Sometimes you need an area rug to hide unattractive floors, deter below neighbours from hearing you walk, or make your home feel cosy without spending much.
We interviewed experts, researched hundreds of area rugs, and tested them with panelists for over 60 hours. We then put our feet on our favorites at home and let a cat shred them for hours.
Out of 42 carpets we evaluated, we recommend 16 with varied sizes, colors, and patterns. Flatwoven, low-pile, and high-pile rugs are available for various uses and décor styles.
You may not love all of the carpets in this list, but there are several that can help you choose. We ask design experts about rug sizes, patterns, and colors for high- and low-traffic areas, and how to choose a rug that will work in your living space.
Our picks
After testing, our recommended rugs felt best underfoot. We each had different stylistic preferences, but we agreed that some rugs had well-executed patterns and motifs and others looked like terrible print jobs. Some of our favourites performed better in stain and cat-claw testing. In this guide, we discuss how each rug performed in our tests, which rooms they work best in, and how much shipping costs when buying online.
No fibres protrude from flatweave carpets. They’re a good cheap rug for a large size or high-traffic area. A good flatweave will cost less than a pile rug and be easier to maintain. Flatweaves are easy to vacuum and clean with a damp cloth since they trap less dirt than pile rugs. Cotton rag rugs are machine-washable. Most stains are reversible.
Kitchens, dining rooms, and playrooms benefit from flatwoven rugs, which are easy to move chairs on and give a strong foundation for a block tower. Softer ones work in bedrooms. Start with a flatweave then add a few smaller high-pile or shag rugs to warm the room.
Adding a thick rug pad can turn these rugs from kitchen rugs to bedroom carpets. A thick rug cushion makes a flatwoven rug bouncy and softens a hard surface. On bare floors or on a thin antislip liner, your feet will feel every rug bump.
Without a pad, flatweaves can slip and be dangerous. This rug doesn’t hide stains as well as a higher-pile rug.
Safavieh Rag Rug
Ideal for kitchen, dining room
Why it’s excellent: Rag rugs are machine washable and look fantastic with loose yarns or worn patches, making them ideal for kitchens. Safavieh’s hand-woven rag rugs are comfortable to walk on, cheaper than most, and come in a variety of colours and sizes. Due to the multicoloured yarns (or rags), most tiny stains blend in. Flipping or washing this rug is easy, however the 8-by-10 versions may require a trip to the laundrette for their enormous washers. I
t’s the cheapest kitchen choice we looked at, so if you break it, it’s easy to replace. This multicolour rug has held up nicely for one of our editors since 2015—only a few yarns have pulled out. The white one has held up nicely in a kitchen for two years; Shannon washes it every two weeks to maintain the colour. Amazon often sells Safavieh area rugs at lower costs, but the selection is limited. Target and Walmart sell a unique variation with a white speckled centre and a dramatic gray-to-hot pink border.
Fails but not dealbreakers: This soft rug is thinner and bumpier underfoot than many flatweaves, so use a thick rug pad. This rug may shrink after washing; one editor noted that her runner shrank a few inches (even with air-drying), so consider shrinkage when selecting the right size. Since the rug has a loose weave, another editor found that it twisted with the weight of an office chair and a cat clawing at it.
Available sizes: 2’x3′, 2’6″x4″, 2’3″x5″, 3’x5″, 4’x4″, 4’x6′, 6’x6′, 5’x8′, 6’x9′, 8’x10′, 9’x12′.
Material: 100% cotton
Blue, ivory, purple, ink, yellow, multi, grey, turquoise.
Free to $5 shipping
Revival Hart Jute Rug
Ideal for dining areas, kitchens, corridors, and living rooms and bedrooms.
The Revival Hart Jute Rug is a terrific natural fibre alternative for under a dining table, as a hallway runner, or layered with other rugs in a living room for a more cushioned effect. We enjoy that the jute is soft and scarcely sheds, unlike thicker and bumpier carpets. Due to its flexibility and fine weaving, the Hart Jute Rug seems fragile and flat.
