How-to Guides | Good Carpet Guide

Carpets, which are an important part of home decoration, add vividness and elegance to living spaces with different color, pattern and size options. That is why you should know what to be considered in order to find the right size and to make the appropriate fitting when selecting a carpet. In this sense, the basis of the selection of a carpet which we use in almost every room such as living rooms, bedrooms, and kitchens, is to decide the appropriate color and pattern combinations, but more importantly, is about determining the right size. Depending on the intended use and size, the carpet size you need varies across different rooms. In this regard, you need to consider some important points like the orientation of the carpet with reference to the furniture, usage purpose of the room and spacing amounts at the edge of the carpet before making measurements. First of all, it is necessary to decide for what purpose the room is to be used and if a single piece of carpet or small and fragmented ones like area rugs are needed. It is also important to note that if the carpet remains underneath or separate from the furniture and its position with reference to the entrance to the room. If there will be spacing at the edges, these spacing dimensions should also be determined in the measurement stage. Besides, making a selection in view of the fact that whether or not the furniture arrangement in the room is going to change will prevent you from having trouble with the fitting afterward. About Carpet Dimensions As I mentioned, it is possible to completely change the appearance of your room by simply renewing your carpet. For this purpose, it is very important to find a carpet with a suitable size, along with the carpet pattern that matches the color of the walls and furniture. So, how do you know which carpet dimensions are the right ones? Each room has a carpet size suitable for its intended use and size. Before you start measuring the dimensions, considering these points and taking notes will help you. After determining the carpet dimensions that fit the needs of your room, you can decide on the most suitable carpet by taking these values into account. For this purpose, firstly measure the base dimensions of the furniture such as sofas, beds, dining tables and coffee tables in your room. Then draw a plan showing the layout of the furniture in your room as well as where you can enter and exit the room. Finally, measure the size of your room (by means of both height and wall to the wall dimensions) and answer the following 3 questions: 1) What is the purpose of the room? Should a large, medium or small carpet be preferred for this purpose? Should your carpet consist of a single long or a few short pieces? 2) Will the furniture layout of the room change? Where is the entrance to the room? Will the carpet be kept underneath any furniture such as armchairs or beds? 3) How much spacing do you want to keep at the edge of the carpet in areas such as corridors and entrances? After answering these questions you can decide the dimensions of your carpet. Due to the manufacturing techniques and ongoing habits, you can generally find standard carpet sizes in stores. How to Determine the Size of a Carpet? If you have decided on the carpet dimensions roughly, measure the size of the room and find the appropriate carpet size. It is recommended that you follow these steps when measuring the room size: 1) The width and length of the room should be measured twice to reduce errors. 2) Carpet sizes may be standard, however, the longest size of the area you want to cover should be measured to find the carpet size closest to the one you want. 3) If you cannot visualize the space to be covered by the carpet, you can have a mental picture of how much space you want to cover by placing a large tablecloth or a newspaper sheet on the floor. A Deeper Look at Carpet Fitting: Square-Meter Calculation If you want to calculate the area of your house in terms of meter squares, this means actually calculating a square or rectangular area. It is the process of measuring the dimensions of the rooms, corridors, kitchens individually. In other words, the area of the square or rectangle is equal to the product of two adjacent edges. To find the area of your house in terms of square meters, you have to measure the two adjacent walls of your house in meters. When you multiply these two values you measure, the result is equal to the square meter area of your house. This result is the gross area of your home (Usually the gross area is used for renting and sales procedures). In order to find the net area of your house, you should subtract the area of unused areas in the house such as wall thicknesses, stairs, lift shafts and electric shafts from the gross area. Alternatively, you can measure the net area as follows: Calculate the areas of all the rooms of the house (including kitchen, toilet, bathroom, etc.) and add the values you find with each other. To find the area of a single room, measure the adjacent two walls of the room (if the room is rectangular) and multiply the measured values. After you have measured all the rooms, add the results together and find the net base area of your house in square meters. Base areas are not always rectangular. For example, if you have a non-rectangular room, it is difficult to find the base area. In such cases, draw the shape of the room on a piece of paper and try to divide it into shapes you know. For example, with a few lines you draw over the sketch of the room, you can divide it into 1 rectangle and 2 right-angled triangles. I will not mention more complex shapes here, but the area of a