Rugs That Make a New House Feel Like an Old Ranch House
Braided wool, sheepskin, and hard-working rugs for the back door and the porch: five finds that give a new house some years, from the floor up.
By the Ranch House Finds editors
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A new house can have good bones and still feel like it was finished yesterday. The quickest way to give it some years is underfoot. Wool, hide and braid are the materials ranch houses have always lived with, and a few well-chosen rugs do more for a room than another round of wall décor.
Start with braided wool
Braided rugs belong in farmhouses and ranch kitchens the way cast iron belongs on the stove. The Tribeca rug from Rhody Rugs is 100% wool and handcrafted in the USA, in a walnut brown that forgives a working day's worth of dust. It comes as an oval from 20 × 30 inches up to 7 × 9 feet, so it can sit at the kitchen sink or anchor a bedroom.
Soften a chair with sheepskin
A sheepskin draped over a leather chair, or laid beside the bed for cold mornings, adds a texture a flat rug can't. This one is natural New Zealand and Australian sheepskin with a deep wool pile, in a honey tone that sits well with saddle leather and old wood. It comes as a single pelt or in larger two- and four-pelt sizes.
Give the back door a working rug
Every ranch house has a door where the boots come off, and that spot needs a rug that can take mud and come back. Rhody Rugs' Rustic Living braid is reversible and made in the USA for indoor or outdoor use, so it can move from the mudroom to the porch step.
Plan for dogs at the entry
If the dogs come in the same way you do, a rug that goes in the washing machine earns its keep. The Chepstow rug from Addison has a quiet southwest print in taupe and brown and a thin non-skid backing that skips the rug pad, and it's made for indoor or outdoor use.
Take it out to the porch
A covered porch starts to read as a room once it has a rug. Oriental Weavers' Tortuga has the look of woven wool but is made from polypropylene that resists stains, fading and weather, in tan diamond stripes that pair with weathered wood and iron.
Getting the size right
In a living room, choose a rug big enough that at least the front legs of the sofa and chairs sit on it; a small rug floating in the middle makes the whole room feel smaller. In a bedroom, a rug that reaches past the sides of the bed gives you somewhere warm to step. Ovals suit kitchens and entries, where they soften the hard corners of cabinets and doorways.
For more on layering hide, wool and leather, see How to Bring Modern Ranch Warmth to Your Living Room.