Jute is known for its natural, unbleached tan colour, but the rug comes in eight additional colours. The Hart Jute Rug lacks padding like a flatweave, but a rug pad can help. The 5-by-8-foot size was easy to vacuum and lightweight enough to shake out outside for deeper cleaning under a dining table and in a kitchen. You can spot clean with water, but jute is sensitive to water and humidity, so avoid overwetting.
Flaws but not dealbreakers: Two of our jute rug’s corners continued curling up for two months, even after we placed weights and bent it in the other direction. Revival’s advise to bend and roll the corner finally worked. Most Revival carpets arrive softly folded, so expect creases when you unpack them. After two weeks, most of these creases faded save for the corners curling.
2′ by 3′, 3′ by 5′, 4′ by 6′, 5′ by 8′, 6′ by 9′, 7′ by 7′, 8′ by 10′, 9′ by 12′, 10′ by 14′, 12′ by 16′, 2.5′ by 9′, 2.5′ by 12′, round, and custom sizes
Jute: 100% natural.
Black, terracotta, olive, teal, sienna, navy, grey, tan, light.
Best for dining, living, bedroom, kitchen, kids, and bedroom
Our testers loved these flatweave rugs for their unique designs. This collection has the most colours and patterns (solid, striped, geometric) we’ve seen. Despite their lack of pile, these carpets are softer than other flatweaves we’ve examined. Our testers found the weave tighter and less rough than the multicoloured rag rug.
These flatweaves withstand wear. Since 2016, they’ve held up well in a kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom and show dirt less than other polyester-cotton blends (Polyester carpets adore catching grime and pet hair, Lisa Wagner says on Rug Chick). Jessica Probus, author of Home Decor Cheat Sheets: Need-to-Know Stuff for Stylish Living, said these carpets’ subtle geometric patterns hide marks and stains. For spill-prone areas like the kitchen or dining room, you can machine wash them, but bigger ones must be laundromat-washed.
Flaws but not major issues. A former staff writer said one of these rugs pilled initially. The firm gave her a refund and allowed her keep the rug after she complained. After moving it from the living room to her bedroom, a lower-traffic location, and washing it twice, the problem went away. Remember pilling may occur.
Sizes: 2’x3′, 3’x5″, 5’x8′, 8’6″x11′, 2’6″x9′, 3′ and 6′ round (for braided carpets).
Material: 85% cotton, 12% polyester, 3% others
Colours: many patterns and colours
Why it’s great: We observed many rugs with uninteresting or loud patterns. Dash & Albert Herringbone Woven Cotton Rug is fascinating and modest, like Goldilocks. Ocean, dove grey, stone, and coral are neutral but more interesting than cream or blue. The delicate herringbone design hides minor stains and imperfections.
Despite being less soft than some of our other flatweaves, our testers liked this rug’s little roughness underfoot. Since 2017, one of our editors with a young child and dog has used this rug and remarked, “It’s been pretty solid. It gets a lot of wear from being in one of the apartment’s most trafficked locations, but the snags aren’t evident. Design hides dirt and stains, and material is easy to clean.”
Flaws but not dealbreakers: This carpeting is light-colored and white. It’s not good for high-traffic areas or rooms where kids and pets track dirt or eat food. It costs more than most of the rugs we reviewed for this article. This rug shrank about 10% in the washer and dryer, like the other carpets we cleaned this manner. Dash & Albert recommends hand washing or expert cleaning. To prevent slippage, we recommend a rug pad for most flatweave rugs.
Sizes: 2′ by 3′, 2.5′ by 8′, 2.5′ by 12′, 4′ by 6′, 6′ by 9′, 8′ by 10′, 9′ by 12′ (swatches available)
Material: 100% cotton
Swedish blue, indigo, ocean, citrous, dove grey, stone, coral, sky.