rectangle is equal to the product of two adjacent edges, and the area of a right-angled triangle is equal to half the product of two edges perpendicular to each other. Once you find the area of the sections, you can find the total area by adding them together. In many carpets, the area of the carpet (in terms of square meters) is written on the label on the back surface of the carpet. However, due to aging, the label may have been removed or the text may not be read. In order to calculate the area of your carpets, the width and length of the carpet are measured with the help of meters and the results are multiplied. Example: If the width of the carpet is 2,00 meters and the length of it is 3,00 meters, the area will be = 2,00 meters x 3,00 meters = 6,00 square meters. Carpet Fitting in General: Placing Carpets Another important issue is deciding how to place the carpet in the room. A carpet that is correctly placed according to the size of the room and the overall layout make your room look larger and more spacious. In addition, again the using purpose of the room is one of the most important factors influencing these installing and fitting processes. The living rooms are the most frequently used areas, therefore usually the largest rooms. For this reason, large carpets with dimensions such as 140 × 200, 160 × 230, 200 × 300 cm are preferred in these rooms. If the carpet(s) are installed under the furniture, it will create a more organized and warm environment in the room. Carpets used in the dining room or in a separate area of the hall used for dining should be positioned under the dining table. The size of the carpet should be determined according to the size of the table and the chairs. The choice and placing of the carpets for the kitchen vary according to the shape and floor characteristics. The dimensions of the carpet you get depend on the shape of your kitchen and how much of the floor you want to cover. As the kitchens are generally long-built rooms, hall rugs are preferred. 80 * 250, 80 * 300 or 100 * 200 cm carpet alternatives can also be used. Or, hall rugs with the 80 and 100 cm width can be placed in the middle part of the kitchen, making it look wider. If the shape of the kitchen is square, carpets of 120 * 180, 133 * 190, 140 * 200 or 160 * 230 cm size should be considered. In square and small kitchens, a more shipshape appearance can be created with carpets of this size, with some spacing in the edges. If you have a dining table in the kitchen, you can install a carpet under the table and a hall rug in the middle of the kitchen, taking into account the dimensions specified for the dining room. For the bedrooms, since there is a bed, the most preferable models are often area rugs. These rugs are placed in the single or double form in front of the edges and footboard of the bed and generally preferred in small sizes such as 80 × 150, 70 × 130, which are determined according to the shape of the room and empty spaces in it. Depending on the condition of the carpet being installed under the bed or not, it is also possible to choose a large carpet or a few small carpets to be placed next to the bed. Corridors and staircases are the areas having the highest structural diversity in the houses. For thin long halls carpets having 70-80-100 cm widths and 200-300 cm lengths may be preferred. In long corridors, rugs having a width of 80-100-120 cm and can be cut to the desired length may also be used. For the entrances, in general, carpets having 120x180, 133x190, 140x200 dimensions are preferred. Practical Information About Carpet Fitting: Useful Tips In large rooms, the carpet should also be large. Thus, all furniture can be placed on the carpet. If the back of your sofa is leaning against the wall in your living room, then only the front legs of the furniture should be on the carpet. In this way, you maintain the balance of distance. If the area is too small, a large carpet covers the entire surface and creates a wall to wall carpet effect. Instead, you can install a small carpet just below the middle table. The direction of the carpet should fit the direction of the furniture. For example, if you have created a horizontal seating area, the carpet must also be placed horizontally. However, in areas with more vertical layout, such as a dining table, you should place the carpet vertically to get a more smooth appearance. If you want to follow a practical path in carpet selection/placement according to the shape of the room, for square areas you can prefer round and square carpets, and for rectangular ones you can use rectangular carpets. Area Types: Carpet Area, Built-Up Area (Plinth Area), Super Built-Up Area Carpet area calculation can be puzzling because of not exactly knowing which portions to be included and excluded in the carpet area measurement. That's why it would be great to learn more about terminology. Carpet area is the area of the house where you can lay your carpet. It is measured wall to wall. This is the actual area which you can call your personal space and you should think about while buying a carpet. It is sometimes referred as the floor area. Built-up area or plinth area is the total covered area of the apartment. It can be calculated by adding areas of utility ducts within the apartment, internal and external walls to the carpet area. The Super Built Up Area, on the other hand, can be calculated by adding a loading factor to the carpet area. The Spacing Amount to Be Left at the Edges of the Carpet Leaving spacings at the edges of the carpet during installation is important. It makes the room look larger. Ideally, you should leave the same amount of floor space on all sides of your carpet. It can be any distance from about 20 to 60 cm on all sides. 