THE RIGHT RUG

Did you know that a rug can have more than just an aesthetic benefit? A study from 2016 shows that "walking on carpeting induces less stress than walking on wood flooring". There are plenty of other reasons to keep a few well-chosen carpets in the home, too - as our readers reveal here.

Amy Tsang, American, and Humad Ahmed, British

"We moved from Los Angeles recently and brought some of our favourite pieces with us – not a living room rug, though, as we didn’t know what size we’d need in our new apartment.

Going into our search, we knew we wanted a rug that could tie our existing colour palette of walnut wood, oranges and blues together, but we also wanted something to delineate the space from all the beige and white of the existing floors and walls.

I found out about Living DNA during my initial research for a company that creates custom rugs. I visited the store to learn more about the process and view materials, and I fell in love with many of the options the team showed me that day.

As I came to realise, however, creating custom rugs takes time – understandably – and I had a strong desire to have a “finished” living room as soon as possible. (Marble floors don’t scream “relax here”, if you know what I mean.) I came back the next day with my fiancé, and, understanding our dilemma, the team asked to see a photo of our existing furniture. They then showed us several options that were in stock in the size we needed (which they guessed perfectly by simply looking at the photo) and that could be delivered within days.