I have a rug under my DR table. It's a nice wool rug I found on sale at a reasonable price. As others have noted, I made sure the dimensions allowed for all chairs to be pushed back without falling off the rug. (BTW, in the photo above with the zebra rug, I don't know how one would use the chairs at that table without catching the edges of the rug... that's the most impractical set-up I've ever seen, but, yes, I do like the rest of her blog. ;-) There are a number of economical sources for large area rugs--you don't have to spend thousands. My DR rug is no more difficult to keep clean than any other area of my home.

I have three kids so am very familiar with the issues with placing a rug under the kitchen table. We also had remodeled our kitchen and added new hardwood floors so understand your concerns there as well. I was a hold out for a long time, but finally put one there last year. I did not purchase a rug, however, but moved one there that I already owned that I had in the family room when I purchased a different rug for that room. The rug that went under the kitchen table is a very inexpensive synthetic rug that cost me around $60. So far, it has held up well and when it gets too stained or latex backing starts to emit a smell (as can happen with inexpensive rugs), I will replace it. As it's a fairly dark rug with a busy pattern it does not show the dirt. Added pluses are that the chairs do not scratch my hardwood floors. Even with the little felt pads on the legs, sometimes they would come off or the start picking up all the mess and dust on the floor--though I still keep felt pads on the legs since the chairs are moved sometimes when guests visit. Shee, is correct about the sizing of the rug--conservative measurements would be to allow about 3' extra around all sides beyond the table size. In my case that was not possible due to space limitations and I've gotten by with a lot less. Previous to this I had my kitchen table on wall-to-wall carpeting and it would get so stained, dirty (and I feared smelly as well). When I first changed to hardwood, having an easy to clean floor was very important; not sure whether my kids are older (youngest is now 9) or that this is an dark, patterned area rug, but there is no comparision between the two. I still would never, never, want a kitchen table on wall-to-wall carpeting. My kids are still not THAT neat! Here is my kitchen table rug: Here is picture without the rug: I've even started using a cloth tablecloth as well. It gets dirty, but I wash regularly and keep a vinyl tablecloth below so if the kids want to do something messy, we just pull off the cloth one and use the vinyl.

Whats the size of your room? I typically like doing a bigger rug than a smaller rug so it helps frame in the furniture space of your living room. If you have enough room to pull out your rug slightly and have the front feet of your sectional touching, it would defiantly give that nice framed in look that I'm talking about. You want your rug far out enough to ware all parts of your living room furniture (not including your media console, if you have one in the space) touching the rug. See below for examples. Set it up and lay it out and let us know if it works out. Good luck!

In a perfect world you'd have 36-42" all around the table for circulation, and a minimum of 24" of that space would be for the rug, 30"+ is even better. The chairs need scoot and sit room, and space behind so other diners can exit the table without requiring someone to stand and push their chair in for someone to pass behind them.