Safavieh Ramona Rug
Ideal for living room, bedroom
Why we love it: The Safavieh Ramona Rug is softer than the other flatweaves we tried and easier to vacuum than a pile rug. It works well in bedrooms and other places where you walk barefoot. The olive diamond design is modest but fascinating, and in our tests, it distracted from filth and a poorly cleaned wine spill at a party.
The threads are loose enough for a cat to pull at, and one tester said they seemed like they would fall apart. After using our test rug since 2017, one of our staffers observed that her dog running laps on it had ripped out some threads. Some colours also seem old. The Ramona shrank similarly to the other rugs we cleaned after washing and drying.
Dimensions: 2’6″ x 4′, 2’3″ x 7′, 3′ x 5′, 4′ x 6′, 6′ x 6′, 5′ x 8′, 2’3″ x 7′, 8′ x 10′, 9′ x 12′
Material: 100% cotton
Colours: orange, blue, olive, brown, grey
IKEA Stockholm
Ideal for living room
Why it’s great: The IKEA Stockholm was one of the few cheap rugs we liked that was mostly wool (cotton warp and weft and wool surface). We liked this rug in an IKEA store better than any other flatwoven big rug under $500. It is softer than other budget wool rugs we tried and has a wonderful price. The black-and-white-striped Stockholm is the most popular of its five patterns on design blogs. According to Apartment Therapy, this design adds colour and flair to traditional antique-filled interiors. If you live near an IKEA shop, you can buy this rug in person.
Flaws but not dealbreakers: The wool will shed at first, so vacuum it often. We found the striped version in an IKEA showroom dirty from foot traffic. In a home with plenty of kid traffic (or even without a no-shoes-inside policy), we’d avoid the black-and-white variant. It feels harsher than our other favourite flatweaves.
Available sizes: 5’7″ x 7’10” and 8’2″ x 11’6″.
Cotton and wool
Safavieh Juliette Rug
Ideal for living room, bedroom
Why it’s great: The Safavieh Juliette Rug is a good IKEA Stockholm alternative. It’s softer than the Stockholm and comes in more sizes, which testers loved. You can wash it because it’s cotton.
Despite being all-cotton, this rug sucked up a lot of fibre the first few times we vacuumed it. The rug looks beachier due to its smaller stripes than the Stockholm. White spots make this carpeting more stain-prone and filthy. Not all colours are available in all sizes. Like other cotton carpets, this one shrinks somewhat when dried.
Sizes available: 2’3″ x 7′, 4’6″ x 6′, 5’6″ x 7′, 8
Material: 100% cotton
Light blue, blue, grey, grey
Burrow Cape House Rug
Ideal for living room, bedroom, office
Why it’s great: The Burrow Cape House rug’s contemporary, neutral pattern evokes hygge—cozy, snug, warm, and welcoming—making it a good choice. The heathered chevron pattern is subtle like a favourite sweater. Despite its conspicuous loops, the tightly woven rug withstood cat claws and a few “I don’t remember the cat eating that!”cleanup occurrences, keeping up to its low-maintenance, easy-to-clean floor covering reputation. Due to its thick weave, the rug wasn’t excessively silky or slippery like some polyester rugs.
Flaws but not dealbreakers: Like most flatweave rugs, the Cape House rug works best with a rug pad to prevent slippage. You can add Burrow’s rug pad to your order when choosing a size.
5′ x 8′, 8′ x 10′
Made of 100% recycled polyester
Chevron heathered grey
Revival Cotton Washable Rug
Ideal for dining, living, bedroom, kitchen, and kids’ room
Why it’s great: Revival’s flatwoven machine-washable cotton carpets are thicker and softer than thinner synthetic rugs like our Ruggable selection. They are 100% cotton, have numerous patterns, and are easy to wash like other flatweaves. We tested the Holding – Taupe 3′ x 5′ rug, and while the colours faded after a few washes, it held up nicely after several months.
