Runner rug sizes for a hallway

A runner is a strip of rug with a border of floor around it, and the border is what makes it look right. Leave 4-8 in of bare floor on each side: less and the runner looks like carpet cut to fit the hall, more than 18 in and it looks lost in the middle. At the ends, stop 6-18 in short of the walls or the door casings. Past 36 in of floor at an end the hall reads as longer than the rug, and a longer runner or two runners fit better.

The calculator scores every standard runner against both rules and picks the one that lands closest to the middle. In the 14 ft hall above the 12 ft runner leaves 12 in at each end and wins; the 10 ft runner leaves 24 in and still works; the 8 ft leaves 36 in, right at the limit; the 6 ft leaves 48 in and is too short.

1. Measure the hall's width wall to wall, and its length between the two walls or door casings that will bound the runner, not the whole corridor if it turns a corner.
2. Take 8-16 in off the width for the runner's width: a 2 ft 6 in runner suits halls 3 ft 2 in to 3 ft 10 in wide, a 3 ft runner halls 3 ft 8 in to 4 ft 4 in wide.
3. Take 12-36 in off the length and round down to the nearest standard length: 6, 8, 10 or 12 ft.
4. Check the doors that open into the hall. The runner should stop short of a door's swing, or be thin enough for the door to clear it.

A standard 2 ft 6 in runner starts to look lost once the hall is wider than 3 ft 10 in, and past 5 ft 6 in it fails the 18 in limit. Halls 3 ft 8 in to 4 ft 4 in wide take a 3 ft runner; fewer brands make them, so check the width in the listing. In the 5 ft hall above a 3 ft runner leaves 12 in on each side against 15 in for the standard width.

Past 6 ft wide the space works more like a room than a hallway, and the calculator switches to area rugs laid along it: in a 7 ft wide, 14 ft long hall it picks a 6x9, with a 5x8 as the smallest that works.

The longest standard runner is 12 ft, which suits halls up to 15 ft and still works to 18 ft. For a longer hall, use two matching runners with 12-18 in of floor between them, or a runner cut to length from a roll and bound at the ends. Two 8 ft runners with 14 in between them fill a 20 ft hall and leave 17 in at each end.

In a hall narrower than 3 ft 2 in, a 2 ft 6 in runner leaves less than 4 in of floor on each side and starts to look fitted rather than chosen. Under 2 ft 10 in the calculator suggests 2 ft or 2 ft 2 in wide runners, which some brands make for narrow halls and galley kitchens.