I avoided rugs for years as a mum of 2 and cat owner – here’s what finally made me give in

Interior designer Natalie Jahangiry is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on decorating a home to suit a busy family life while sticking to your aesthetic values, too. See the rest of her articles here.

Can I tell you a secret? Until recently, we didn't own any rugs. Coming from a half-Persian household, this is quite a shocking admission as rugs are almost built into the core of our culture. And it's not because I don't love them, I absolutely do, it's more that our girls (6 and 4) are notorious mess pots and our house is very much a lived-in family home.

Spillages and little 'oops' moments are never-ending. Painting, crafts, slime (gosh… all the slime!!) are everyday occurrences, and alongside the girls we also have two elderly cats. So you can imagine the accumulation of floor mess that comes with our family life. The thought of investing in a beautiful rug only to spend my life panicking about what might be dropped on it wasn’t really an option for me, until now.

Then came Ruggable, a brand we actually use regularly for our interior design clients. Their rugs are washable (winning!), water-resistant and non-slip, which makes them a pretty safe pair of hands for busy family homes like ours. Suddenly, having beautiful rugs around kids, cats and all the inevitable mess didn't feel quite so daunting!

As I've been working my way through our latest round of renovations, (which started with the kitchen and somehow had a knock-on effect on the rest of the house!) I decided it was time to give our floors a little more love too.

I've spent so much time thinking about walls, ceilings, furniture and lighting, yet the floor is one of the largest visual areas in a room, so why shouldn't it get the same attention? And so began my journey into becoming a rug person, family chaos and all.

In the office – treating the floor like artwork

Our home office has beautiful hardwood floors, but the room was crying out for some extra texture. It's a very practical space… a haven for tester paint pots, fabric samples and all the usual creative chaos. I decorated it last year (and still absolutely love it), but I felt the floor needed a little more attention. I wanted something that would complement the existing scheme rather than fight against it, which is when I spotted the Ruggable x Jungalow collection and the little light bulb in my head pinged.

Created with artist and designer Justina Blakeney, the powerhouse behind Jungalow, the collection immediately caught my attention. Colourful and expressive, the rugs feel almost like artwork for the floor, with warm earthy tones, pinks, terracottas and reds, so you can imagine how I was instantly sold.

I chose the Cadra Warm Brown Rug and it fits so perfectly, it's almost as though our office was designed around it. The room was already colourful, but adding a pattern to the floor has brought another dimension, pulling the existing colours together and making the whole space feel warmer and more layered.

I shared a few snaps of the rug on my Instagram and immediately had messages from friends and followers, asking where it was from. But the real test has been family life. I don't have to panic every time the girls arrive with a box of craft supplies and tip the entire contents onto the floor, felt tips and all. Knowing the rug can be washed means I'm much more relaxed about actually living with it, which, for me, is the whole point.

In the bedroom – a little nod to my Persian heritage

In my recent bedroom renovation articles, I talked about taking inspiration from Margate House and borrowing some of the decorating ideas I'd seen without simply copying the look, which included the floor. The hotel uses a mixture of different floor coverings, but I was particularly drawn to the rugs and the way they helped anchor each space. It reminded me that sometimes a room can have all the right individual ingredients, but still need something to visually tie everything together.

For our bedroom, I was naturally drawn towards a more traditional, Persian-inspired design, so I went for the Adeline Antique Red Flatwoven Rug. It adds a subtle pattern without overwhelming the room, picking up on the inviting warm colours I had already used throughout the scheme.

There's also something quite personal about it for me, bringing in a design that gives a subtle nod to my Iranian heritage makes the room feel more like ours rather than simply a collection of beautiful Pinterest-worthy things.

That's something I've become much more conscious of when decorating our home more recently. Your home should be a reflection of your personality and the pieces that mean something to you… whether that's artwork, something you've inherited, a vintage find or even a pattern that reminds you of your heritage, it’s usually these things that give a room its true identity.

In the kitchen – the place I never thought I'd put a rug

Now this was a first for me… I have never had a rug in the kitchen. In fact, I don't think I'd ever even considered putting one in a kitchen before! However, when we renovated the space, the existing floor tiles were one of the only things we didn't change.

They're practical and perfectly fine, but visually I felt the floor needed another texture to soften all the hard surfaces. So I added a runner along the most functional run of the kitchen.

Rather than introducing another bold pattern, I went for a sisal-look weave with the Haven Natural Performance Weave Rug, which brings in warmth and texture without competing with the rest of the kitchen design. It's a relatively small addition, but it has made the floor feel much more connected to the rest of the scheme.

On reflection, although I haven’t had a rug in the kitchen before I now think runners are a particularly clever addition, helping visually break up a long run of cabinetry and make what is ultimately a very practical space feel softer and more homely.

Would I have put a precious, high-maintenance, expensive rug next to an area where we're cooking, eating and inevitably dropping things? Absolutely not. But knowing I can stick it in the wash has completely changed how I think about using rugs in harder working spaces.

So, am I officially a rug convert?

It appears so! For years I'd convinced myself rugs simply weren't practical for our family in particular, when really I just hadn't found ones that worked with the way we live.

The perfect rug can soften hard surfaces, pull colours together and add another layer of personality to a room. But my biggest takeaway is that you shouldn't have to choose between a home that looks beautiful and one you can actually live in.

The right pieces should work around your family life, not the other way around. And after years of bare floors, I think it's safe to say rugs are very much here to stay… I might even add a few further additions into the mix, you never know!