Rugs for gardens are a great idea. Even though they don’t sound very practical, these rugs are easy to clean with a garden hose and they look beautiful on your patio or decking. When looking at outdoor patio rugs you might very well be amazed at the enormous choice you have in colors, styles and designs and it can become quite overwhelming to try to choose one. However, one of the first things you need to think about is the shape and size of your rug, so here are some guidelines for that.

First of all, of course, your rug needs to fit on your patio or deck area. That much is obvious, but also think about how much of the area you want it to cover. Perhaps, your rug is meant to be a focal point at the center of a seating area in which case it should not be so large that it is partly covered by some of the seats. You want to be able to see the whole of it. In this type of situation, a circular outdoor rug would look particularly effective as a round rug is a natural focal point.

On the other hand, your rug might be destined to help cut down noise as those from the garden wander inside and therefore a outdoor rug runner leading to your door might be the right shape for you. Similarly if you want a rug running along the side of your pool, you will be looking for a runner shape.

Most outdoor rugs are rectangular in shape, and these are fine for most situations as long as the rug fits the area where you are going to put it. When you have a particular rug in mind, you can always map out the shape and size of it with string in your garden so you can get an idea of what area it will cover and how it will look.

photo credit: RS Don Sata