Creating Cozy Family Living Spaces

How do you spend your brisk fall nights? Maybe you enjoy drinking a nice cup of hot cocoa by the fire, curling up in the kitchen window seat with a good book, or settling in on the couch for a movie marathon with your family.

Whatever your favorite pastime may be when the cold snap hits, it’s safe to say that the holiday season involves a lot of quality indoor family time. And what better way to gather with family and welcome old friends into your home than over a brand new, luxuriously soft carpet?

Relax Its Lees Summit Point in Eclipse

Cozy carpets are a staple for fall and winter weather. Built for comfort and practicality, carpets, throws, and area rugs can add a touch of warmth to any room, but they are especially great for rooms where you’ll be spending a lot of time with your family.

Why is carpet so cozy? Well, it is an excellent insulator, and it acts as a shield to prevent cold from radiating through the floorboards and heat from sneaking out of the house. With their thermal resistance, carpets and area rugs are the warmest flooring types, offering natural cushiness that extends a bit of warmth throughout your home.

While many might associate springtime with household cleaning, keep in mind that fall is actually the best time to clean your carpets. Cleaning your carpets in the fall frees them from any allergens dragged in over the summer season. Carpets can also vastly improve the air quality in your family’s home during the fall and winter months because doors and windows are sealed of, and dirt and debris get tracked in. A clean carpet can trap allergens and keep them out of the air to prevent allergies from setting in during those colder months.

Each family has its own holiday traditions, and our floor’s performance should mirror our activity levels. So, what are the best carpet and area rug options for your family? Well, that depends on your lifestyle…

For Floor Forts

A favorite family activity, building forts can take up a day’s worth of imagination, from stringing blankets between the living room and kitchen to building hidden nooks with couch cushions. Add an extra level of comfort to your child’s play fort by scattering deep pile, shag rugs and throws throughout your family and living rooms. Deep pile rugs not only contribute to creating layers, they infuse dynamic dimension to your living space with new textures and soft materials.

Nourison Couture Area Rug in Gray

Sheepskin area rugs lend a Scandinavian look to your space while also boosting your room’s comfort factor. Add color, texture, and dimension to your interior design with Karastan’s Couture Shag. These plush, luxurious area rugs feature a modern color palette of the most of-the-moment hues, including shades of blush and deep blue. The Couture Shag collection is tufted using an artful mix of thick, twisted yarn and shimmering, eyelash-thin yarn to create a look that’s both timeless and current.

Layering carpets, rugs, and throws can create visual texture. Find diverse area rugs made up of different materials, sizes, colors, shapes, and patterns that complement each other and, when combined, create a sense of variety. Between the sheets, flashlights, throw pillows, and area rugs, you’re destined to design the living room fort of your childhood dreams.

For Movie Nights

If this past year has taught us anything, it’s how to create a good movie theater within the comfort of your own home. Ditch the slippers and invest in a soft, luxurious carpet to sink your feet into; install it in your family room or home theater.

Winter Wind in Graceful by Tigressa

You might be surprised to hear this, but shag carpet is back in full force. Modernized for the new millennium, our favorite shag carpet collections offer a range of contemporary looks from rustic chic to elevated posh styles. Shag carpets are merely high-pile carpets with long fibers that lend a plush look and feel. Bonus: high-pile height works well to dampen noise! The softness of these fibers gives the carpet flexibility, allowing it to absorb impact from footsteps and loud noises.

For Game Time

Nothing wreaks more havoc on hard-surface floors than gaming chairs, especially when the player is committed to winning! If you have kids who spend a lot of time gaming or playing on your carpeted surfaces, you might find yourself asking, “What carpet wears best?” Invest in a low-pile, easy-to-maintain carpet that you can easily move around on.

Let’s face it: family gatherings and game time often lead to messes like drink spills and shoeprints, so finding a durable carpet that can hold up against these stains is crucial. Because low-pile carpets have short fibers that sit flatly and densely, they resist matting and crushing while retaining a soft, smooth feel. This flooring solution tends to be more durable and easier to clean than other options; it doesn’t catch much dirt or debris and can hold up to heavy foot traffic without losing its brand-new luster.

Complement by Carpet One in Celadon

Nowadays, many carpet brands offer stain-proof, fade-resistant options that make for easy cleanup. Some even have special waterproof options, like the Tigressá Cherish line, which features a backing that keeps spills on the surface so that they don’t damage your carpet pad or subfloors. This line also features special technology to repel stains and odors of all kinds, including those that are pet related.

For Gathering and Conversation

Many new home builds are designed with open-concept interiors, so homeowners may want to find new ways of delineating living spaces. Traditional area rugs are an easy way to do this, with their visually distinguished colors and patterns that provide the opportunity to break up the living room from the dining room or provide a clearer divide between the foyer space and the large hallway.

Nourison Grafix in Navy Blue

Area rugs can serve dual purposes by creating a stunning focal point and preventing scratches on hard-surface floors. Size your rug correctly so that it fits completely underneath all of your furniture. You’ll want to leave enough room to scoot your chairs around or move the coffee table without scratching your floors. Put your area rug under the largest piece of furniture to act as an anchor for the rest of your furniture. This will tie the room together to make it feel more cohesive.

Area rugs create a conversational space, especially when you arrange them to promote conversational flow and a cozy ambience. With so many designs and material fibers available, you can find an area rug for any style of decor, whether you’re sticking to a simple modern-contemporary scheme or looking to add a pop of color with bold pattern maximalism.

Whatever your favorite fall activity is, elevate your family time with a quality carpet or area rug to add cozy layers and trending styles to your space. With today’s incredible advancements in fiber technology, it’s easy to find a carpet style that suits your lifestyle.

Find more product trend tips and design inspiration in our latest issue of Beautiful Design Made Simple.