By Katie Laughridge, Tribune News Service

Troy Warren for CNT #HomeGarden

Is there any better feeling than pulling up a swath of old carpet to find beautiful hidden wooden floors?

Besides being a gorgeous flooring choice, hardwood floors give us a wonderful, warm blank canvas to play with a wonderful New Traditional staple: rugs. It is my firm belief that a home isn’t complete without floor coverings. A rug can take a space from barren and chilly to warm and inviting.

Rugs complete a room by anchoring furniture to a specific area. With open floor plans being commonplace, it is especially important to be able to create groupings of furniture that feel like their own separate spaces. Placing a rug underneath your dining table or living room furniture gives your space a focal point — not to mention it protects against scrapes and bumps when furniture gets moved.

Besides protecting your floor from scratches (and your feet from touching the cold ground), rugs bring texture and interest to your spaces. Whether you want to leave a large swatch of natural floor uncovered or bring in the full rug experience (nothing wrong with a little or a lot) there is always something to gain from a floor covering. Rugs introduce fantastic color palettes to play with in your spaces. In fact, often rugs are so colorful and eye-catching that our designers plan entire rooms around them.

Don’t be afraid to layer your floor coverings. We are always looking for ways to add dimension to our rooms and floor coverings are a great place to start. A favorite is pairing a natural fiber rug (jute or sisal) with a beautiful vintage covering (or trendy pattern or fun shape — the options are limitless!). Layering floor coverings helps address pressing issues such as “this looks boring” or “this rug is too small for my space now that I’ve moved but I love it.” Ordering a custom sized sisal or jute rug to act as a base layer to your favorite rug is a fantastic way to add interest or fill an empty space.

There is a variety of ways to arrange your rugs once you find the ones you love. As a rule of thumb, try to either have all furniture sitting on our floor covering, or at least the front legs of all furniture sitting within the rug boundaries. This lets the floor covering do its job and anchor furniture together. However, there are always exceptions to a rule. For example, in bedrooms it is not uncommon to find two runners used in lieu of a traditional large rug.

With seemingly endless options, personal preference is key when choosing and placing a rug.