How to Choose the Best Rug for Summer

How about you take your area rugs game a notch higher? Perhaps become a trendsetter by installing a warm weather rug just in time for the summer.

If you like to switch things up and reinvent moods for your living room or bedroom at different times of the year, here’s a guide to help you choose the best rug for next summer. Let’s get down to it, shall we?

Why Buy a Warm Weather Rug for Summer?

Area rugs are timeless decorative pieces – traditional, modern, shag, Persian, or Oriental, they transform spaces and unify décor accessories. But do rugs make a room warmer? Beyond their aesthetic qualities, rugs with thick pile heights infuse warmth and coziness, while summer rugs – with low to medium pile height – keep rooms less stuffy, while improving the overall ventilation of the area on sunny days. This means that while thick pile area rugs are best for cold winter nights, the best rugs for summer are those with lesser pile heights.

Besides thickness preference, however, you must consider patterns, style, color, and materials if you plan to get your home ready with trendy and affordable area rugs. After all, you don't want to keep a dull flat weave rug that will wash down those beautiful wall arts and tasteful pieces of furniture in your home. Let’s dig further.

Choosing the Best Rug for Summer

1. Summer Rug Styles

There’s almost one rug style that fits every lighting and furniture style out there. This means there are countless rug styles for different seasons and times of the year. In recent times, area rug lovers and home décor experts have broken free from the traditional Oriental and Persian rugs. The trend is set to continue for a long period and this summer will tap greatly from it. So, in place of buying traditional rug styles for next summer, you should consider contemporary and modern rug styles that are heavy on abstract, floral, and geometric designs.

Summer’s no time to stick to boring color rug styles, and with the right pile height, modern and transitional area rugs will certainly give your space that lively summer aura. A great place to start is shopping through Luxe Weavers’ impressive collection of 100% modern and keenly priced polypropylene rugs.

Still, your rugs should not necessarily match every décor piece in your room. Instead, try unifying all accessories through textures and tones.

2. Summer Rug Colors

Choosing a fitting summer rug color will dictate the entire ambiance of your space. You must consider the colors and combinations you’d be glad to live with, beyond summer. If your old pieces of furniture have nude or neutral dominant colors, then you may want to buy a floral bright-colored low or medium pile area rug to spice things up. Warm-colored home accessories and furniture will blend perfectly with intricately designed modern abstract area rugs. The idea here is to choose a rug color that either stands out or blends with other decorative pieces you have in your home.

3. Summer Rug Patterns

Like it or not, it is not only pleasing to blend patterned and plain accessories in your room, but also the right thing to do if you have to keep the balance between a boring and excessively busy ambiance. For instance, if your furniture and walls have solid colors, remember to add a densely patterned abstract or geometric warm weather rug to your budget. On the other hand, a solid color summer rug fits nicely into rooms where the furniture, wall, and other home décor accessories have multiple patterns and designs. Your rug, in this case, will introduce a calming effect.

Summer rug runners with irregular geometric patterns for your kitchen would be delightful too, especially if you’ll be having visitors over and doing a lot of cooking during that period. 

In all these, if you are planning a total revamp of your living room, bedroom, or dining or kitchen area, you’d be playing it safe by first deciding the style and color that you and your guests will find amusing. Whatever style ticks your fancy, make sure there’s a fine contrast between your summer rugs and the colors of your walls, art pieces, and other accessories in your space. Also, patterned rugs usually have multiple colors or different shades of a particular color. So, it's best to choose color themes through the dominant color of your rug before you go ahead to decorate other parts of your room.

4. Summer Rug Sizes

Area rugs 8x10, Area rugs 9x12 add exquisiteness to living rooms and bedrooms. They also introduce topnotch coziness, fill your floors with colorful prints, and transform your entire space. But for next summer, you may want to replace them with modern rugs of smaller dimensions and sizes. For instance, area rugs 4x6 or area rugs 5x7 will help improve the overall ventilation in your home and still retain that impressive appearance you’d like your space to have. Thankfully, Luxe Weavers' collections of beautiful, medium-sized warm weather rugs are easy to install and roll-up.

Rug Décor Styles to Avoid this Summer

1. Layering

Do rugs make a room warmer? We already discussed this earlier but for emphasis, absolutely yes! And this is one of the reasons rug layering is quite common. Beyond its extra protection on cold winter nights, it has consistently ranked high on the home décor trends table in recent years. Many homeowners find the variety it introduces exceptionally beautiful. (See our Guide on Rug Layering). But it’s a no-no for summer, especially if your home gets very hot during that time of the year.

Nonetheless, if you’ll be needing extra rug layers as winter approaches, you should buy rugs that are easy to fold, clean, and store. That way, you can quickly roll them up to allow more air and ventilation.

2. Rug Padding

Rug pads help a great deal to stop summer rugs from folding on the edges, sliding off their original positions, and adding extra cushion and comfort. However, avoid using the very thick ones. While a flat weave rug is the best rug for summer, we can't remove the sturdiness that rug pads introduce. So, keep things in the balance. Buy lightweight rug pads if you have to use them for your warm weather rugs.

3. High Pile Rugs

High pile rugs provide the sleekest and most satisfying cushion for our feet, the softest landing for your kids, and objects dropping on the floor. But they are hardly ever appropriate for summer. Besides being difficult to vacuum and clean, they are particularly useful if you intend to introduce heat or extra warmth in your place, not when you are trying to reduce heat and increase airflow. Low or medium-pile area rug are best for summer.

Before you decide...

Your rug choice for this summer should ultimately come from your most preferred preferences as well as that which is most suitable for you and those you live with. If you have kids, you must consider rugs that are stain-resistant, water-resistant, and are very easy to clean. Your kids will most likely be around for a good part of the summer break so there’d be lots of activities around your home. It is wise to choose summer rugs that are sturdy and anti-slip over fluffy, long weave area rugs that can be quite slippery.

Your rug choice must also be capable of taking on heavy foot traffic if you’ll be having visitors at the time. You have to consider your pets too if you have any. Buy summer rugs they can hardly scratch or claw on. Thereafter, learn how to prevent them from destroying your summer rug before installing any unit.

Another important thing you should know is the effect of direct sunlight on your rug. In summer, the sun shines brighter and hotter. This may cause your rug to fade quickly. But the trick is to arrange your rooms in a way that sun rays from your windows do not shine directly on your summer rugs. Learn a few more tricks in our guide on How to Protect Your Rugs from Fading.

Finally, if you are looking for all the qualities we have outlined, while not cutting back on impressive, beautiful designs, shop through Luxe Weavers' collection of affordable summer-ready rugs right away!