This rug is better for kitchens and high-traffic areas by itself or with a thin rug pad, but could work well in bedrooms and living rooms for a more cushioned surface with a thick rug pad. We discovered that most Revival carpets faded after a few weeks, even if they arrive folded. Revival makes denim and recycled polyester washable rugs, but we have not tried them.
Flaws but not dealbreakers: The rug we tested was 3 feet by 5 feet, and while it washed well and fit in a standard top-loading washer (like most cotton flatweaves), cotton is heavier when wet, so washing anything 6′ x 9′ or larger may be difficult or require a larger washer.
3′ by 5′, 4′ by 6′, 5′ by 7′, 6′ by 9′
Material: 100% cotton
Multiple neutral earth tones and designs.
Low pile
Low-pile rugs have yarns that usually extend up to ¼ inch from the rug’s backing. The surface is flat and supportive but also provides more cushioning than a flatweave rug. They’re fantastic for dining rooms since you can slide chairs around on them, but bare feet will also have a pleasant surface to rest on. Low-pile rugs work well in kids rooms, since they’re soft enough for youngsters to roll around on and are often easier to clean than higher-pile rugs. (Low-pile rugs are typically found in schools.) These rugs will also benefit from a thick rug pad.
Ruggable Quadra Teal Rug
Best for: lower-foot-traffic areas like kid playrooms, bedrooms, living rooms, and where heavy furniture won’t sit on them (so they can be easily removed for washing)
Why it’s great: Ruggable rugs are unlike any other option we tested, offering a two-piece design that combines the appearance of a traditional floor rug with some of the feel and function of carpet tiles. The Quadra Teal design we tested is Ruggable’s main type of rug, which they call a chenille rug. It comes in many color and design options. Ruggable’s Classic Low Pile rugs are only ⅛-inch thick (thinner than most low-pile rugs), so they can more easily be thrown into the average-size washing machine.
This system consists of a rug pad and a rug topper (the “topper” is the actual rug), which is not unlike the setup we recommend for most of our picks, but with Ruggable rugs the pad is not optional. The Standard rug pad is ⅛-inch thick and made of polyester and thermoplastic rubber, similar to a yoga mat. The Cushioned pad is about twice as thick as the Standard (⅖-inch thick) and much more supportive. The thin water-resistant rug topper, made of polyester, then attaches securely to the pad.
When the topper is combined with the thinner Standard pad, the result is a low-pile rug that looks and feels more like carpet tiles—firm, but comfortable—than something we’d call cozy. Still, for spaces where the everyday thrills of spills are a reality of life, Ruggable’s design makes a strong argument for compromising a little comfort for hard wearing convenience.
Our smaller 3-by-5-foot sample on the Standard pad also proved to be a pretty good workout mat, sufficiently cushioned and nonslip for cardio, and never exhibiting any pilling. We also tested one of their shag rugs, which we were not a big fan of (more info in our Competition section). In 2022, we found that people on staff who used their Ruggable topper with the thicker Cushioned pad were much happier with their setup. The Cushioned pad is more expensive but we think most people will be happier with a more supportive and cushioned rug.
In 2023, Ruggable added Premium Medium Pile rugs, which are just over ¼-inch thick (7mm). Compared with the ⅛-inch (2mm) Classic Low Pile, the Premium rug feels more substantial and plush underfoot. Paired with the thicker Cushioned rug pad, this rug feels even more thick and luxurious. The surface still has that synthetic, slippery feel that most polyester rugs have, but if you like a thick rug and prefer being able to throw it in the washing machine, we think it’s worth the upgrade.
The Premium Medium Pile rug isn’t available in as many sizes or styles as the Classic, but Ruggable said it will continue to expand the line. It was tricky fitting the 6-by-9-foot Premium version we tested in our standard, 4.5-cubic-foot washer, but it was still possible. Keep sizing in mind for anything above 5 by 7 feet, or if you have a smaller washing machine.
