February is Bedroom Month on Apartment Therapy! We’re sharing stories all month about bedrooms — from how to decorate them, to the fascinating history of them, and so much more. Head over here to see them all!

Your bedroom should be the comfiest room in the house if it’s where you go to rest and recharge. Blankets, bedding, and your mattress will get you 90 percent of the way there, but the last 10 percent of cozy is earned with a just-right rug. 

You want a rug that’s both soft to walk on and serene to look at. You want a rug that keeps the noise down and the style high. Above all though, you also want a rug that’s perfectly placed in your personal space. Turns out plenty of configurations can work, depending on the size of the room and the look you’re trying to achieve. If you’ve ever been at a loss as to how to style a rug in a bedroom with wood or tiled floors (or you just want to give your wall-to-wall a little facelift), hopefully, you’ll find a solution among these eight smart area carpet layout ideas.

Placing a large rug horizontally under your bed is a design move that’s sure to bring extra warmth to a spacious room. By pushing the rug all the way up against the wall, you’ll not only ground the bed frame, but you’ll also makes your side tables and accessories look like they’re hanging together, too.

If you have a queen- or king-sized bed, you’ll need a rug that’s at least 8-feet by 10-feet to achieve this look. Remember to factor in the width of your nightstands and whether the rug has a border or not before deciding what size to order. When in doubt, bigger is always better for this particular layout.

Pull the rug under your bed away from the wall so the night stands sit directly on the floor, and you can save a little cash by choosing a medium size rug (think  5-foot by 8-foot, give or take) while still enjoying the visual glory of a grounded bed frame. 

Before you skimp a tiny bit with this trick though, consider the size and shape of your bedroom. If it’s rectangular, choosing a larger size might be worth it because you can cover more of the frequently-traveled floor space in front of the bed, keeping your feet warm as you walk around the room while protecting your existing flooring from wear and tear.

Want to step out of bed onto something soft and cozy without covering up too much of your flooring? Flank your bed with runners or small area rugs to strike a balance. To pull off this look, slide each runner up to the side of the bed so it doesn’t look too floaty in space. Keep in mind that without furniture to physically hold the rug down, it will shift around on the floor easily. So do yourself a favor, and choose a grippy-style rug pad to hold it in place. You also might consider stashing carpet tape in your nightstand drawer, so you’re sure your rugs are always safe and secure.

On a budget? One small rug at the foot of your bed is really all you need, and you will need it there if you have a bench or seating you wish to keep from sliding around when you pull on the covers in the middle of the night. To make the most of a smaller style, go for a bold pattern that catches the eye or try a round or unique shape to balance a boxy bed frame.

If your room is on the long and narrow side, you can upgrade to a full-size area rug for the space in front of the bed frame. Visually, this helps define a larger space by creating two zones. Audibly, this setup dampens more sound so you can sleep without being woken by your partner changing or your dog pacing around the foot of the bed.

When your bed is tucked into a corner, placing a medium-sized rug adjacent to it can make the room feel wider and more sophisticated, at least in comparison to the lonely “rug island in the middle of the room” alternative. For apartment dwellers in particular, this layout is also a great way to cover up old or cold flooring, since it can help disguise a large surface area. 

From interesting shapes to complementary patterns to contrasting textures, layering rugs in a bedroom makes so much decorative sense, particularly if you’re more of a maximalist.  To nail the look, start with a larger rug layout (like the anchor or half on, half off layout configurations) then add a smaller rug layout idea (like the at the foot or the symmetrical split) on top of it. When in doubt, throw down a small sheepskin as your top layer. Everybody likes walking on what feels like clouds. Everybody. 

Last but not least, what do you get when you put one-half of the symmetrical split and the right in front layout ideas together? A t-shaped (or l-shaped, depending on how long your rugs are) configuration that can be quite striking, especially if you choose something bold in pattern and color, just like the red carpets shown here. As is the case with some of the other ideas discussed above, this can be a great strategy if you’re looking for maximum noise absorption in a noisy apartment, for example, or if your original flooring is in serious disrepair, and you want to cover a lot of surface area.