How to style a cowhide rug (and how to hang one on the wall)
Most rugs are rectangles, and a rectangle tells you where it goes. A cowhide does not. It has an organic outline, no obvious front, and a shape that refuses to line up with the walls. That is the thing people find difficult about them, and it is also the thing that makes them worth having.
Stop trying to square it up
The single most common mistake is placing a hide parallel to the walls, as though it were a rectangular rug with the corners chewed off. It never looks right, because the eye reads the mismatch immediately.
Set it at an angle instead. Roughly forty five degrees to the dominant line of the room is a good starting point. The irregular outline stops competing with the architecture and starts working against it, which is the effect you want.
Where a cowhide works
In front of a sofa. The classic position. Let the neck end point toward the seating and allow the front legs of the sofa to sit on the hide, or keep it entirely clear. Half measures, where one leg is on and one is off, look accidental.
Under a dining table. Cowhide takes chair legs better than almost any woven rug, because there is no pile to crush. Size it so the chairs stay on the hide when pulled out, or accept that they will not and treat it as a defined patch under the table rather than a full floor covering.
Beside a bed. One hide on each side, or a single larger one running across the foot. This is where the odd shape stops being a problem entirely, because nothing else in the room is asking it to line up.
In an entryway or hallway. Durable, easy to shake out, and a hide breaks up a narrow corridor better than a runner does. Keep it away from the door itself if the entrance gets wet.
Over an armchair or bench. A smaller hide draped over the back of a chair is a legitimate use, not a compromise.
Layering, which is where hides come into their own
A cowhide over a larger flat weave, a jute or a sisal is one of the most reliable moves in interiors. The rough natural weave underneath gives the smooth hide something to contrast with, and the difference in texture does more for a room than either rug alone.
Two rules make it work.
- Size difference should be obvious. The base rug wants to be substantially larger, so the hide reads as deliberate rather than as a mistake in sizing.
- Keep the base plain. A patterned rug under a patterned hide is a fight. Let the hide be the interesting one.
A cowhide over wall to wall carpet works for the same reason, and is one of the few ways to make a carpeted room feel less flat without pulling anything up.
Choosing the color
Solid black or solid white hides behave like graphic shapes and suit a minimal room where you want one strong element. Black and white and tricolor hides carry more visual noise, so give them space and keep the surrounding palette quiet. Brown, brindle and salt and pepper are the most forgiving and the easiest to live with long term.
If the room already has a lot going on, take the quieter hide. You can see the full range in our cowhide collection.
How to hang a cowhide on the wall
A hide makes a genuinely good wall piece, and hanging one is not difficult. The main thing is to spread the weight, because a hide is heavier than it looks and any single fixing point will stretch and eventually tear.
- Lay the hide out flat, hair side down, and let it settle for a day or two so it is not carrying any curl from being rolled.
- Choose the top edge. Usually the neck end, but hold it up against the wall both ways first. Hides look noticeably different upside down.
- Fix a batten across the back. A length of timber or a flat metal bar, cut slightly shorter than the width of the hide, is the cleanest method. Attach it to the suede side with upholstery tacks or small staples every few inches, close to the top edge.
- Mount the batten to the wall with brackets or French cleats, into studs or with proper wall anchors. The hide then hangs from the whole batten rather than from two points.
- Alternatively, use velcro. Sew or glue the soft side of a heavy duty hook and loop strip along the top of the suede, and fix the hook side to a batten on the wall. This lets you take the hide down easily for cleaning.
What to avoid: nails driven through the visible hair, adhesive directly onto the wall, and any method that hangs the whole weight from two corners. All three will leave permanent marks in the hide.
Hang it out of direct sunlight, the same as you would a rug. Sun fades the markings unevenly and you cannot get the color back.
One hide or several?
One good hide, placed well, beats three small ones scattered around a room. If you want more than one, put them in different rooms rather than the same one, or layer a small hide over a larger base rug where the relationship between them is clear.
If you are working out sizing for a specific room, send us the dimensions and we will tell you which hides in stock will actually fit.