After the floor plan is complete, people often wonder what to tackle next when decorating a room. Donna Brown of Dazzling Designs always starts her interior design process with a decorative hand-woven rug and builds the space using the rug as inspiration.

“I like to start with a hand-woven rug on the floor because that sets the pace of everything in the room and will help drive the colors. It’s the artwork on the floor and it offers a great color scheme to start with for the rest of the space,” says Brown.

The rug selection will help dictate the next steps: color, fabrics, wall finishes, wood pieces, window treatments, and accessorizing.

“Selecting a hand-woven rug is like choosing artwork – it’s very personal,” says Brown. Find something you like based on color, design and texture.

Brown recommends taking large rugs home before finalizing a purchase because the rugs may appear to be a different color once in the home.

“We leave the client’s favorite rugs in the house for a couple days so they can see them day and night,” says Brown. Rugs have a light side and a dark side, so based on the knotting and direction of the weave, they might need to be rotated to achieve the correct color. Rugs integrated with silk will have the most substantial change in their light and dark sides, and may look completely different depending on their orientation.

Brown contends that if you start with a rug, you have the opportunity to purchase the best rug for your budget. Rug prices can vary significantly, so she recommends selecting the rug first to ensure it’s perfect for the space.

“I like using a traditional rug in any environment,” says Brown. “It actually looks really cool to take a contemporary space and place a really traditional rug on the floor, then keep everything else contemporary.”