Area rugs are a great way to redecorate a room without having to redo the flooring itself, something that is crucial if you are renting or if new flooring just isn't in the redecorating budget. Fortunately, area rugs are much more common these days and come in plenty of solids and patterns in both traditional and modern styles.

What the biggest problem is when purchasing an area rug is that people (hopefully!) know the size of the room it is being used in, but when they actually get it into the room, it is either too big or too small from what was envisioned. However, you can easily figure out the exact size of area rug you want, even if you never measure the room itself!

First, get some newspapers - depending on the size of rug, you may need more than one! Then simply spread the newspapers out on the floor until it covers an area of the same size you would like your area rug to cover. Then simply measure the size of the newspapers you laid out. Then, when you go shopping, you won't have the problem of purchasing something larger or smaller than what you really wanted!