45 cm is the most commonly used spacing distance, but in a smaller room, you can make an arrangement with as little as 20 cm. Generally, the aim is to have the carpet centered in the room. How Long Does It Take to Lay Carpet? Typically, the time it takes to lay a carpet, aka installation time, depends on the size and the shape of the room. There are several factors affecting this duration as whether seaming is required or not, whether angles need to be cut or not, etc. Installation of a carpet to one room should be done in one or two hours, depending on layout, seam work, and furniture. In most cases, laying carpet in a whole house can be done in one day or less by 2 people. If the old carpet is to be removed, the time it takes would be a little longer than that. Can Carpet Be Fitted with the Furniture in the Room? Optimally, all of the furniture should be cleared out of the room, to ensure the carpets are properly fitted. You should move as much of the smaller items from the room as possible such as coffee tables, lamps, bedsheets etc. The larger furniture such as the bed itself can be moved to one side of the room and carpet is fitted in half the room and folded back. Then the furniture is lifted over onto the fitted side of the room allowing the carpet to be rolled out across the rest of the room and fitted. Additional Information: How to Choose the Color of a Carpet Some interior designers recommend that you should start by choosing the carpet first and then complete the carpet by selecting all other furniture in the room. This advice shows how an important role a carpet plays in decoration. Of course, it is not always possible to start decoration by choosing the carpet first. Most of the time you have to select a carpet for an already decorated home or office. So, apart from dimensions, how important are the colors in choosing carpets that are the biggest part of decoration? How to choose carpet color? Here are tips to help you choose a carpet color: One color? Patterned? There are multiple options waiting for you when it comes to carpets. In order to avoid getting lost, you have to decide whether to buy a one color carpet or a patterned one. If multiple patterns are used together on items such as furniture upholstery, curtains, and cushions in your room, it is better to choose a single color carpet to reduce complexity. You can use self-patterned monochrome carpets, as well as carpets having shades which are very close to each other and carpets with a high intensity of neutral colors in your rooms having multiple patterns. If your furniture upholstery has a single color, and patterns are used in accessories such as cushions and curtains, you can choose a patterned carpet. When choosing your patterned carpet, you should pay attention to the fact that, the most dominant or secondary color on the carpet should be the same as the one that your furniture upholstery has. Colors can make a room look as official, energetic, hot or cold. Therefore, it is useful to know the effects of colors in both decoration and carpet selection. If you want to create a friendly atmosphere in your living space, you can use deep and rich colors such as burgundy, forest green, chocolate coffee, purple, and bay leaf in your carpet. To make small rooms look larger, you should prefer to use light colored carpets. If you choose warm and energetic colors such as yellow, orange or red on your walls, you can create an impressive contrast with the light pastel colored carpets. Keep in mind that carpets with pastel colors provide tranquility to the room in which they are used, as well as providing a balance in rooms where intense colors and patterns are used. In the rooms where you are looking for calmness like a bedroom, for both the room decoration and the carpet color selection, you can highlight the cool colors like blue, turquoise, green and magenta. If you want to create a formal atmosphere in your home or office, you should use heavy patterned carpets. You can choose Bukhara (buckram) carpets with emerald, jade and ruby colors for a more formal decoration. Keep in mind that your floor color is as important as the color of your furniture, cushions, curtains, and walls. If you have selected a patterned carpet on your parquet, ceramic or stone pavement floors, make sure it is in a color that contrasts with the floor. For example, you can get a stylish look using zebra or black and white zigzag patterns with dark brown floors. If you want to highlight furniture, cushions or curtains in your room, you can make it invisible by choosing a carpet of the same tone as the floor color. Thus, in your room, you can keep people's eyes on the part you want to emphasize. Conclusion Carpets are among the houseware that changes and refreshes the look of your room. Along with the material type and color of a carpet, placing and fitting a carpet to a room is quite important as well. Therefore the size of the carpet should be determined carefully, after making the necessary measurements as measuring base areas of rooms and furniture used in. First, you need to decide whether you want to use small pieces or a large carpet. Then you have to choose the right sized carpet for your room. After that, you must adjust its orientation by arranging equal amounts of spacings at the edges. You also need to consider furniture. If you have a dining table, carpet is best to be placed under it. With this article, you don't need to worry about how to fit a carpet into your room anymore. When you buy a new carpet, invite your friends for dinner, and they will most likely notice your new harmonizing environment.