Flaws but not dealbreakers: The rug we tested laid flat almost immediately upon unrolling, but one side remained curled every so slightly before we used a kettlebell to press the stubborn corners into place. In 2022 we received feedback from several people on staff who own Ruggables that curling and edges lifting up was a widespread issue, especially in high-traffic areas like hallways and kitchens (which we expand on in our piece on Ruggables).
Ruggable claims it started rolling out a redesigned rug in September 2021 that helps with the curling issue, but we haven’t tested the new version yet. People on staff who use their rugs in low-traffic areas—where activity is centered in the middle of the rug rather than around the edges, like playrooms and kids’ bedrooms—are still very happy with theirs, so for now that’s where we recommend using them. Our original tester rug from 2019 is still holding up great, even after dozens of washes. In some instances we found the rug can sound a little squeaky as it acclimates to a space, but the sound fades with time and use as the pad compresses.
Sizes: 2.5′ by 7′, 2.5′ by 10′, 3′ by 5′, 5′ by 7′, 6′ by 9′, 8′ by 10′, 9′ by 12′, 6′ round, 8′ round
Materials: polyester with a polyurethane water-resistant barrier, thermoplastic rubber pad
Colors: wide variety of colors and patterns
Shipping: free (excluding Hawaii, Alaska, and the US territories)
Lowe’s Pebble Path Carpet Tile
Best for: kitchen, dining room, kids room
Why it’s great: If you need to cover ugly flooring—say, linoleum in your living room—on a bare-bones budget, these Lowe’s indoor/outdoor rug tiles are a great option. They cost less per square foot than any other rug we tested and are similar to the popular Flor tiles (though not as design conscious, they cost only a fifth of the price).
You can easily install them in any configuration, thanks to peel-and-stick backing. Though they are thinner than Flor’s indoor/outdoor offerings, the texture is comparable: rough, but also a little cushy underfoot. The tiles are great for an area that sees high traffic from accident-prone kids or pets—if you damage a tile, you can simply remove and replace it. The adhesive should be easy to wipe off the floor with a cleaning solution (your mileage may vary depending on the surface you’re adhering to).
Flaws but not dealbreakers: These tiles look and feel industrial—like something you’d find in an office building or an elementary school. They won’t add the same unifying coziness to a room that other rugs will, and of everything we’re recommending here, they’re the roughest. Because they are tiles, they don’t have the finished edge most rugs do and will look best covering a space wall-to-wall. We’d hesitate to use these in a bedroom or living room.
Sizes: The square-foot-size tiles (which you can cut smaller for fine-tuning) allow you to make this rug any size you want it to be.
Material: polyester
Colors: black, oatmeal, chestnut, ocean blue, denim, taupe, ivory, olive, mocha, sky gray
Persian Area Rugs 3028 Moroccan Trellis Area Rug
Ideal for living room, bedroom
Why it’s great: Of all the lower-budget options we tested, the Persian Area Rugs 3028 Moroccan Trellis Area Rug was our favorite. At just a few cents more per square foot than the Lowe’s tiles, it’s the second-cheapest rug that we like—and it’s softer than other rugs at a similar price. It will make a living room or bedroom instantly look more homey and cozy without costing you a lot. It’s slightly cushy but not pillow comfy.
We found that cat barf was easy to clean off the light-gray version. Amazon reviewers agree that it’s a good buy: “What an incredible rug for the price,” writes one. “It’s nice and fluffy and the color is exactly as advertised.” After some new testing in 2020, Gregory found that it was the ideal rug to do workouts on while quarantining at home, since shedding was almost nonexistent. Like our original testers, he also found it was one of the easiest rugs to clean while taking care of a sick cat at home.
