A room-size rug usually is preferred where practicable in a small room because it causes the room to appear a little larger than when small rugs are used.
Linoleum when used in a living room may carry an inlaid design in keeping with the room or may be used as the basic floor covering with small, soft-surface rugs.
Rug Must Dominate Floor Area.
There is no rule to govern the proper width of margins, other than the general requirement for a dominant element in every composition, which means that in the case of a single large rug the effect will be unpleasant if the rug is so small that it seems to the mind less important than the total uncarpeted space. Ordinarily the side margin should not exceed one fourth of its length.
Several small rugs used together should be sufficiently alike in coloring, type of pattern, tone, and texture to ensure the unity of the floor treatment, but not identical, which would make the effect monotonous. This requirement would forbid the use together, for example, of characteristic Persian and Chinese designs, because of too sharp differences in pattern; or of pile and pileless rugs, because of too sharp differences in texture; or of light and dark rugs, because of great differences in tone.
It is never necessary, and rarely desirable, to have all of the rugs closely alike in color; but there must be pronounced elements of likeness. In general it is best to have at least one, and preferably two or three colors appear in varying degrees of importance in each rug.
Small rugs should be placed so as to be closely related to the fireplace, door, and principal pieces or groups of furniture. They are distracting and meaningless when scattered with no reference to this relationship.
Don't Place Rugs at Angle.
Small rugs should be placed straight in the room; that is, so that their edges parallel either the side or end walls. To scatter them at angles destroys the organic unity of the room.