple rugs but they don't make my rug anymore.

The one I just don't agree with is the one about no legs on the rug being okay. Just my own pet peeve, but without any legs on any part of the rug, it just seems to float there without anything anchoring it, and to me, it automatically makes the rug appear too small. Again, I'm not saying it should or shouldn't be a "rule"... But it's *my* rule!

We just bought a new oriental rug for our living room and went from a 9x12, which had all legs on the rug to a 7x9, which has only the front sofa legs and the two chairs that flank the sofa on the rug. I did away with a long runner at the front of the room and an area rug at the back of the room. I love seeing more of the hardwood floors.

We went for a lighter look and love it.

At one point, I was living in a "studio" apartment that was 40 feet by 20 feet. It had started life as a ballroom, and had a 16 foot high barrel vaulted ceiling.

I used large area rugs to define spaces--a huge rug for the living room, a slightly smaller one for the dining area, and smaller ones for the "home office" and bedroom areas. Pretty much all the furniture was completely on the rugs and it looked very nice.

But the space sort of demanded something large scale. Smaller rugs would just not have looked right. I'm still using the large living room rug in my current living room, where it extends to about 18 inches from the walls, except in the bay window.

Like sueb20, the one look I'm not fond of is all the legs off the rug, when the rug is a small rectangle in the midst of all the furniture. I can't help but think of animals in the wild, all coming up to the water hole, but afraid to be the first one to go down and get their feet wet. But that's mostly in living rooms. In other, smaller rooms, like a study or bedroom, it doesn't bother me so much.