Flaws but not dealbreakers: After using the light-gray version in a living room for five months, we found that it needed regular vacuuming to look nice, and that even small dark stains stood out. According to rug cleaner Lisa Wagner, this tends to be a problem with low-pile polypropylene rugs.
Sizes: 4′ by 5′, 5′ by 7′, 6′ by 9′, 8′ by 11′
Material: 100% polypropylene
Colors: brown, turquoise, gray, charcoal, orange
IKEA Hovslund
Best for: living room, bedroom, kids room
Why it’s great: The pattern on IKEA’s Hovslund looks similar to that of the Persian Area Rugs 3028 Moroccan Trellis, but it’s easier to clean and not as prone to stains. It is, however, also not as soft. Gray is a great neutral color for a rug, according to design experts we spoke to: It hides dirt and is a little more interesting than khaki or white. The white pattern on the Hovslund adds a bit of dimension, as well, without commanding too much attention.
Flaws but not dealbreakers: Although the white lines will show a stain more easily than the gray, they are thin, so a stain or a small color change from dirt won’t stand out as easily as it would on a rug with more white area. The super-low pile is made of nylon—which makes this rug easy to wipe down with a cloth.
Sizes: 6′7″ by 9′10″ and 2′7″ by 6′7″
Materials: 100% polypropylene, synthetic rubber backing
Colors: dark gray with cream lattice pattern
Shipping: $10 to $100, depending on location
Higher pile
.
Consider rugs with higher pile for areas of your home where you want a more comfortable surface, such as a bedroom, a living room, or an area where babies and kids might crawl around. Rugs with fibers longer than ¼ inch are considered medium pile, while those over ½ inch are high pile; those taller than ¾ inch are considered plush or shag. The higher the pile, the cushier and softer a rug will be—and the harder to clean.
Shag rugs, in particular, can make a room feel cozy, interior designer and author Jessica Probus noted. But they’re also great at trapping dirt—of all the budget rugs, they can hang on to crumbs, sand, and hair the most. According to rug cleaner Lisa Wagner, polypropylene tends to attract oil more than a material like wool. These rugs also require regular steam cleaning to keep them looking decent.
We like these rugs best in small doses: at the foot of a piece of furniture to support bare feet, for example, or as an accent rug in a playroom to create a soft spot where kids can lie down with a book.
Though high-pile and shag rugs are straightforward stylewise, we wouldn’t purchase one ourselves online unless we had seen and felt it in person first, or had a good recommendation for one. The majority of these rugs that we put our hands and feet on had dry, scratchy polypropylene fibers, a design that spaced the fibers too thinly and made the rug feel flat rather than plush, or both.
Revival Ombre Wool Rug
Best for: bedroom, living room, kids room
Why it’s great: Revival’s Ombre Wool Rug is plush, soft, and almost silky—the type of area rug we imagine most people want in rooms where comfort and warmth are paramount. Of all the rugs we tested, this rug offered the most supple and pleasant feeling to walk on. It would work great near a bed or in a living room where kids can play around.
The rug is made of 100% wool with a cotton backing and has a medium pile (around ⅓ inch thick). We didn’t notice any unpleasant off-gassing, and it was fairly easy to spot-clean with some water and wool-friendly detergent. Unlike other rugs that ship rolled, Revival rugs arrive folded in a cardboard box. The faint creases from shipping were barely noticeable and faded after about a week.
Flaws but not dealbreakers: Everything we like about this plush, soft rug may be a drawback in high-traffic situations. Like most wool rugs, it pills and is probably best in “no shoes inside” households, but we found the pilling did subside after the first few months. It’s a more delicate rug than a flatweave or polyester rug, and you need to get it professionally hand-washed every 3 to 5 years depending on your use (we also have more in-depth rug cleaning advice). Also, because of its deeper pile, you need a powerful vacuum to get dirt out from its depths (but avoid the rotary vacuum attachment). Revival also has more detailed rug care advice you can follow.
