Help re rug

[Deminism]

We are coming to terms with fact we can’t afford to carpet the living room right now. So need a big rug. Victorian terrace. Walls are a kind of magnolia but hoping to paint white later this year (another reason for not carpeting now). Floor is a polished dark wood a kind of reddy brown colour (which really is not as nice as it sounds). Sofa is grey, curtains have grey tones, huge mirror has pewter coloured frame. Three kids all messy and grubby and we do allow them to have snacks etc in living room so it will inevitably get crumby and dirty on a daily basis.
So... do I go for more grey, or something to add brightness to the room (as if the toys all over the floor don’t already)?
Any suggestions please?

I found that some large rugs tend to cost about the same as carpet or even more perhaps? I bought a soft rug in a light brown taupe perhaps for our lounge. We have 3 DC. It lasted 3 months and we binned it. It was filthy covered in food, paint, play doh, glitter, juice, you name it- it was practically alive. It cost £280 which was one of the cheapest I’d found from Next- think it was 3m x 2m ish. We just have wooden floors now...our stair carpet was £19 per m. If anything I’d go multicultured but definitely washable if you could find it. I like the look of the large black and white stripey one in Ikea - it would go with grey. We only got the rug as one child wasn’t fully stable on his feet.

What size is your front room. You can get carpet roll ends cheaper than rugs in a lot of cases. If it's a relatively short term thing then you can go for a felt backed carpet that doesn't need underlay. You won't get the full amount of life from it without underlay but it will last a good while still.

We got underlay and a remnant from the place below for just under £100 and did the stairs and landing ourselves.

www.flooringsuperstore.com/sale/carpet-remnants?dir=asc&order=prod_ppm

Raisinforbeing we got a black and white large rug from IKEA and it was rubbish. Looked great for a few weeks but it was a really short pile, attracted every bit of dust and muck and wouldn't come clean.

We binned it about 6 months after getting it. We have had a lovely rug down from Asda for about a year and it cleans up really well.

Ikea hampen rugs are cheap and stand up to abuse from kids. We have the green one which looks like grass! The in laws have the grey one which is nice too

this is helpful thank you. It is a through room but separated by double doors often left open. Size - hmmm, guesstimating but I think about 4m width and 6m long (from front bay window to double door separating the back room). Back room is used as a play room and has an Ikea car mat rug thing on floor

Just bumping for those who don’t read mn late at night.

Try wayfair for rugs, they seem to be good value and the one I've had is very good quality