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Livingetc
Livingetc
Olivia Wolfe

The 'Two-Thirds Rule' Is the Sofa-to-Rug Ratio Trick Designers Always Rely on — Here’s Why It Works

Image of a white living room with a beige sofa and beige rug. There is a four-picture gallery wall above the sofa and a small wooden coffee table in front of the sofa.

As someone who has yet to commit to a rug for my living room (it's been a year in the making ), I know all too well the struggle of searching for the perfect piece to tie your entire room together. What size should it be? How much should sit under the sofa? Should your coffee table fit on it as well? Before you start drowning in all these very important questions, let me throw you a rope with an expert-approved sofa-to-rug ratio trick I know.

The two-thirds rule is a foolproof guide to perfecting proportions in your space, rather than a strict furniture placement rule. You may already be familiar with the notion of threes in design, which divides styling into three sections for balance. This concept builds upon that, but specifically concerns the size of your sofa in comparison to other elements in the room, such as the wall or rug.

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