How to Keep a Rug in Place on Carpet

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If your floors are vinyl or wood, you can expect any area rugs placed on top of them to slide around a little, but what if those same rugs are placed on floors covered with carpet? Does this mean the rugs won’t slip around or become too difficult to keep in place?

Not necessarily. In fact, sometimes placing rugs on top of carpet is more dangerous than placing them on a hardwood or tile floor.

The Disadvantages of Rugs Placed on Top of Carpet

Just because you have carpet in your home doesn’t mean you can’t have a rug placed on top of it. Indeed, area rugs can brighten up any room and lend it some ambiance it didn’t have before.

If you’ve placed rugs in your living room or den and they keep sliding around, it is not only bothersome, but potentially dangerous as well, meaning you need to do something about it as soon as possible.

Fortunately, most of the solutions to rugs that slip around on a carpet are super easy to execute and inexpensive as well. This means you can take care of the problem with little effort on your part, as well as little harm to your pocketbook.

So, if you place an area rug on top of carpet on your living room floor and you find it moving around or slipping constantly and getting out of place, what should you do? The following suggestions can certainly help.

• Buy a rug pad that is the non-slip type and cut it so that it is two inches shorter on all four sides than the rug. Place the padding down on the floor, then place the rug directly on top of it.
• Buy a set of rug pins, which normally come four to a package. You can pin down each of the four corners with the pins, and push each of them through until it goes into the plywood underneath. These pins usually have heads, though, that remain visible, so they are not a favorite for everyone.
• Buy yourself some rug anchors. Instead of being placed on the outside of the rug like the pins are, these anchors are applied to the underside of the carpet. They grip the carpet and have a non-slip surface, so your rug won’t move around nearly as much.
• On the underside of the rug, sprinkle beads of either clear silicone caulk or acrylic latex, and sprinkle it every 6 to 12 inches, depending on the size of the rug. You have to let it dry and set for a full 24 hours but afterward, you can turn the rug on its right side and it should stick much better to the carpet.
• There is also double-sided carpet tape you can buy. You simply place it on the underside of the rug and, after you’ve determined exactly where you want the rug to be, you can remove the backing off of the tape and lay the rug down afterward.

You may be able to find other products on the market that are specifically made for keeping rugs in place when they are laid on top of existing carpet, and you can usually find these products at furniture stores or even home-improvement stores.

Remember, newer and better products for every reason are being invented every day, so the product you need is always right around the corner.

Things to Keep in Mind

If you’re wondering if you should use an area rug even though you already have carpet in place, you won’t have to think about it for long to come up with good answers.

Area rugs can add a splash of color to your living room and make it come alive. It can also make the room less boring because the floor won’t be the same color throughout the entire room.

For those who want an area rug, but are not sure if they should purchase one or not, here are some things to consider before you decide for sure.

• Make sure your area rug is the right size. If you get one that is too big, the room will look overcrowded. If you get one that is too small, it can look “lost” and even make the room look a little awkward.
• In addition to making sure the rug matches the furniture in the room, it should complement the carpet as well. If it doesn’t, the rug will clash with the carpet and everyone who visits you will notice – and not for a good reason!
• If your carpet has any type of print or pattern on it, you need a solid-colored area rug. Otherwise, the room will look too “busy” and things will look like they don’t match.
• Pay attention to the texture of both the rug and the carpet. As a general rule, you should choose a thick, plush rug if your carpet is looped or short-piled; for thicker carpet, you should choose a rug that is woven or something low-profile, such as Berber.

You don’t have to be great at interior decorating to choose a great-looking area rug to go over your carpet. These tips, however, will produce better results in the end, and your decisions should be made first before you choose what method to use to clamp down your rug.

Other Methods You Can Use

Although the methods mentioned above are the most common ways to make sure your area rug stays put when it’s placed on your carpet, there are other reliable techniques as well, and they include the following:

• You can use hot glue on the back of your area rug. Glue strips of it every so often on the underside of the rug, and always remember to let it set fully before turning the rug over to the correct side.
• You can also use Velcro on the underside of the rug. This method can be a bit more challenging than the rest of them because you’ll have to attach one side of the hook-and-loop design to your carpet, but it works wonders just the same.
• Buy a product made specifically to prevent the corners of the rug from curling. There are numerous excellent products that fit this description, and they keep the rug from curling and make it a little more difficult to slip around as well.
• Purchase under-padding and attach the two-sided carpet tape to it instead of to the rug. The under-padding gives the rug a little firmness and texture, and you won’t have to place the tape directly to the rug.

As you can see, numerous high-quality products exist that will help keep your rug secured on top of your carpet, and fortunately, they are easy to remove when you feel like you no longer want the rug in your room.

Most are also very inexpensive, so you won’t have to break the bank just to get a product that works.

Why Use These Products at All?

If you think about it, you’ll quickly realize why making sure your area rug is secured on your carpet is so important. Even if you use these products, the edges of your rug can still curl up, which is why you may have to use both a product for securing the rug itself and one to prevent curling up of the edges of the rug.

It isn’t difficult to figure out why this is so important. Rugs that slip around or edges that curl up are incredibly dangerous to anyone who enters the room. Kids who are playing around the rug are especially vulnerable to having the rug slide underneath them, which can cause them to trip and become injured.

In addition, the last thing you want is for a guest or family member to injure themselves on your area rug. We live in a litigious society, and it is your responsibility to make sure anyone who enters your home doesn’t come into any harm. Friendships and family relationships have been ruined with such lawsuits, but fortunately they are easy to avoid.

The fact that clamping down your area rug to your carpet is simple, inexpensive, and non-damaging to the rug or the carpet makes it even easier to choose to do this.

In most cases, you can also clamp down the rug in a very short period of time, meaning it is quick as well as simple. For a number of reasons, it is just a smart thing to do.

Final Thoughts

Choosing to have an area rug in your living room, den, or even your dining room is advantageous for many reasons, not just aesthetically. Keeping the rug secure on the carpet is a must because you want your home to be safe to both your family and anyone who visits you.

Fortunately, the solutions to slippery rugs are easy to execute, and you can get started simply by doing a little research on the Internet.

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