A rug to dine on? Or not?

Earlier this week I was at a client's house checking in on the progress of her home. We toured some of the rooms we were working on together but what I was really excited to see was her dining room. She had finally gotten the dining room furniture delivered which was delayed because she was having new hardwood floors put down. My client had purchased the dining room set before we started working together so I had heard a lot about it but had not seen it in her space.

Needless to say, the table is stunning and the chairs are beautiful (all from Ethan Allen but not matchy-matchy.) Anyway, the question came up about putting a rug under the dining table.....I hesitated to give my opinion. I flipped through the mental portfolio in my head and thought....hmmm...where do I stand on that issue? I realized very quickly that I don't have a firm stance on that issue: (Washington, here I come!) In some past projects I have used a rug under the dining table and in some past projects I have not. "Ok....time for a little self-analysis" I think to myself.

Sometimes I feel like my design decisions are instinctual: I know what I want but I don't have the explanation for why I want it. At least not at first. Anyway, I started to think about past projects and why I used rugs in dining spaces for some and not for others and it seems I always had a vision in my head supporting my decision.

Which made me curious about my blogosphere....how do you prefer to dine....with rug?

Courtesy of my Pinterest from DesignSponge

Or without rug?

Courtesy of my Pinterest from caitlincreer.com

Conclusion to the story: In my client's home, the dining space is not a separate room. In fact, the main traffic flows from the front door, past the dining table and into the living room. The round dining table is nestled into an odd shaped nook in the dining area and we wouldn't be able to fit a rug large enough to keep all the chair legs on while dining. Here we opted for no rug. Phew....a little self-analysis on the spot and we solved that design dilemma.
How do you dine?