A rug that’s soft underfoot can make your work space feel elevated and more comfortable, and thus more inspiring and motivating—but not every rug can handle a typical desk chair with wheels. Some are susceptible to fraying; others are too thick to allow for chair gliding. We spoke to rug specialists and design pros about what to look for, and then put options from eight reputable brands to the test. If you’re looking for a quality office rug you can easily roll your chair over, the Olivia Flat-Weave Rug by Aelfie is our top pick.

If you’d like to read how we vetted and tested these rugs and which experts we consulted, scroll down for more detail.

The Olivia rug by Aelfie is a tightly woven flat-weave that deftly handles the movement of a rolling desk chair. Made of a blend of 80% wool and 20% cotton, it has a solid construction and a soft, cozy feel.

Aelfie’s rug is easily malleable yet durable enough to take the pressure of a typical workday without showing significant signs of wear. It arrived with a clean, earthy scent, and it took only 20 minutes lying flat to remove its packaging folds. During two eight-hour work shifts, we found it barely showed signs of stress, and any wheel tracks left behind rebounded in minutes. The Olivia provides the most effortless office-chair glide compared to other pieces we’ve tested too. We experienced no lumps or fabric pulling while the chair wheels were in action. The tightly woven flatweave suggests quality construction that’ll last through the years, and its pattern is interesting enough to elevate an office space. The soft, textured wool-cotton blend feels excellent on bare feet, with only slight shedding. It’s reversible, so hiding dog hair or lint is easy. You may have to wait for the size you need, however, as the manufacturer notes that each piece is handmade in India before shipping.

DWR’s Pallo Flatweave Linen Rug is a manually loomed flatweave made with hand-dyed fibers. The fringe border and wool and linen combination add texture and feel soft underfoot.

The Pallo Flatweave from Design Within Reach is an elegant hand-loomed rug made of durable natural materials. It’s also the softest on our list, and the only one that didn’t require any waiting for it to flatten after unpacking. We tested the 5-by-8-foot Mustard version and liked the slightly uneven, artisanal feel of the tightly woven yellow fibers. During the testing period, our rolling chair was able to glide over the surface easily. It did leave some temporary wheel marks, but because the rug has no pile, it stayed relatively flat. 

The Hook & Loom Thick Woven Wool Rug is a solid eco-friendly choice made of natural wool without any dyes or chemicals. Hand-bound edges give it a clean look.

At half an inch, this Hook & Loom rug is bouncier and more dense than any other we tested, but in our trials, the office chair movement was still pretty smooth, with only minor issues like slight bunching. Wheel tracks disappeared in minutes. I did not detect any odor when unrolling it, and it flattened out in less than 30 minutes. It shed the most out of the mix we tested, but overall offers top quality at a reasonable price.

As beautiful as the Serena & Lily St. Martin Perennials Rug is, it’s not built for wheel traffic. The rug is handmade from durable acrylic, but rolling around on the 5-by-7-foot version with an office chair left visible tracks that never smoothed back into place. This is a fine indoor-outdoor rug that the company claims can withstand UV rays, mold and staining, but it just can’t survive plastic wheel movement.

We were initially impressed by the nuLOOM Moroccan Blythe Area Rug’s ability to withstand wheel traction and its lower price, but its poor quality makes it tough to recommend. I detected an unpleasant odor after unrolling it, and it took two days—and a rotation of kettlebells—to flatten its edges after removing it from its packaging. During testing, the rug sounded like paper crinkling under wheel traction, though it didn’t leave behind any marks. The company touts the moisture- and stain-resistant qualities in the rug’s synthetic material, but the fabric lacks softness. 

Direct-to-consumer brand Ruggable is popular for its machine-washable rugs that include a non skid, Velcro-like rug pad. When we tested the Kamran Blue Quartz Rug, we attached it to the brand’s Classic Rug Pad, then flattened out the polyester fabric’s wrinkles and wheeled our chair over it. The two-piece made Velcro-like sounds with every roll, like a crinkly dog chew toy. 

