What Makes A Rug Mid-Century In Style? (Explained)
For as long as I can remember, I’ve found mid-century decor to be absolutely beautiful and homely. I’ve been really excited about sharing mid-century decor ideas, but before doing so, I wanted to touch on what is considered mid-century. In this article, I’m going to break down the semantics of what makes a rug mid-century in style.
Mid-century style rugs were inspired by simplicity, clean lines, and perfect functionality. It incorporates all the colors and tones celebrated in the 20th century that were considered earthy, neutral, and easy on the eyes. They are also rugs that were accentuated by bold colors rather than intricate patterns and designs.
By this standard, mid-century style highlighted the wonderful nature of minimalism. Priority was placed on functionality over the thrills and frills of what we have come to embrace in the 21st century.
Mid-century style rugs emphasize those natural, earthy tones and shades of grey, cream, brown, blue, and white.
What I find particularly eye-catching about mid century decor is that the base of most items or furniture makes use of muted earthy colors, but they are accented by bright and bold shades of color.
It was a case of industrial style meeting retro style.
Even in the furniture, they usually combined man-made materials with that of natural materials. For instance, vinyl, plastic, and microfiber glass were mixed with wood, metal, copper, steel, and marble.
Somehow, they worked, especially in the styling choices made when designing mid century decor and furniture.
Now that we’ve touched on the basic principles of what constitutes mid-century style, let’s take a closer look at what makes a rug mid-century in style.
Table of Contents
Characteristics Of A Mid-Century Rug
1. Clean lines
This is frequently a term that is thrown around in the decor space without much context being given. Clean lines are considered to be lines that are undisturbed, unbending, and smooth. Rectangular lines are usually considered clean lines that are straight and simple.
When you examine a rug, does it have a pattern or texture to it?
If it does, do they consist of lines?
Again, if yes, are those lines relatively smooth, crisp, straight, and simplistic in style?
That’s usually how you would determine if a rug has clean lines, and it is a good indicator of what makes a rug mid-century in style.
In comparison, modern rugs are quite detailed, flashy, and bold in design. The lines are quite intricate and form shapes that spiral, zigzag, and bend throughout the carpet.
This type of intricacy in design was not common in mid century style rugs.
2. Neutral or earthy colors
Given that mid century style rugs give a great deal of importance to honoring naturally occurring colors, what you’ll find is the use of earthy colors, tones, and shades in most rugs.
Typically, browns, creams, whites, greys, blues, and greens monopolized the mid century rug market.
These colors were either subdued and neutral or bright and bold, depending on the purpose of the rug.
Some mid-century rugs were meant to draw attention to a specific piece of furniture or area in a home, whereas others were used as a statement piece.
Those that were considered statement pieces made use of accents that were bright and bold.
For example, in the case of a rug that was inspired by wood, the base color would be a light oak, but the corners and edges would be a deep brown that accentuated the rug.
3. Minimalistic patterns
Due to the fact that mid-century style celebrated minimalistic and industrial design choices, you’d find most of the rugs to be quite simple in design.
Patterns followed clean and simple lines or shapes. The patterns would rarely incorporate bold curves, textures, or prints.
Neutral colors occupied most of the design, and lines were accented with a deeper tone of the same color.
4. Functionality
Mid-century furniture and decor had one objective in mind, to be as functional and practical as possible.
The purpose of a rug isn’t just to look pretty. On the contrary, their function is to add warmth and comfort to your feet as you walk or sit on them.
It’s also used to protect your floor itself from damage caused by heavy items or high foot traffic.
The majority of mid-century style rugs are created with functionality in mind. From the choice of material to the shape to the thickness of the material.
Everything is designed to achieve its purpose to the fullest degree possible.
5. Soft Materials
Given that mid-century style rugs take pride in being functional and earthy, they made good use of natural materials like jute, wool, silk, and cotton.
For more affordable options, you’d find these natural materials combined with some synthetic options like polyester and olefin.
But, above everything, each rug had to be soft and comfortable.
Final Thoughts
If you’re in doubt about what makes a rug mid-century in style, just refer to the five characteristics explained above and keep the core tenets of functionality, simplicity, and earthy colors in mind.
I’m a big fan of mid-century style rugs because of their ability to be unobtrusive in style and exceptionally functional in nature.
You won’t go wrong with this style of rug, even if most of your home decor is modern. Somehow, it works.
I hope you enjoyed this article on mid-century style rugs. If you did, be sure to check out some of our articles with stunning rug ideas below.
Related Posts:
Home office rug ideas (16 stylish options)