Sizes: 4′ by 6′, 5′ by 8′, 6′ by 9′, 8′ by 10′, 9′ by 12′, 10′ by 14′, 2′5″ by 9′, and custom sizes
Materials: 100% wool with 100% cotton backing
Colors: ombre red and orange, ombre taupe and pink, ombre green and yellow, ombre gray and blue
Safavieh Milan Shag
Best for: bedroom, kids room
Why it’s great: The Safavieh Milan Shag feels amazing underfoot: “SO PLUSH!” wrote one of our testers. Of the six shag rugs we tested, this rug was one of our favorite budget shags. Unlike on the other shag rugs we tried out, the fibers are both close together and soft, not dry.
Flaws but not dealbreakers: The fibers are long—2 inches—and particularly prone to trapping dirt. Even after our vacuum test, this rug held on to a lot of quinoa from our “dirt” test. This shag rug is great for the price, but if you think you want something extra soft and plush, consider the Hay Raw rug, a more luxurious (but expensive) shag option. If you’re not sure, consider ordering a small size to test it out first.
Sizes: 2′ by 4′, 2′ by 6′, 2′ by 8′, 2′ by 10′, 2′ by 12′, 2′ by 14′, 3′ by 5′, 5′1″ square, 4′ by 6′, 5′1″ by 8′, 6′ by 9′, 8′ by 10′, 8′6″ by 12′, 10′ by 14′, 7′ round, 5′1″ round
Materials: primarily polypropylene with jute backing
Colors: aqua, brown, dark beige, dark gray, gray, ivory, navy, purple, red (some colors not available in all dimensions)
What good inexpensive rugs cost
Rugs can cost a lot. At the extreme, a fine Persian rug could cost tens of thousands. But even at stores like Crate and Barrel and West Elm, you can easily pay more than a thousand dollars for a large rug. A hand-constructed rug made of wool, rug cleaner Lisa Wagner told us, could easily be $20 per square foot—and sometimes much more—with bargain prices for used wool rugs hovering around $10 per square foot. That’s the kind of rug you’ll keep for decades, shelling out even more money in between for people like Wagner to work their magic and make it look like new again.
But even the best rugs in this class won’t last a decade-plus in a high-traffic area in your home.
The rugs we cover in this guide aren’t that expensive and are all available for purchase online. We capped the price at about $4 per square foot (though we made a few exceptions). This means that most of the rugs we recommend can be had in an 8-by-10-foot size for not much more than $300 (plus shipping) with only a few in the $400 and $500 range. “Cheap rugs have a purpose and use, just like cheap furniture does,” Wagner said.
They can look great—sometimes really great—for a few years. Maybe more if you’re careful. But even the best rugs in this class won’t last more than a decade in a high-traffic area in your home, or if you have kids and pets and the inevitable messes that come with them. These rugs are good choices as long as you know that when you’re making the purchase, they can be useful and look great for the time that you have them. Remember, though, that rebuying an inexpensive rug every few years adds up. Cheap materials can require steam cleanings a couple of times a year to look good.
Why you should trust us
The original author of this guide was Shannon Palus. Her first place out of college was a two-bedroom in South Philadelphia, with all linoleum floors. Shannon and her roommate scrambled to make the place look okay with as little money as possible. She spent those two years putting her feet on a lot of cheap rugs. Some were better than others, to put it kindly.
With those past rug purchases in mind, for this guide we set out to find what makes a great rug—even an inexpensive one. Shannon interviewed four experts on rugs and home design: Lisa Wagner, a second-generation rug cleaner and blogger at Rug Chick;
Elana Frankel, a design consultant who was formerly the vice president of creative at One Kings Lane and an editor at Martha Stewart Living; Rebecca Atwood, a Brooklyn-based designer and author of the book Living with Pattern; and Jessica Probus, currently at BuzzFeed, former interior designer and author of the book Home Decor Cheat Sheets: Need-to-Know Stuff for Stylish Living. We also consulted the design book Domino: Your Guide to a Stylish Home to learn tricks from pros Jessica Romm Perez and Shani Silver.