This Dash & Albert Herringbone Indigo Woven Cotton Rug is a stylish option. The pile is low (a quarter inch) but it doesn’t offer the springiness we want in an office rug. Wheel tracks were visible when we tested, requiring some hand smoothing to remove them. 

After consulting customer specialists at IKEA, we decided to test the GÖRLÖSE rug due to its quarter-inch pile and rubber backing. The polypropylene is surprisingly soft and easily accommodates a rolling chair, but the striped design feels more fit for a dorm room than a home office. If your work space decor leans more irreverent, however, this is a decent rug at an entry-level price—and it does a great job of staying put without a separate rug pad.

I’m a writer who has spent more than eight years freelancing in the service journalism space and one year evaluating performance fabrics and apparel for a leading product-recommendation site. We set out to see which rugs could take the weight and pressure of a rolling chair. To help us better understand textiles and the top qualities in mass-produced rugs, we tapped four experts: Ben Evans, editor and director of antique and contemporary rug magazines Hali and Cover; Khosrow Sobhe—also known as Dr. Kay—appraiser, Certified Master Rug Cleaner and third-generation owner of Los Angeles carpet-cleaning company Rug Ideas; Angela Belt, interior stylist, designer and host of the podcast The Moodboard; and Danny Seo of Naturally, Danny Seo magazine, a design pro and authority on eco-friendly living. 

We also referenced articles from The Wall Street Journal newsroom about rug sizes and wall-to-wall carpet and fabric guides from retailer Crate and Barrel and interior style blog Style Emily Henderson.

We spent 20 hours scrolling through hundreds of rugs at a variety of online retailers including West Elm, Design Within Reach, Amazon, Target and Wayfair , to examine the most popular floor covering brands on the market. We also spent 15 hours viewing options from director-to-consumer companies and small businesses like Minna, Ruggable, Cold Picnic and Anji Mountain.

Based on that research and our expert interviews, we identified the best rugs according to a few main factors.

We landed on a list of 40 potential rugs to test, and then narrowed this down to our top 10 based on the above factors. All area rugs on our list are available in multiple sizes. For logistical reasons, we tested the smallest rug size offered from each retailer, and in most cases, that is 2 feet by 3 feet. We also asked retailers to include appropriate-size rug pads for each.

I unpackaged all the rugs at home and vacuumed them clean of debris, per brand instructions. Then I spent several hours scooting around on each with my office chair, taking note of how quickly each rug recovers from indentations, how easy it is to glide on and how each rug feels underfoot. I also recorded any instances of shedding. Any rug that caught the wheel of the office chair or showed wheel tracks without recovery was eliminated.

As a general rule, go big. You want all four legs of the desk to fit on the rug, says interior stylist and designer Angela Belt, with ample space to scoot around on the chair. Our experts suggest sticking to a low pile (usually defined as 0.25 inches in height from the rug backing to the top of the rug’s fibers). They also recommend flat weave (or kilim) versions, which unlike plush, tufted rugs, are made on a loom, resulting in a textured appearance that also tends to be highly durable. These can be slippery on top of hard flooring, requiring a rug pad. Even if the rug you purchase comes with a pad, rug appraiser Khosrow Sobhe suggests buying a separate non-stick one—the included ones are typically made of a less-effective too-thin, grid-like foam. 

Wool is the favorite rug material of all the experts we spoke with, due to its durability and antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. It also has a springiness that allows it to recover from pressure more quickly than cotton or linen, says Ben Evans, editor of Hali, a textiles and carpet magazine. Synthetics like polyester and polypropylene don’t spring back into shape and may feel rougher, but they hold up to stains better and are easier to clean.

The advice, recommendations or rankings expressed in this article are those of the Buy Side from WSJ editorial team, and have not been reviewed or endorsed by our commercial partners.

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