Designing a room around an area rug is the ideal way to go, most interior decorators say. But for many of us, the challenge is finding a rug that will work with what we have.

Here are a few suggestions from the experts:

• Try a rug that plays with a traditional design. It can update an uninspired room with a more modern look, says interior designer Eric Rymshaw of Fury Design in Philadelphia. "Rugs with patterns that are a very big scale, or have punched-up colors, can really liven up a traditional-feeling room."

With such a big statement on the floor, though, be careful when adding more pattern to a room, says rug designer Annie Selke. "If you're going to put something bold on the floor, I wouldn't use vivid prints on the sofa and drapes."

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Puzzled about rug size? Austin Craley, vice president of sales for Momeni Inc., says it's purely a matter of personal preference. You might like your sofa overlapping the edge of a large area rug; others might like their furniture clustered around a small one. "But one rule of thumb is that if you have beautiful hardwood floors, you want at least one to two feet showing around the edge of the room," he says.If you have one of those cavernous great rooms, area rugs are an easy way to define different spaces within the room and add a more intimate feeling, Craley says."In the U.S., people think that if they have a big room they have to put a monster rug in it, but in Europe they buy multiple rugs for a large room. They're usually coordinated, but they're not matching."Craley advises using masking tape to outline different potential rug sizes in a room, to see what they look like. And don't forget to bring fabric swatches for drapes or upholstery the rug needs to work with.• Go with wool. While there are plenty of attractive and affordable rugs out there made from synthetic fibers, nothing beats pure wool for a rug that wears and cleans well, Craley says.• Buy from a reputable dealer. That way, Craley says, if the rug turns out to be not quite what you had in mind when you get it home, you can return it.