We sifted through editorial reviews and the websites of big-box stores and discount rug sellers, comparing the finer details of nearly a hundred rugs. We made trips to IKEA and ordered samples of more than two dozen rugs from a variety of retailers to put to a testing panel of nine people. For the 2020 update to this guide, Gregory Han called in four new rug styles, re-tested previous picks, and added long-term test notes to existing picks.
Gregory is a writer at Design Milk and the former managing home technology editor for Apartment Therapy. Gregory has been writing about home design and products since 2006 for a multitude of design-focused outlets, including Dwell, Metropolis, and Domino. For an update in 2022, supervising editor Daniela Gorny added long-term testing notes on several existing picks and tested four new rugs.
How we picked and tested
We sifted through hundreds of rugs on discount home-decorating sites like Wayfair and Overstock, as well as on Amazon. We checked out the offerings from retailers such as Crate and Barrel, Pier 1 Imports, Target, Walmart, and West Elm, too. Yet per the advice of second-generation rug cleaner Lisa Wagner, we remained skeptical of the price of rugs from big-box stores, because such rugs are often made of the same materials as much cheaper counterparts on discount sites.
Materials: We mostly looked at rugs made of nylon, cotton, wool, polypropylene, polyester, and blends thereof. Polypropylene rugs won’t last as long, but they’re less expensive than rugs made from other materials.
Weave: We considered flatwoven, low-pile, and higher-pile rugs. Flatweaves are great for high-traffic areas because they’re relatively smooth and easy to clean. Rugs with pile—or fibers sticking up out of the rug’s backing—are generally more padded and better for living areas and bedrooms. Our picks skew toward flatwoven rugs because they tend to be less expensive.
Size: We heard again and again that a primary rug for a room should be big—large enough for all the furniture in a room to at least partially sit on, according to interior designer and writer Jessica Probus. So we looked for rugs that were available in large sizes but still affordable.
Price: We loosely capped rug prices in our search at $500 for an 8-by-10-foot rug (but most of our picks fall in the $300 to $400 range). We didn’t find a huge difference in materials among rugs at that price and many of the offerings that cost twice as much, which included blends of nylon, cotton, and rayon. We fell in love with a couple of rugs that were a little pricier, but you can order swatches of those rugs online for a few dollars to confirm that you like their look and feel before committing.
Design: Experts we spoke to advised going with a more neutral rug as a base layer and then adding smaller accent rugs on top—the way you’d add a colorful throw pillow to a plain couch, Probus explained. We generally steered away from rugs that came in only a bold, distinctive design that would work for very specific tastes. Instead we favored rugs available in small sizes in bold colors, as well as larger sizes in neutral colors.
We originally called in samples of 38 rugs, all of which had positive owner reviews or came from a major retailer whose offerings we were interested in putting to the test. We were able to eliminate a couple of contenders immediately: one rug that felt more like a dish towel, and another that looked like a thin, faded ghost of a Persian rug.
We set the rest up in the Wire cutter office in New York City and had nine testers walk around on them and give us their thoughts on the feel and design of each rug. For the October 2020 update to this guide we called in four new rug styles, which our writer Gregory tested in his own L.A. home due to the pandemic. In the future, we plan to bring these new rugs into the office to get more feedback.
Experts we spoke to advised going with a more neutral rug as a base layer and then adding smaller accent rugs on top—the way you’d add a colorful throw pillow to a plain couch.
After that, we did a vacuum test. We made a mixture of dry quinoa, cinnamon, and crumbled toast that mimic common messes and are easily stuck in fibers, and then sprinkled it over a selection of the rugs of different pile heights. The primary thing we learned from this test was: Don’t spill dry quinoa on your floor. It was a huge pain to vacuum up off every kind of surface.
