What size rug for a living room? UK sizes in cm, worked out for your sofa

Type your sofa and your room below. The calculator picks the smallest UK stock rug that follows the three rules designers use, and draws it in your room to scale. Switch to inches for US sizes.

The rule, in three numbers

Every living-room rug guide comes back to the same three measurements. None of them is a law or a study. They are designers' rules of thumb, and they work because they make the sofa, the chairs and the rug read as one group.

1. 15–20 cm past each end of the sofa. Emily Henderson's rule is 6–8 in on each side. So the rug is at least 30 cm longer than the sofa, and 40 cm is better. IKEA says the same thing more loosely: the rug should be longer than the sofa.
2. Front legs on. The front legs of the sofa and of every chair stand on the rug (Livingetc, 2025). In practice the rug tucks about 20 cm under the front of the sofa.
3. 30–45 cm of floor to the walls. That is Livingetc's figure. Architectural Digest gives about 15–35 cm. Less than 20 cm, and the rug looks like a carpet that did not quite fit.

One more rule settles where the rug goes: centre it on the seating, not on the room. If the sofa sits off-centre on its wall, the rug moves with it.

UK rug sizes, and the sofa each one suits

Most UK shops stock four sizes for living rooms. The longest sofa for each size below allows 15 cm past each end, with the front legs on. The narrowest room allows 20 cm of floor each side; for the 30 cm designers like, add 20 cm.

US shops sell in feet. The same rule gives these limits:

The depth matters too. With the front legs on, the rug must reach from 20 cm under the sofa, past a coffee table 35–45 cm away, to about 40 cm beyond the table. With a 90 cm-deep sofa and a 60 cm table, that is about 160 cm, so a 200 cm-deep rug has room to spare. Two armchairs facing the sofa need about 185 cm. For the gaps round the rest of the room, see every living-room clearance in cm.

The four layouts, drawn

Each plan below is the same 4 × 4.2 m room with a 210 cm sofa, drawn to scale from above. Filled dots are sofa legs standing on the rug.

All legs on needs the biggest rug, but it makes a seating area in an open-plan room feel like a room of its own. Front legs on is the layout most UK living rooms suit. It needs a rug about 200 cm deep, not 300. Table only keeps every leg off the rug. It works in a narrow room or with a rug you want to wash often, but keep the rug longer than the sofa, or it floats like an island. In open plan, keep the rug off the main walkway: if it spills across the route to the kitchen, everyone walks through the sitting area to get past.

The mistake: a rug that stops short

The most common rug mistake is a rug narrower than the sofa, or only a few centimetres longer. The eye reads the rug's edge as the edge of the sitting area. If that edge falls inside the sofa's ends, the group looks cramped and the room looks smaller.

For a 2.2 m sofa, a 160 × 230 cm rug runs only 5 cm past each end; a 200 × 290 cm rug runs 35 cm past each end. The bigger rug costs more, but it is the one that looks right. If the budget is tight, a cheap flat-woven 200 × 290 cm rug looks better than a thick 160 × 230 cm one.

Where the sources disagree

Rug guides do not agree on every number. Here is what each source says, and what the calculator uses.

Bedroom and dining rugs

Under a bed, IKEA suggests about 50 cm of rug beside the bed, and Emily Henderson at least 60 cm on three sides. A UK double bed is 135 × 190 cm, so a 160 × 230 cm rug turned across the bed gives about 47 cm each side. Under a king (150 × 200 cm), a 200 × 290 cm rug across the bed gives 70 cm each side. Let it cover at least the lower two thirds of the bed.

Under a dining table, the chairs must stay on the rug when someone pulls one out. IKEA's rule is 60–80 cm of rug beyond each long side of the table. A 90 cm-wide table therefore needs a rug at least 210 cm wide: 240 × 340 cm for most six-seat tables.

Check it before you buy

1. Measure the sofa from arm to arm, not the seat.
2. Measure the wall behind the sofa and the distance to the far wall, skirting to skirting.
3. Mark the rug's outline on the floor with masking tape, and leave it for a day. Architectural Digest suggests this too: a tape outline shows a too-small rug at once.
4. Check that doors still open over the rug. A thick rug can catch a door that opens into the room.

The rug is one part of the plan: small living room layouts, with measurements, puts the sofa, rug, TV and walkways together. Moving a new sofa in too? Check it fits through the door with the sofa fit calculator. Planning a TV wall opposite the sofa? The TV height and distance calculator gives the screen size for your sofa's distance.

See the rug in your own room

Snuug, the iPhone room app, rebuilds your room in 3D from one slow walk round it. You can then lay a rug at its real size and see where it stops against your own sofa, before you order. Your room comes to within about 3% of its real size in our tests of ten homes, so you can try every rug size under your own sofa before you order one.

Questions

What size rug do I need for a three-seater sofa?

Most three-seater sofas are 200–230 cm wide, so a 200 × 290 cm rug fits them: it runs 30–45 cm past each end. A 160 × 230 cm rug is too short for anything wider than about 200 cm, because it leaves less than 15 cm past each end.

Is a 160 × 230 cm rug big enough for a living room?

For a two-seater sofa up to about 200 cm wide, yes, with the front legs on it. Under a wider sofa it looks too small. It is the most common size people buy and then find stops short.

Should the rug go under the sofa?

Designers usually put at least the front legs of the sofa and of every chair on the rug, so the seats read as one group. In practice the rug tucks about 20 cm under the front of the sofa. If the sofa floats away from the wall, all four legs can stand on it.

How much floor should show around a rug?

Designers suggest 30–45 cm of bare floor between rug and walls (Livingetc). Architectural Digest gives about 15–35 cm. In a large room up to about 60 cm still looks deliberate. Under 20 cm, the rug starts to look like a fitted carpet that is too small.

What is 160 × 230 cm in feet?

160 × 230 cm is about 5 ft 3 in × 7 ft 7 in. It is close to the US 5 × 8 ft rug (152 × 244 cm). 200 × 290 cm is about 6 ft 7 in × 9 ft 6 in, close to the US 6 × 9.

What size rug goes under a king-size bed in the UK?

A UK king bed is 150 × 200 cm. IKEA suggests about 50 cm of rug beside the bed, and Emily Henderson at least 60 cm on three sides, so turn a 200 × 290 cm rug across the bed (290 cm across), or use 240 × 340 cm for the full 60 cm.

Editorial notes

Written by the Snuug team and checked on 1 November 2026. A number with no source beside it is a designers' rule of thumb, not a study.

1. Emily Henderson, Living room rug size (6–8 in past each side; 10–18 in border in a small room), checked 15 Oct 2026
2. Livingetc (Wolfe, 22 Aug 2025), The two-thirds rule: front legs on, 12–18 in border, checked 24 Oct 2026
3. Architectural Digest, How to choose the right size rug for every room (about 15–35 cm border), checked 24 Oct 2026
4. IKEA UK, How to choose the right rug size (longer than the sofa; a third of the sofa on the rug; 50 cm by a bed), read 31 Oct 2026
5. Love-Rugs, Rug size guide UK (stock sizes), search summary 31 Oct 2026
6. Ruglove, What size rug for living room? (200 × 290 cm), search summary 31 Oct 2026
7. Rugs.com, The complete rug size guide (US sizes), checked 15 Oct 2026

Use this from an AI assistant

This answer as JSON, or as one paragraph with format=text: https://snuug.app/api/v1/tools/rug-size

MCP server: https://snuug.app/mcp · OpenAPI · llms.txt. Every rule cites its source.