Best outdoor rugs — 12 buys to make your yard cozier

Outdoor rugs are the ultimate way to merge your indoor and outdoor spaces. Here are 12 to buy now

An outdoor decking area with rug and sofa
(Image credit: Simon Brown. Design: Kit Kemp)

An outdoor rug might, at first, seem like a bad idea - you wouldn't want your indoor rugs at the mercy of the weather and dirt from the garden, after all. However, outdoor rugs are surprisingly durable and easy to clean, and now that they've become a more common fixture for our outdoor spaces too, they've really upped it in the design stakes.  

In 2024, there's such a range of designs available for your backyard with outdoor rugs too, from eye-catching geometric looks to more calming, subtle shades. These are my pick of the best outdoor rugs for sale to snap up in time for spring.

12 of the best outdoor rugs

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How to choose an outdoor rug

An outdoor rug is a clever backyard addition that can help merge your indoor and outdoor spaces in a seamless way, helping to emphasize your backyard layout. Designer Kit Kemp has some great ideas for how to make the most of your backyard in simple steps. 'With brighter days, garden and outdoor areas command our attention,' she says. 'And these areas bring an entirely new opportunity to express color,' says Kit. 

The best outdoor rugs you can buy are options made from recycled plastic or recycled PET fibers. These repurpose already existing single-use plastics from things like plastic bottles, drinking straws, and food-grade containers, preventing new materials from being extracted from the earth and stopping single-use plastics from ending up in landfills (where they take many years to break down and in so doing leach harmful chemicals into the environment). 

Outdoor rugs tend to come in either a flatweave or a tufted design. A flatweave outdoor rug will be thinner and won't add as much insulation underfoot, but the bonus is that they're usually lightweight, easy to move, and because they lay very flat to the ground have less potential to be a trip hazard. The flatweave also makes it harder for outdoor debris to become trapped, so they're easy to freshen up with a quick shake or a hose down.

A tufted rug usually has a much deeper pile which makes it a more luxurious option for sinking your toes into and adding insulation to the floor, however, the deeper pile adds extra weight, so this is unlikely to be an option for picking up and taking onto the beach or the lawn. The deeper pile makes debris a bit harder to shake out, and the extra raised thickness could potentially be more of a trip hazard. 

Most outdoor rugs are water and mildew resistant due to being made from non-absorbent polypropylene, but UV resistance — which determines whether the rug's colors will fade in the strong sun — is dependent on the types of dyes used in its manufacture, so it's worth checking the small print to see if your preferred option comes with this added longevity protection.

Best brands for outdoor rugs

Oonagh Turner
Livingetc content editor and design expert

Oonagh is a content editor at Livingetc.com and an expert at spotting the interior trends that are making waves in the design world. Writing a mix of everything and everything from home tours to news, long-form features to design idea pieces on the website, as well as frequently featured in the monthly print magazine, she's the go-to for design advice in the home. Previously, she worked on a London property title, producing long-read interiors features, style pages and conducting interviews with a range of famous faces from the UK interiors scene, from Kit Kemp to Robert Kime. In doing so, she has developed a keen interest in London's historical architecture and the city's distinct tastemakers paving the way in the world of interiors.