What size rug for our family room?

My Domino Book of Decorating tells me that I should leave 10 to 20cm of bare floor on all sides of the rug, and that all four legs of a sofa should be on or off the rug...

However, due to the location of our sliding doors, we have to push the sofa pretty much against the wall... And because the width of the wall facing the sofa isn't as long as I'd like it to be, we have to push the side sofa as close to the sliding door as possible. Gahhhh!

So, the question is, what would be the optimal size for a rug?

I am aware that most rug only come in standard sizes, but for now I am just dreaming and would like to see what the perfect size would be 
This is our family room, and there will eventually be a rug and ottoman, and maybe some other light and very portable seating... 

To me the top left is the most practical, as I would ideally like the rug to NOT be in the walking path of the main sliding door. But this option doesn't exactly balance the rest of the room out, does it?

I also like the look of the cowhide rug, but it would mean that it there would be a lot of traffic over it and I will probably get tempted to wash it myself, and will end up destroyed in no time :( ... Also, I am worried that cowhide rugs have been over done, and I am also worried about offending anyone... Hmmm but then again it's ok that I've just ordered a leather sofa? Hmmmm


The bottom two look a bit silly though...

Can't wait to read your suggestions.

Here is the floor plan for those who don't remember what our floor plan looks like:

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Timeless RUG patterns... Is there such a thing?

I feel as if the patterns I like have been "in" for some time now, and wonder if they were/are a fad and will be completely "out" by the time I am ready to buy some rugs.

Which of these rug patterns, if any, do you think are timeless?

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What's your take on WOOL rugs?

Do you prefer wool or synthetic rugs?

I would like to have area rugs in the formal lounge, family and home office (for a start) and would prefer wool... But.... (there is always a but) I am concerned about shedding :(

How long does shedding normally last? After a certain number of vacuums ..... or does it never really stop?

Both images are from rugsusa.com

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The Story of a Room: A Change of Plans

If you are just tuning in check out the intro to this series here. 

Since we already had the majority of the fabric and furniture we decided to start with the rug.  My client and I went back and forth with rug ideas for awhile. I probably have 10 emails back and forth between her and I all with different rug combos. She felt like something in the room just wasn't right and we were both hoping the rug would be the piece to tie it all together. 

We talked about layering a hide on top of another rug which seemed to be the plan for awhile. Then my client found this rug from Williams Sonoma Home. 

It was really beautiful and the blues tied in the chairs perfectly. 

Here is another image of it at night. I wasn't completely sold on it but I think she was for awhile. 

She also decided that the coffee table wasn't really her favorite. She was thinking of something more simple along the lines of this. In the meantime I had fallen in love with it so she sold it to me! You may remember that from this post. It was a match made in heaven for me. I have loved it ever since. 

So now with the new rug this was the new board for the room. 

She had also purchased a couple of side tables from Kohls for a great deal. It was starting to come together!

Just as we thought we were making progress my client had a change of heart about her sofa. Although it was very beautiful it just wasn't comfortable or deep enough. She and her husband got a great deal on a deep leather sofa from Alice Lane and so suddenly we had a new sofa to work with!

You can get a feel for how dark and deep it is. Here is the new board with the new sofa. As I work with clients I like to update the mood board as often as possible so we are getting a feel for the room in it's entirety.

The new sofa brought on a new issue. We needed to lighten up this room big time! There was a lot of brown going on.

We decided to add board and batten to the walls. I sent her this picture by Lisman Studios as inspiration for the wall.

Here is a progress shot of the back wall. 

 It lightened up the room considerably. 

At this point we had a new sofa, we needed a new coffee table and just when we thought we had the room and color scheme figured out my client had a revelation.

This room just wasn't going in the direction she wanted. She felt like something wasn't quite right.

She really wanted more green and more white and in her own words this is how she wanted the room to feel, "clean, classic, comfortable, light, with some crusty vintage and FUN thrown in there". So we set out to come up with an entirely new design plan...


 Stay tuned tomorrow for The Story of a Room: The Room Reinvented.